The Three Cities Guide: Birgu (Vittoriosa), Senglea, Cospicua & Dgħajsa Boats

Looking across the shimmering blue expanse of the Grand Harbour from Valletta's Upper Barrakka Gardens, you see two fortified limestone peninsulas jutting into the water like giant stone fingers. Both are cradled at their base by a double ring of massive bastions. Known collectively as The Three Cities (Cottonera), comprising Vittoriosa (Birgu), Senglea (L-Isla), and Cospicua (Bormla), this is the true cradle of Maltese maritime history. It served as the original home of the Knights of St John when they arrived in 1530, and the exact battleground where the Great Siege of 1565 was fought and won before Valletta even existed. Pair this half-day guide with our 3-day Valletta itinerary.

01How to Cross the Grand Harbour: Modern Ferry vs €3.00 Wooden Dgħajsa

Reaching the Three Cities from Valletta takes ten minutes and is one of the most enjoyable harbour crossings in Europe. Take the Upper Barrakka Lift down to Lascaris Wharf on the Grand Harbour waterfront and walk 150 metres left past the customs building. Here you have two choices side by side:

• Take a traditional wooden dgħajsa tal-pass outbound (€3.00 cash per person). Styled like a sturdy Maltese cousin of the Venetian gondola with high carved wooden prows painted in primary reds, blues, and yellows (and today fitted with a quiet outboard motor and sun canopy). These family-owned water taxis wait at the low stone steps just past the ferry terminal. As soon as four to six passengers step aboard, the boatman casts off and motors you across the open Grand Harbour straight to the Birgu waterfront. Many boatmen also offer a 30-minute private harbour tour of all three creeks for €10.00 per person, which is tremendous value for close-up photos of Fort Ricasoli and Kalkara Creek.
• Take the modern Valletta Ferry back (€2.00 single / €3.80 return). On your return to Valletta, board the blue-and-white catamaran at the Cospicua/Birgu pontoon. Keep your ticket so you can scan its barcode at the bottom of the Upper Barrakka Lift and ride 58 metres back up into Valletta for free!

02Vittoriosa (Birgu): Fort St Angelo, the Collachio, and the Inquisitor's Palace

When Emperor Charles V granted Malta to the homeless Knights of St John in 1530 after their expulsion from Rhodes, Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam bypassed inland Mdina and made the harbour fishing village of Birgu his capital so the Order's galleys could shelter in Dockyard Creek. After Birgu survived the four-month Ottoman onslaught of 1565, La Valette renamed it Città Vittoriosa ("Victorious City"). Spend two to three hours exploring its three highlights:

1. Fort St Angelo (€10.00 adult). This fortress guards the tip of the Birgu peninsula, and its upper Magisterial Palace remains sovereign territory leased to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Fort St Angelo was where Grand Master La Valette directed the 1565 defence and where Caravaggio was imprisoned in a rock-cut dungeon pit (guva) in 1608 before his daring escape. The view from its upper Cavalier battery looking straight back across the water at Valletta's Upper Barrakka Gardens is unforgettable.
2. The Collachio Alleys and Early Knights' Auberges. Behind the yacht marina and the Malta Maritime Museum (housed in the 1842 Royal Navy Bakery on the waterfront), duck through the medieval postern gate into the Collachio. This maze of car-free, honey-coloured alleys draped in bougainvillea where the Knights built their first modest 1530s Auberges (look for the Gothic mouldings on the Auberge d'Angleterre and Auberge de France along Triq Hilda Tabone).
3. The Inquisitor's Palace (€6.00 adult). For 224 years (1574 to 1798), the Papal Inquisitor ruled from this palazzo as Rome's representative in Malta. Because almost every Inquisition tribunal across Europe was burned down during the Napoleonic Wars, Birgu preserves one of the only intact Inquisition headquarters in the world. Visitors can walk through the upstairs Tribunal courtroom, the torture chamber, the kitchen, and the damp limestone prison cells where inmates carved ship drawings, calendars, and prayers into the soft walls.

03Walking Across the Footbridge to Cospicua and Senglea's Gardjola Gardens

From the head of Dockyard Creek in Birgu, walk across the pedestrian bridge past the historic 19th-century British naval drydock No. 1 in Cospicua (Bormla) and follow the waterfront promenade out to the tip of the neighbouring peninsula of Senglea (L-Isla , Città Invicta). At the seaward point of Senglea's St Michael Bastion sits the peaceful Gardjola Gardens (Safe Haven Gardens) (free entry). Built on the bastion corner in the 16th century hangs Malta's most photographed stone sentry box, Il-Gardjola, carved in relief with an open Eye, an Ear, and a Crane bird symbolizing sleepless vigilance over the harbour, directly opposite Valletta's bastions.