Museum Saint James Cavalier in Valletta

You're standing at Saint James Cavalier, on Castille Square in Valletta. Take a look at that big, bare block of stone. Nobody was trying to make it pretty. This is a raised gun platform, built in the sixteenth century by the Order of St John. From the top, cannons could fire right over the bastion, towards the land where Floriana would later grow. The plan is a pentagon. And that solid look is a bit of a trick: half of it is packed with compressed earth.