Malta
The small island nation at the heart of the Mediterranean, a devoutly Catholic people of ancient temples and crusader fortresses, of the village festa and the colourful luzzu, speaking the only Semitic language written in Latin letters. The complete guide.
Malta is a small island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, lying south of Sicily and north of the African coast, made up of a handful of islands of which the main ones are Malta and Gozo, home to about half a million people on one of the most crowded patches of land in Europe. It is a country shaped by its position at the crossroads of the sea, ruled across the centuries by Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, the Knights of Saint John, and the British, each leaving a mark. The Maltese are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, a faith that orders the calendar and the village festa; they speak Maltese, the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet, alongside English; and they live among some of the oldest stone temples on earth and the great fortresses of the Knights. This guide walks through the land and its history, the faith, the language, the food, and the customs in turn.
Overview
Malta is an island nation in the central Mediterranean, about sixty miles south of Sicily and rather more than that from the coast of North Africa, made up of three inhabited islands, Malta, the largest, Gozo, and the small Comino, together with a few uninhabited rocks. The land is small and low, built of pale limestone, with steep cliffs, natural harbours, and very few trees, and it has almost no fresh water of its own. About half a million people live there, making Malta one of the smallest and at the same time one of the most densely peopled countries in the world. The capital is Valletta, the fortified city built by the Knights of Saint John, and most of the people live in the towns crowded around the grand harbours.
Malta is a parliamentary republic and a member of the European Union, using the euro, with a president as head of state and a prime minister who leads the government. The current prime minister is Robert Abela, whose Labour Party won a fourth straight term in 2026, and the president is Myriam Spiteri Debono. The nation won its independence from Britain in 1964 and became a republic in 1974. Roman Catholicism is the state religion, and the great majority of Maltese are Catholic. There are two official languages, Maltese, the national tongue, and English, both widely used, with Italian also commonly understood. The economy rests on tourism, financial services, and shipping.
A few deep forces shape life in Malta. There is the island's position at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and the long history of conquest and siege. There are the ancient stone temples and the fortresses of the Knights. There is the deep Roman Catholic faith and the village festa. There is the Maltese language. And there is the close, family-centred island society. The sections that follow trace these and walk through the food and the customs.
The island fortress
Malta's history has been shaped above all by its position, a small but vital set of islands with fine natural harbours set squarely in the middle of the Mediterranean, on the sea road between Europe and Africa and between the eastern and western halves of the sea. This made Malta a prize fought over and ruled by a long succession of powers across three thousand years: the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the Romans, the Arabs, who ruled for over two centuries and shaped the language, the Normans, who brought back Christianity, and then a line of medieval European rulers, before the islands passed to the Knights of Saint John in 1530.
The Knights, a crusading order of European nobles, ruled Malta for nearly three centuries and left perhaps the deepest mark of all. Their great test came in 1565, when a huge Ottoman army besieged the islands in the Great Siege, and the Knights and the Maltese, against the odds, held out and drove the Ottomans off, a victory remembered with pride to this day. In its aftermath the Knights built the fortified capital, Valletta, with its bastions, palaces, and the great church of Saint John, and Malta became a fortress island of the Christian Mediterranean. Napoleon ousted the Knights in 1798, and soon after the British took the islands.
Malta was a British colony and naval base for more than a century and a half, and the British era left the English language, the parliamentary system, the side of the road the Maltese drive on, and much else. In the Second World War Malta endured one of the heaviest bombing campaigns in history as a besieged Allied base, and for the courage of its people the whole island was awarded the George Cross, which still appears on the national flag. Independence came in 1964. This long history of conquest, siege, and survival, layered conqueror upon conqueror, is the foundation of Maltese identity, and the marks of every ruler can be read in the islands today.
Temples older than the pyramids
Long before the Phoenicians or the Romans, Malta was home to one of the oldest known civilisations on earth, a prehistoric people who, more than five thousand years ago, raised great temples of stone that still stand on the islands. These megalithic temples, built of huge limestone blocks, are reckoned among the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world, older than the pyramids of Egypt and the stone circles of Britain, and several of them are honoured as world heritage sites. Their builders left no writing, and much about them remains unknown, which deepens their mystery.
The temples, with names such as Ggantija on Gozo, said by old legend to be the work of giants, and Hagar Qim and Mnajdra on Malta, were places of worship and ritual, and from them have come carved figures, including the famous rounded statues often called the fat ladies, thought to be linked to a cult of fertility or a mother goddess. Most remarkable of all is the Hypogeum, an underground temple and burial place cut deep into the rock over many generations, a vast hidden world of chambers where thousands were laid to rest, unlike anything else in the world.
