Valletta is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital city, it is a commercial centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life. It is also the southernmost capital of Europe, and at just 0.61 square kilometres (0.24 sq mi), it is the European Union's smallest capital city.
The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of chivalry constituted in 1888 by royal charter from Queen Victoria and dedicated to St John the Baptist.
Alfred Sant, is a Maltese politician and a novelist. He led the Labour Party from 1992 to 2008 and served as Prime Minister of Malta between 1996 and 1998 and as Leader of the Opposition from 1992 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2008. Sant is an established writer and playwright and has published several books.
David Casa is a Maltese politician and Member of the European Parliament. He is Malta's longest serving MEP, having served since June 2004. As a member of the Nationalist Party in Malta, he belongs to the European People's Party.
The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, also known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem or simply as Lazarists, was a Catholic military order founded by Crusaders around 1119 at a leper hospital in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, whose care became its original purpose, named after its patron saint, Lazarus. It was recognised by King Fulk in 1142 and canonically recognised as a hospitaller and military order of chivalry under the rule of Saint Augustine in the Papal bull Cum a Nobis Petitur of Pope Alexander IV in 1255. Although they were centred on their charism of caring for those afflicted with leprosy, the knights of the Order of Saint Lazarus notably fought in the Siege of Acre in 1191, Arsuf, and in the 1192 Battle of Jaffa. Battle of La Forbie in 1244 and in the Defense of Acre in 1291. The titular seat was successively situated at Jerusalem, then Acre. After the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the order split into two main branches – in Italy and in France.
Żebbuġ, also known by its title Città Rohan, is a city in the Southern Region of Malta. It is one of the oldest towns in the country, and its population is 11,074 as of June 2021.
Beati Paoli is the name of a secretive sect thought to have existed in medieval Sicily and possibly also in Malta. The sect, as described by the author Luigi Natoli in his historic novel I Beati Paoli, resembles an order of chivalry fighting for the poor and the commoners. Whereas the novel is fictitious, Sicily's history bears some evidence that the Beati Paoli existed.
Lazarus of Bethany is a figure within the Christian Bible, mentioned in the New Testament in the Gospel of John, who four days after his death is restored to life by Jesus. This is seen by Christians as one of the miracles of Jesus. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Lazarus is venerated as Righteous Lazarus, the Four-Days Dead. The Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions offer varying accounts of the later events of his life.
(George) Robert Gair, who later assumed the surname Gayre of Gayre and Nigg, was a Scottish anthropologist who founded Mankind Quarterly, a peer-reviewed academic journal which has been described as a "cornerstone of the scientific racism establishment". An authority on heraldry, he also founded The Armorial, and published a number of books on this subject. He achieved notoriety for claiming to be the Chief of "Clan Gayre" and "Clan Gayre and Nigg", it being subsequently found that such a "clan" had never existed; per the Glasgow Herald, Gayre created "a Scottish clan from scratch, providing it with traditions, rituals, precedences and privileges". Further, not only did he not have legitimate male-line Gair descent, but he had falsified a pedigree, given to Burke's Peerage among others, connecting his ancestor to a minor family of the name resident at Nigg. Many biographical details, such as ranks, degrees, and titles he claimed, are not independently verifiable, deriving from his own writings.
The Noble Order of Saint George of Rougemont was a baronial order of chivalry established around 1440 in the Free County of Burgundy. From the 15th through the late 18th centuries it enjoyed the protection of the Dukes of Burgundy and later the French kings. It was abolished in the wake of the French Revolution and became extinct after the death of the last knight in 1869.
The Castellania, also known as the Castellania Palace, is a former courthouse and prison in Valletta, Malta that currently houses the country's health ministry. It was built by the Order of St. John between 1757 and 1760, on the site of an earlier courthouse which had been built in 1572.
Sir George Whitmore KCH was a British Army officer.
Oliver Friggieri was a Maltese poet, novelist, literary critic, and philosopher. He led the establishment of literary history and criticism in Maltese while teaching at the University of Malta, studying the works of Dun Karm, Rużar Briffa, and others. A prolific writer himself, Friggieri explored new genres to advocate the Maltese language, writing the libretti for the first oratorio and the first cantata in Maltese. His work aimed to promote the Maltese cultural identity, while not shying from criticism: one of his most famous novels, Fil-Parlament Ma Jikbrux Fjuri, attacked the tribalistic divisions of society caused by politics. From philosophy, he was mostly interested in epistemology and existentialism.
The International Commission for Orders of Chivalry is a privately run, privately funded organisation composed of scholars on chivalric matters and systems of awards. Founded in 1960, its stated purpose is to examine orders of chivalry to determine their legitimacy. Its president since 1999 is Pier Felice degli Uberti, and its seat is situated in Milan, Italy.
The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem is a Christian order that was statuted in 1910 by a council of Catholics in Paris, France, initially under the protection of Patriarch Cyril VIII Geha of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. During the 1920s, it expanded its jurisdiction and enrolled members from other countries in Europe and in the Americas. It re-established the office of grand master in 1935, linking the office to members of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon. It assumed an ecumenical dimension during the 1950s to expand its membership to individuals of other Trinitarian Christian denominations in British Commonwealth countries.
The Auberge de Bavière is a palace in Valletta, Malta. It was built as Palazzo Carneiro in 1696, and it was the residence of Grand Master Marc'Antonio Zondadari in the early 18th century. In 1784, it was converted into the auberge for the Anglo-Bavarian langue of the Order of Saint John, and it remained so until the French occupation of Malta in 1798.
Godfrey Baldacchino is a Maltese and Canadian social scientist. He was Pro Rector (2016-2021) and Professor of Sociology at the University of Malta. Between 2016 and 2020, he was the UNESCO Co-Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.
The Slaves' Prison officially known as the Grand Prison and colloquially as the bagnio, was a prison in Valletta, Malta. It was established in the late 16th century, and remained in use as a prison throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It was subsequently used as a naval hospital, a school and an examination hall. It was bombed in World War II, and the ruins were demolished to make way for a block of flats.
Andrea Belli was a Maltese architect and businessman. He designed several Baroque buildings, including Auberge de Castille in Valletta, which is now the Office of the Prime Minister of Malta.
The Parish Church of Saint Mary, commonly known as il-Knisja l-Qadima is a Roman Catholic parish church in Birkirkara, Malta, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. It was built in the 17th century, and it has a Renaissance design attributed to the architects Vittorio Cassar and Tommaso Dingli.
