Malta not just alive in the eyes of Hollywood filmmakers

VALLETTA: Even if you have never read the Ancient Greek epic "The Iliad" by Homer, you may have at least seen the Hollywood blockbuster "Troy" about the mythical battle between the Greeks and Trojans.

With his sword drawn, Brad Pitt playing war hero Achilles is shown leading the attack on the Trojans, the legendary city in Asia Minor.

However, the battles on the beaches and outside the city walls in the Wolfgang Petersen-directed film were not enacted in Turkey, but rather at Golden Bay and on other beaches on Malta, such as the Blue Lagoon.

Petersen is not the only film director to have used Malta's stunning scenery as a cinematic backdrop. For years now, the small island group located between the Italian island of Sicily and North Africa has become a favourite location for large-scale Hollywood productions.

This is attributable both to the fact that the island-state's government lures producers with attractively low fees and to the wild and romantic scenery of the island. The rough, rocky coastline and the azure-blue Mediterranean have scarcely changed since Homer's time many millennia ago.

It was not only Brad Pitt who drew his sword in the film studios of Fort Ricasoli in Vittoriosa; Russell Crowe did battle here in the Oscar-winning film "Gladiator".

The Italian-appearing alleyways of Vittoriosa served during the 16th century, before Valletta was built up, as the base for the Order of Malta. But the streets were also the backdrop for Tom Hanks as he pursued the secret plotters in the "Da Vinci Code."

Like Vittoriosa, the narrow streets of Valletta and Malta's former capital Mdina have been used time and again as the settings for films.

Valletta is the oldest city in Europe to have been designed on a drawing-board, and the number of its cultural-historical buildings is overwhelming.

The imposing fortress as well as the palaces and churches which now are under protection as national monuments in the capital founded in 1566 are above all thanks to the efforts of the Order of Malta.

Those particularly interested in culture will be rendered speechless when they head to the Grand Masters palace and St John's Co-Cathedral with their impressive art treasures.

In the evening Valletta seems to roll up its sidewalks and things turn quiet as a museum around the city. In Mdina in the island's interior, things are even quieter, even during the day time.

For this reason it is dubbed the "quiet city" and a major factoring this is that only pedestrians or horse-drawn carriages are allowed to pass through the city's main gate, erected in 1724. So Mdina is acar-free city, and only about 400 people inhabit the place with its architectural jewels of old churches and palaces.

Christianity is deeply rooted in Malta's culture thanks to the
Maltese order, and 365 churches - one for each day of the week - is proof. But the Christians were by far not the first settlers on the barren Mediterranean island.

Even before the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards, French and English, there was already a civilisation here 7,000 years ago, one about which people know virtually nothing about.

They left behind gigantic temples which today are counted as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites, structures pre-dating the pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge in England by 1,000 years.

The stone blocks measuring up to five metres high and weighing 1,000 tons are strewn all around the island. They form temple sites containing altars and arches, such as those of Hagar Qim and Mnajdraon the southern coast near the town of Qrendi.

Above all, the subterranean cult site from the late Stone Age period, the Hypogaum in the town of Tarxien, near Valletta, is well worth a visit.

The tiny northern island of Gozo is home to the Azure Window, a massive stone edifice 100 metres long and 20 metres high that resembles a kind of triumphal arch.

On the northern coast of Gozo it is the Calypso Cave, located on the steep cliffs, which draws the tourists. According to Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey," it was there that Ulysses was held captive for seven years by a nymph.

And it is at such places as the Blue Hole, Xlendi Reef and the Double Arch that Malta offers some of its most beautiful diving spots. Especially those divers who like to explore shipwrecks.

Just 100 metres offshore from Valletta's fortifications lies, only15 metres deep, the British destroyer "Maori" which was sunk in the World War II bombing of Valletta in 1942. Divers can clearly see the holes blasted in the ship's hull.

A paradise for snorkelling lovers, scuba divers and beach visitors is also the tiny, car-free islet of Comino, located between Malta and Gozo.

It was in this scenic setting of turquoise-blue waters and some of Malta's prettiest beaches that director Guy Richie, together with his wife at the time, Madonna, filmed "Swept Away." The film was a flop -but not because of the island.

Copyright dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur Gmbh), 2011