United Travel Malta

Naxxar Parish Church Although it is not easy to determine when Naxxar started to become a village, it is considered to be one of the oldest villages in Malta. Cart ruts that can be found on the outskirts of the village date back to the Bronze Age and are proof at how old Naxxar actually is. Nowadays, Naxxar is more like a town rather than a village as it has grown to around 11sqkm in size and has a population of over 13,000. As a whole, the village, or town, is divided into 8 districts - Naxxar centre, Sghajtar area, San Pawl Tat-Targa, Birguma, Maghtab, Salina, Bahar ic-Caghaq and part of Madliena. According to tradition, the people of Naxxar were amongst the first to help St. Paul when he was shipwrecked in Malta. For this reason, it is thought that the name Naxxar comes from the word "nassar" (Nasra) which means "conversion to Christianity". Other scholars believe that the name comes from the words "nsara" or "nazaroei" which mean "

Since we are at the start of the cooler, rainy season in Malta I have decided to write a series of blogs that talk about a number of smaller villages that are not usually busy with tourists, and that will give visitors an insight into village life in Malta. To start this series, I have decided that my first blog will be about what locals call the Three Villages. The Three Cities found in the southern part of the Island are quite well known amongst tourists, and a trip to Malta will generally include a visit to the Three Cities; however the Three Villages are not as well known. These villages go by the names of Attard, Balzan and Lija, and although they are now a bit bigger than your typical village, they are still too small and not busy enough to call them towns. These three villages merge into each other, however each one has it's own parish church and village square complete and their own parish church means that they also have their own village feast at some point during th

Valletta, the city which we proud to call our capital city, is often described as a big open-air museum. It is a living experience of Baroque architecture, a monument donated by the Knights of St. John's four and a half centuries ago. The Baroque feel and structure is what truly defines Valletta, and it is really worthy of a celebration.  This is where the Valletta International Baroque Festival is just that, a celebration of all that is Baroque. The festival is now in its fourth edition and will this year, like in the previous ones, incorporate "an eclectic variety of music including pianistic transcriptions and 20th Century orchestral music inspired by the baroque idiom." The festival will take place between the 16th and 30th January 2015, and besides the beautiful Baroque music, visitors can also look forward to seeing the finest Baroque buildings come to life.  Some of the venues that will host the concerts are the following:  Manoel Theatre  1. Manoel Th