Fort St Elmo, the tip that held out for a month in the Great Siege.

At the tip of Valletta, at the end of Republic Street, Fort St Elmo looks out over the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett at once. It is a good visit with teenagers: a history of sieges, tunnels, cannon and a real aeroplane.

A fort older than the city

St Elmo is older than Valletta. As early as 1417 there was a lookout post here, and in 1552, fearing an Ottoman attack, the grand master Juan de Homedes ordered a star-shaped fort built, the work of the military engineer Pietro Prato. In 1565 it took the hardest blow of the Great Siege: the Ottoman fleet attacked it first and the small fort held out for a month, until it fell on 23 June. That month gave the Order time to hold on in the Three Cities until reinforcements arrived.

After Valletta was founded, St Elmo ended up within its walls (in 1689) and kept growing: barracks, two chapels dedicated to St Anne, a lighthouse. The British adapted it for modern artillery, and on 11 June 1940 it suffered the first air raid on the islands.

The National War Museum

It occupies a good part of the fort and is divided into seven sections covering 7,000 years of Maltese military history, from the Bronze Age to joining the European Union. There are armour of the Order and the Ottomans, but the war with the greatest presence is the Second World War, when Malta was the most bombed island in the Mediterranean. What people look for most:

• Faith, the Gloster Sea Gladiator biplane N5520, one of the few aircraft that defended the island in 1940.
• Husky, Roosevelt's jeep.
• The George Cross, the gallantry decoration that King George VI awarded to the whole island and which is today on its flag.
• A war memorial with the medals awarded during the conflict.

At present the part devoted to the First World War, in section 4, is closed.

Opening hours, ticket and the In Guardia parade

From 1 November to 3 January it is open every day from 9:00 to 17:00, with last entry half an hour before. On some Sundays there is In Guardia, a re-enactment with period soldiers from 11:00 to 12:00; on those days, anyone not going to the show enters from 12:00. See the calendar on the Heritage Malta website.

Ticket: €10 adults; €7.50 for ages 12 to 17, over-60s, students and other concessions; €5.50 for ages 6 to 11; free up to 5.

There is a café, shop, cloakroom and baby-changing. A lift takes you to the last part of the museum, but section 6, the knight's roof, the cells and part of the bastions have only stairs.

How to get there

On foot: about fifteen minutes from City Gate along Republic Street, straight ahead. On the way back, go down to the Lower Barrakka gardens, above the Grand Harbour, five minutes away.