Architecture

Abstract

It was at the height of the Renaissance, in 1530, when Charles V handed over the two small islands of Malta and Gozo to the Knights of St John. The momentous event was to usher in a long period of building activity which produced some of the island's finest architectural monuments, but it was not the first time that Malta had stood at the peak of architectural achievement. Prof. Colin Renfrew, the famous archaeologist describes the Maltese neolithic temples (ca. 3000 B.C.) as "the earliest free-standing monuments in stone in the world" and the "memorably imposing' facade of the Ġgantija temple, in Gozo, as "perhaps the earliest architecturally conceived exterior in the world".