Portal:Malta
Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a small island nation comprising an archipelago of seven islands in the Mediterranean Sea. A country of Southern Europe, Malta lies south of Sicily, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The country's official languages are Maltese and English. Roman Catholicism is the most practised religion. The islands constituting the Maltese nation have been ruled by various powers and fought over by many states for centuries. Malta has been a member state of the European Union (EU) since 2004 and it is currently the smallest EU country both in population and in area. «Showcase Article»
 Jean Parisot de Valette (born in 1494[?]; died in Malta, 21 August 1568) was born into a noble family in Quercy. He was a Knight of St. John all his adult life, joining the order in the Langue de Provence, and fought with distinction against the Turks at Rhodes and again at Malta. He became Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller on 21 August 1557.Universally referred to as "La Valette," he was never actually called that during his lifetime. He was simply Jean de Valette, nicknamed Parisot.(The mistake arose some decades after his death when people began to confuse him with the city named in his honor, "La Citta Valletta.") Although his birth year is usually given as 1494, both chroniclers of the Great Siege of Malta, Francisco Balbi di Correggio and Hipolito Sans, say he was 67 at the time, implying that he was born in 1498. In his history of the Order of St John, the 18th-century historian, the Abbe Vertot (whose history is largely based on - but often confuses - the earlier one of Giacomo Bosio), indicates that Valette was indeed the same age as both Suleiman I and Lala Mustafa (the commander of the Ottoman land forces), which would mean that he was actually 70 years old at the time of the Siege. (more...) «Selected Locality»
 Żejtun (also called Iż-Żejtun) is a medium sized town in the south of Malta, which has 11,425 inhabitants. Żejtun possesses the title of Città Beland, which was conferred by Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, the Grandmaster of Knights of Malta in 1797. Żejtun takes its name from Arabic az-zaytun [الزيتون] “the olive”, which was one of the main productive industries in Malta. In Medieval times the whole district around Żejtun, that is, in the southern end of Malta, was known as le Terre di Santa Caterina, ('the lands of Saint Catherine' in Italian, which was the official language in the period). Various new villages were formed from parts of the Parish of Żejtun, such as Ghaxaq and Marsaxlokk, each now being considered as a separate parish.(more...) «Selected Picture»
The earliest temple of the Tarxien complex, dates back to around 2,800 BC while the more recent ones date to seven hundred years later. The spiral, as a decorative motif, is found in many places in Europe from the North Atlantic seaboard to the Aegean; the ones at Tarxien, however, might have been invented, or at least developed, independently. Inside these temples has been found what, for that age, was the most colossal stone sculpture then in existence: originally two-and-a-half metres in height, the statue, presumably representing a Mother Goddess, has been broken in half and the top part is missing. Other visitors attractions here Template:/box-footer
Malta has formally applied to join the Eurozone in January 2008 and adopt the euro currency. The request was made through a letter sent by the Prime Minister, Dr Lawrence Gonzi, and Central Bank of Malta Governor Michael Bonello to both the European Commission and the European Central Bank, asking both institutions to set in motion the mechanism to provide Malta with a convergence report on whether it has reached all Eurozone membership conditions, known as the Maastricht criteria. Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header Portal:Malta/Did you know/April 2025 Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header More at Category:Malta
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