Republic Street
Republic Street is the main thoroughfare of Valletta and the busiest shopping street. Valletta is a peninsula, and the area between republic street and Merchants street is relatively flat. Republic Street, when viewed from the City Gaye has a slight dip and flattens out at Republic Square, to follow with a big drop after the Grand Masters Palace, towards Fort St Elmo. The side streets of the Republic Street should not be forgotten. Most of these streets give the city its character and ambiance, and they may be of commercial interest too. From the vantage position of both Republic Street and Merchants Street, the view through the side streets often leads to a sight of one of the harbours surrounding Valletta.
Republic Street is a straight street interconnected with a number of smaller and larger squares: City Gate-Great Siege Square-Republic Square-St George's Square-St Elmo Square.
Valletta is regarded as the most heavily bombed area in the Second World War. The damage was repaired with the same kind of limestone and old and new blend together seamlessly.
It seems that there are many empty houses in Valletta. Some of them are simply stores for the shops below, others are the result of a dispute over inheritance. A number of homes are in a dilapidated state, as these were rented out a long time ago. Rent laws stipulated that the rent could not be raised excessively, leading to a result that the home owners could not raise enough money to maintain the houses. It is only after the tenants leave the house, the homeowner can start renovating and bring it back to the market for rental. Especially boutique hotels and Airbnb seems to be on the increase.
Church of St Paul's Shipwreck ' entrance from St Lucy Street. In the year AD 60 St Paul experienced is providential shipwreck to Malta and his narrative in Acts 27 and 28 of the New Testament gave Malta a permanent place in history and the history of Christianity. Although the church was erected in the sixteenth century, it has a modern façade, built in the nineteenth century. It has an impressive interior and a number of items related to St Paul, among others, a relic consisting of a wrist bone of his right wrist, placed in a gilded reliquary in the form of his hand. A gilded statue of St Paul is carried in procession through the streets of Valletta on the feast day of this patron saint, 10th February. There is also a part of the column on which he was allegedly beheaded in Rome.
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