This deep prehistoric past gives the Maltese a powerful sense of the antiquity of their islands and a pride in living among monuments far older than the famous wonders of the ancient world. The temples, the Hypogeum, and the other ancient sites are among the treasures of Malta and a major draw for visitors. Together with the later layers of Phoenician, Roman, Arab, medieval, and crusader remains, they make the small islands of Malta one of the richest places on earth for history piled upon history.
A devoutly Catholic island
Malta is one of the most Catholic countries in the world, and the Roman Catholic faith is woven deeply into the history, identity, calendar, and daily life of the nation. Catholicism is the state religion, the great majority of Maltese are Catholic, and by tradition the islanders trace their Christianity to the apostle Saint Paul, who, the Bible records, was shipwrecked on Malta and converted the islanders, making Saint Paul a powerful national figure. Churches stand at the heart of every town and village, their domes and bells a constant presence, and the islands hold a remarkable number of them for so small a place.
Though regular Mass attendance has fallen in recent years, especially among the young, and Maltese society has grown more secular, introducing divorce only in 2011, the Catholic faith remains central to identity, to family life, and to the milestones of baptism, communion, confirmation, church marriage, and the funeral. The faith also remains at the centre of public debate on questions of morality, and Malta keeps some of the strictest laws in Europe on matters such as abortion.
The faith finds its most vivid expression in the village festa, the festival of the patron saint that each town and village holds, usually in summer, the high point of the local year. A festa fills the streets with lights and decorations, brass band marches, and the great firework displays for which the Maltese are famous, building to the solemn procession in which the statue of the saint is carried through the streets, followed by feasting and celebration. The festas are also a matter of fierce and joyful local pride and rivalry between villages and their band clubs. Through the year and the festa, the Catholic faith remains the rhythm of Maltese communal life.
The only Semitic tongue in Latin letters
One of the most distinctive things about Malta is its language, Maltese, the national tongue of the islands and a deep mark of identity, for it is unlike any other language in Europe. Maltese grew from the Arabic spoken during the long period of Arab rule, and at its core it is a Semitic language, a cousin of Arabic and Hebrew, the only Semitic language that is an official language of the European Union and, remarkably, the only one in the world written in the Latin alphabet rather than an Arabic or Hebrew script.
Onto this Arabic foundation the later rulers of Malta laid a great many words from Italian and Sicilian, and more recently from English, so that Maltese today is a unique blend, Semitic in its grammar and basic vocabulary but full of Romance and English words, written in the Latin letters with a few special characters of its own. To hear Maltese is to hear the whole layered history of the islands in a single tongue, the Arabic past and the European centuries woven together.
Malta is a thoroughly bilingual, often trilingual nation. Maltese is the everyday language of home, street, and feeling, and a proud emblem of nationhood; English is an official language too, widely spoken and used in business, higher education, and with visitors, a legacy of the British era; and Italian is widely understood, partly through long contact with nearby Sicily and Italian television. For a visitor, English will carry one everywhere in Malta, but a few words of Maltese, a greeting or a thank you, are warmly received as a courtesy to this singular language.
Fenkata, pastizzi, and the Maltese table
Maltese food is the cooking of the Mediterranean island, shaped above all by the food of nearby Sicily and southern Italy, with older threads from the Arab past and the North African shore, and a few tastes left by the British, all built on the fish of the surrounding sea, the produce of the islands, and a love of hearty, rustic home cooking. Pasta and tomato are common, as in Italy, alongside the local breads, cheeses, vegetables, and the catch of the sea.
The dish the Maltese hold as their national favourite is the fenkata, a feast of rabbit, the rabbit fried and then stewed slowly in wine, garlic, and herbs and served in courses, traditionally enjoyed as a long, convivial gathering of family and friends. Beside it stands a rich array of island dishes: the bragioli, beef olives stuffed and braised; the aljotta, a garlicky fish soup; hearty vegetable soups such as the kawlata; and stuffed dishes and stews of the season. The crusty Maltese bread, the hobz, eaten with tomato, oil, and capers as the snack called hobz biz-zejt, is a staple of island life.
