Siege Bell Memorial

The Siege Bell Memorial stands on the bastions above the Grand Harbour near the Lower Barrakka Gardens in Valletta, in southeastern Malta. It commemorates the people who died in the Second World War siege of Malta between 1940 and 1943, including about 7,000 Allied servicemen and Maltese civilians. The siege saw the island bombed heavily by Axis aircraft, and Malta was awarded the George Cross in April 1942 in recognition of its resistance. The memorial was designed by the sculptor Michael Sandle and unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992, the fiftieth anniversary of the award. At its centre is a large bronze bell, cast in England, hung in an open colonnade of Portland stone. Below the bell, a bronze figure group depicts a sailor, soldier and airman, and sculpted figures of the dead lie before a landscaped area. A commemorative inscription and the names of the fallen are recorded in the adjoining Commonwealth war graves record. A bell is sounded daily at midday, a ceremony that recalls the island's wartime suffering. The monument looks across the Grand Harbour toward the Three Cities, the area that took the heaviest raids, and it sits within the UNESCO-listed City of Valletta. The memorial is a modern work in an older fortified setting, and its design uses scale and open space to create a sober atmosphere. It is maintained as an open-air site with no entry fee. The visitor approach is contemplative rather than museum-based: people walk through the colonnade, read the inscriptions and view the harbour. The memorial links naturally with the National War Museum at Fort St Elmo and the Lascaris War Rooms.