Description
Matteo Perez d’Aleccio’s frescoes at the Grandmaster’s Palace, Valletta 1565
The proud resistance of the Knights of Malta as depicted by Matteo Perez D’Aleccio in the frescoes at the Grand Master’s Palace, photographed by Daniel Cilia.
The Great Siege of Malta occurred in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer the island of Malta held by the Knights Hospitaller. The siege lasted nearly four months, from 18 May to 12 September 1565.
The Knights Hospitaller had been headquartered in Malta since 1530, after being driven out of their island home of Rhodes by the Ottomans following a bloody siege in 1522. The Ottomans first attempted to take Malta in 1551 but sacked Gozo instead.
In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Sultan, made a second attempt to take Malta. The Knights, who numbered around 500 together with approximately 6,000 auxiliary forces, withstood the siege and repelled the invaders. This victory became one of the most celebrated events of sixteenth-century Europe, to the point that Voltaire said: “Nothing is better known than the siege of Malta.” It undoubtedly contributed to the eventual erosion of the European perception of Ottoman invincibility, although the Mediterranean continued to be contested between Christian coalitions and the Muslim Turks for many years.
The siege was the climax of an escalating contest between the Christian alliances and the Islamic Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean, a contest that included the Turkish attack on Malta in 1551, the Ottoman destruction of an allied Christian fleet at the Battle of Djerba in 1560, and the decisive Ottoman naval defeat at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
This book is dedicated to the frescoes of Matteo Perez d’Aleccio, in the Grand Masters’ Palace, Valletta. The d’Aleccio frescoes were commissioned by Grand Master Fra Jean L’Evesque de La Cassiere, to commemorate the Great Siege of 1565, the most important victory of the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller order of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta.
The Siege of Malta 1565 presents one of the greatest treasures of Malta to the people at large especially to those who cannot visit Malta to see and enjoy them in loco.
This unique book is yet another special representation of Malta to the world.
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