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📍 Destination Overview

The Three Cities are the collective name for three adjacent old towns facing Valletta across the grand Grand Harbour-Vittoriosa (also Birgu), Senglea (also Isla) and Cospicua (also Bormla). Older than Valletta, this is where the Knights of St John first settled after arriving in Malta in 1530, and where they withstood the massive Great Siege by the Ottoman Empire in 1565, winning the pivotal victory that changed Malta's fate; only afterwards was Valletta built. Thus the Three Cities are the true cradle and heart of Maltese Knights' history, steeped in military and historical weight. The three cities are wrapped in layers of stern huge fortresses, bastions and walls; at the tip of the Vittoriosa peninsula jutting into the Grand Harbour stands the majestic Fort St Angelo, the command centre of the Great Siege. In the deep harbour, once the dockyard and naval base of the Knights' fleet, now moor lavish yachts. Unlike the tourist-thronged Valletta, the Three Cities's cobbled old streets, honey-coloured old houses, small churches and laundry balconies retain an unpretentious, peaceful, authentic Maltese daily-life atmosphere-a perfect place to feel the depths of history. The cradle of the Knights, stern fortresses and an unpretentious old town make the Three Cities weighty and real, reachable from Valletta by ferry in a few minutes.

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