"Vittoriosa - Birgu" a Vittoriosa Travel Page by SanguiniA

The often overlooked town of Vittoriosa (or Birgu) is a small town built on Malta's Grand Harbour, around Fort St. Angelo. It was briefly also the capital city of Malta in the middle ages, and is even older than the current capital city of Valletta. It is part of the famous Three Cities - the towns fortified by the Knights of St. John.

When the Knights of St. John arrived in Malta in 1530 , fort St. Angelos's was the only strong harbour defence that they found and they promptly started work on enlarging and strengthening the fort and the village itself. They knew that because of Malta's strategic position, keeping control over the island was not going to be easy.

In fact battle times came soon enough and Fort St. Angelo played a fundamental role during the 1565 Great Siege. Despite the relentless attacks from the Turks it was never conquered, earning the city the title of Vittoriosa (meaning victorious)