Balluta Bay

Where it sits. Balluta Bay is a small square-sided inlet on Malta's northeast coast, cut into the shoreline exactly where Sliema ends and St Julian's begins. It marks the seaward mouth of Wied tal-Balluta, one of the shallow valleys that drain this part of the island, and the name comes from ballut, the Maltese word for the holm oak that once grew in that valley. The bay is roughly 150 metres across, opens northeast, and is enclosed on three sides by buildings that rise straight from the water, which gives it the feel of an urban square that happens to have a sea floor. The coastal promenade running from Gżira to St George's Bay passes right through it, so almost everyone walking this stretch of coast crosses it.

A skyline built from two arguments. Balluta's profile is unusually coherent for a Maltese resort front, because two very distinctive buildings dominate it. At the head of the bay stands the Carmelite parish church, a Gothic Revival composition of pointed arches, buttresses and a rose window — deliberately unlike the domed Baroque that governs almost every other Maltese parish church, and all the more striking for it. On the eastern shore, immediately beside it, are the Balluta Buildings, an Art Nouveau apartment block completed in 1928 for the Marquis John Scicluna and designed by Giuseppe Psaila, with sinuous window surrounds, curved balconies and a rhythm of bays that is essentially unique on the island. The pairing of a neo-Gothic church against a 1920s Art Nouveau façade is the single most photographed urban composition in Malta after Valletta's Grand Harbour.

The rest of the frame. Behind the church a cluster of terraced townhouses survives in the local variant of Georgian design, and the Palazzina Vincenti — a rare piece of interwar Modernism by the architect Gustavo Romeo Vincenti — stands nearby. On the southern shore, Le Méridien hotel occupies the grounds of the eighteenth-century Villa Cassar Torreggiani, one of the country houses built here when this coast was still farmland. Between them the bay narrows to a triangular open square, Pjazza Balluta, planted with Judas trees that throw purple flower in early spring and shade in summer, and lined with cafés whose tables spill out to the parapet.

Swimming and the water. The head of the bay has a small beach that is topped up with imported sand — a project in the summer of 2018 added a substantial quantity, most of which was stripped out again by a severe storm in 2019 and had to be replaced. To either side the shore reverts to flat rock ledges with ladders, which is where most regular swimmers go in. The water is shallow and calm in settled weather, and swimming here is easy for children, but it is worth being frank about the drawback: Balluta drains a valley and sits at the end of an urban catchment, and the bay was closed to bathers from May to August 2024 after sewage seepage was detected. Checking current bathing-water notices before swimming is sensible, and after heavy winter rain the water is best avoided altogether.

How the bay is used. In practice Balluta functions as a neighbourhood living room rather than a resort beach. Mornings bring swimmers and dog-walkers; the square fills through the afternoon; by evening the promenade carries a steady stream of people walking between Sliema and St Julian's. A jetty on the northern side handles small boats, and proposals in 2020 to install a full tourist ferry terminal in the bay drew organised objections from residents, the local council and heritage groups who argued the traffic and structures would swamp a space that works precisely because it is small.

Getting there and timing. Balluta is on almost every bus route between Valletta and St Julian's, and the stop is on the promenade itself; from the Sliema ferry landing it is a twenty-five minute walk along the water. There is no useful parking. The bay faces northeast, so the sun leaves the water early in the afternoon while continuing to light the church and the Balluta Buildings — which is why photographers work the head of the bay late in the day and the swimming platforms in the morning. Spring, when the Judas trees flower and the sea has begun to warm, is the most rewarding time to sit in the square.