The Open Day was held to mark the 10th anniversary celebrations since Malta’s accession to the EU. In all, 20 sites were open to the public for free with about 27,000 people taking the opportunity to visit these national treasures.
With the sites and museums opening their gates at 9am, one could immediately see that the day was
going to be a very busy one with people at certain sites queuing even before opening time. The most popular sites on the day were the Palace Armoury and the State Rooms at the Grandmaster’s Palace with 3230 visitors, closely followed by the National Museum of Natural History in Mdina and the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta with 3037 and 3034 visitors respectively. A number of Maltese also went to Gozo purposely to visit the sites on the sister island, with the most popular site in Gozo being the Ġgantija Temples.
The success of this Open Day follows those held at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra on the 19th of March and the National Museum of Archaeology on the 31st of March, and anticipates the next Open Day of the National Museum of Archaeology to be held on the 21st of September. Such open days are only one means through which Heritage Malta renders culture accessible to all, including temporary exhibitions, lectures, heritage trails, conferences, educational programmes, and publications.
For more information regarding similar events one can follow Heritage Malta’s official Facebook page.
