Vittoriosa, known locally as Birgu, sits on one of the two promontories extending toward Valletta across the Grand Harbour. It is the second oldest town in Malta after Mdina, and the first seat of the Knights of St. John when they arrived in 1530. Fort St. Angelo, at the tip of the peninsula, was the Knights' headquarters during the Great Siege of 1565 and remains the town's most commanding landmark.
The old town is entered through the Three Gates — a sequence of fortifications that feels like stepping back centuries. Inside, narrow streets lead to the Parish Church of St. Lawrence (rebuilt by Lorenzo Gafa in the seventeenth century), the Malta Maritime Museum in the old naval bakery, and the town square with its Victory Monument commemorating the Great Siege. The Inquisitor's Palace — the only intact Inquisition palace open to the public anywhere in the world — fills a medieval building a few alleys from the waterfront. Look also for the Executioner's House, whose medieval stonework still carries the eye-and-axes symbol of its original occupant's trade.