Most beloved of all the everyday foods is the pastizz, the small, flaky, diamond-shaped pastry filled with ricotta cheese or mushy peas, sold hot from little shops across the islands and eaten at all hours, the great Maltese snack. Gozo is known for its sheep cheeselets, the gbejniet, and its stuffed ftira bread. Sweets include date cakes and the honey-and-treacle rings of Christmas. To drink there is the local Kinnie, a bittersweet soft drink flavoured with bitter oranges, and the Maltese beers and wines. Food in Malta is generous, social, and tied to family, festa, and feast day.
The luzzu and the village crafts
Malta keeps a rich tradition of handcraft, much of it bound to the sea and the village, and several of its crafts are emblems of the islands. The most famous is the luzzu, the traditional Maltese fishing boat, a sturdy wooden craft painted in bright yellows, reds, blues, and greens, with a pair of eyes painted on the bow, an ancient charm from Phoenician times believed to protect the fishermen and guide the boat. The luzzi crowding the harbour of the fishing village of Marsaxlokk are one of the most photographed sights of Malta and a symbol of the nation.
The islands are known too for fine metalwork, above all the delicate silver and gold filigree, the intricate lacework of twisted wire worked into jewellery and ornament, a craft of great refinement. Gozo is famous for its handmade lace, worked by the women in cotton and silk, and for its woven goods, while the islands also produce blown glass in bright colours, pottery, and the soft Maltese stone carved into ornaments. These crafts are sold in the markets and workshops and treasured as souvenirs of Malta.
Malta has a living tradition of music and folk culture as well. The old folk song, the ghana, is a kind of Maltese folk singing in which singers trade improvised verses, often witty or pointed, to the strum of a guitar, an art of the villages and the working people. The brass band clubs, the heart of every village and its festa, keep a strong tradition of music and fierce local loyalty. Through the crafts, the boats, and the music runs the island and village culture of Malta.
Family and island life
Family lies at the centre of Maltese life, and Maltese families are close, warm, and strongly knit, with deep ties between the generations and a tradition, shaped by the Catholic faith, of close family loyalty and support. Extended families remain close, Sunday lunch and the feast days gather the family, and the bonds of kin, neighbourhood, and village are strong in a small and crowded land where people are deeply rooted in their home towns. Respect for parents and elders runs deep, and the village and parish remain centres of belonging.
The Maltese are known as warm, sociable, hospitable, and talkative people, with a strong sense of community and a love of company, conversation, and celebration. Greetings are friendly and the personal connection valued, and visitors are generally met with warmth and helpfulness, in a culture that prizes good manners, family, and faith. The Maltese are also famously passionate about two things in public life, their religion and their politics, both discussed with great energy, and the island is strongly divided between its two political parties, a rivalry followed almost like that of football.
Life in Malta blends the traditional and the modern. The old ways of faith, family, festa, and village endure strongly, especially among the older generation and on quieter Gozo, while the younger Maltese, in a prosperous European nation full of visitors and newcomers, live increasingly modern and secular lives. The milestones of life, baptism, communion, confirmation, marriage, and the funeral, are still largely marked in the Catholic way, with the family gathered. For a visitor, modest dress is appreciated when entering the churches, and respect for the faith and the festa is welcomed. The warmth of Maltese family and community life is a defining feature of the islands.
The nation today
Malta today is a small, prosperous, and densely peopled republic of about half a million people, a member of the European Union, governed from Valletta by a prime minister, Robert Abela, and an elected parliament, with a president as head of state, under a stable two-party democracy. The economy, once built around the British naval base, now rests on tourism, which draws great numbers to the islands' history, sun, and sea; on financial services and online gaming; and on shipping and trade, and Malta has grown wealthy, though questions of governance and corruption have troubled its politics, most gravely after the murder of a journalist in 2017.
The nation faces the pressures of its small size and success. It must manage the strains of a crowded island and a fast-growing economy, including heavy reliance on imported food, water, and energy, and a large inflow of foreign workers and tourists that has changed the islands quickly. It balances its old Catholic and traditional identity with a rapidly modernising and secularising society. And it guards its extraordinary heritage and its limited land against the pressures of building and tourism. These are the concerns of a small, prosperous European nation living at close quarters.
Through it all, Malta keeps the identity built over its long history. The crossroads position and the layered past of conquest and siege still shape the islands; the ancient temples and the fortresses of the Knights still stand; the Catholic faith and the village festa still order the communal year; the Maltese language still carries the whole story of the islands; and the close family and village life still anchor society. Modern, European, and prosperous, Malta remains deeply marked by its faith, its history, and its singular place at the heart of the Mediterranean.