On April 13, 1927, the mail steamer SS Lubiana arrived in Malta from Syracuse bringing with it an unusual visitor to Malta: the Swiss professor Dr Leo August Wehrli. He lectured in a grammar school in Zurich.

Wehli’s narrative of his Malta visit was originally published in the Neue Zuricher Zeitung in five instalments (nos. 886, 894, 906, 915 and 928) in May 1928. It was later published as an off-print in an elegant 31-page pamphlet format, entitled Malta. It is written in a pleasant literary style.

Wehrli describes entering Valletta harbour at dawn. The city ‒ with its massive walls and densely clustered houses and Vittoriosa and Senglea shooting forth inside the harbour, which was full of warships and merchantmen ‒ was “an unforgettable sight” (“ein unvergesslicher anblick”). The St Elmo lighthouse reminded him of his first visit when he passed in transit from Tripolitania to Syracuse.

The passengers were brought ashore by boats. After having gone through Customs, Wehrli took a cab, drawn by a trotting horse, to Valletta. The coachman used a pedal signal bell. He entered the city through a tunnel gate, amid the rumbling wheels of caleches and hurried steps, thence through narrow streets, turning left, then right, then downward slopes, and again uphill, turning at sharp corners.

The cab stopped in front of Westminster Hotel, where Wehrli lodged during his visit. The hotel was in Strada Reale, Valletta’s main street. The unusually dense population with 190,000 inhabitants (census of 1921) worked out 763 per square kilometre – more than in the Swiss city canton of Geneva (606 in 1920), Wehrli writes. The city gate was embellished with a British lion sculpted in stone, a portrait-bust in bronze of a pope (Pius V) and two life-size statues of grandmasters (l’Isle Adam and de Valette) of the Order of St John.

From the Upper Barrakka terrace, Wehrli could see the impressive sheer deep ditch which cut Valletta off from the suburb of Floriana. Across harbour, the Three Cities ‒ Vittoriosa, Cospicua and Senglea with their prominent church belfries, enclosed, as it were, within secret walls ‒  presented “an unusual composition”. Wehrli said the blue sea lent enchantment to the scenery and that this was only “half of the fairy-tale picture” (“die haelfte des maerchenhaften bildes”). As the lift, “a metal cage”, started its upward trip from the harbour quay, “the wonderful blue water” (das wundervoll blue wasser) unfolded itself to the passenger.

Wehrli described how from the ramparts of the northwest side of Valletta one sees Marsamxett Harbour with its three creeks: Msida, Lazzaretto and Sliema, “a growing city”. A ferry boat crossing from Valletta to Sliema rewarded the passenger with a view of the bastions flanking Valletta.

He wrote how Malta was known as the island of sunshine and as a health resort against rheumatism and lung diseases. The island was also known for olives and oranges (bitter and blood oranges), and honey. Potato (kartoffeln) was its major export. There was also the endemic carob tree (Johannisbrotbaum – St John’s bread).

The island’s goats (20,000) were among the best breed; sheep provided milk for the production of cheese. Mules and donkeys were sturdy animals. The flourishing cotton industry, for which the island was known since Roman times, was overtaken by Egyptian competition.

Wehrli showed particular interest in archaeology and spoke highly of the megalithic monuments of the island, which included the palaeolithic Għar Dalam cave; where remains of elephants and hippopotami and flint artefacts were found. The earliest inhabitants must have lived in caves, he noted.

Wehrli called the temples of Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Tarxien and the Hypogeum astonishing sanctuaries of architecture (“es sind sanktuarien von stauenswerter”). He described as impressive the main entrance of the temples, consisting of three huge massive stones (“gewaltiges trilithon”): two in a vertical position and a heavy horizontal roof block. He noted statues of the Fat Lady, symbol of fertility and prosperity, spiral decorations, monolith altar tables, traces of fire, small holes pierced through, which might have been used for rope hinges or simply as tie holes, and elaborate pitting decorations. The temples were originally roofed by means of a vault which was achieved by a series of converging layers.

Wehrli was given VIP treatment when he visited the archeological museum because he was shown around by Themistocles (Temi) Zammit, director of the museum and curator of the archaeological section. The museum was then housed in the Auberge d’Italia (opposite the post office) in Strada Mercanti.

The traveller gave a cursory mention of some important dates on the island’s history chart:

• In AD 58 [60], the apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the island, where he must have founded the first Christian community.

• In 1090, the island was freed from the Arabs (“vom arabischen joch”). This followed through the marriage of the Norman Count Roger with the first daughter of the German emperor Henry VI of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

• In 1530, the Knights Hospitaller arrived on the island (pop. 17,000). With the victorious outcome of the siege of the island in 1565 as the Ottomans retired, fearing relief forces from Sicily, the “Christian Mediterranean countries could breathe again” (“die Christlichen Mittelmeerlaender wieder aufatmen konnten”). Grandmaster de Valette received from Spain a gold sword. Pope Pius V offered him the cardinal’s hat which de Valette refused.

Wehrli wrote that when the building of Valletta was earnestly taken in hand, there were “stringent building regulations” (“strenge bauvor schriften regelten”).

He visited the Sacra Infermeria, the major hospital of the Order, which could take 745 beds – a single bed for each patient. Meals were served with silver cutlery for reasons of hygiene and the prestige of the hospital. It was “Europe’s most distinguished hospital” (“vornehmste spital europas”).

He also visited the conventual church of St John, “the Order’s famous church” (“die ruhmeskirche des ordens”). Its façade inspired splendour by its simplicity, he said. On entering the church, he was surprised by its exceptional magnificence, architecture, sculpture, fresco paintings and multicoloured mosaic tombstones all in one harmonious composition (“ueberrascht die kirche im inner”). Here some 400 knights found their last resting place.

The traveller spoke negatively of some of the grandmasters, saying that they ruled “brutally and despotically” (“brutal despotisches regiment”), mentioning de Valette, who prohibited the wearing of embroidered stockings, punishable with four years on the galleys; la Cassiere, who expelled the Jews for indulging in usury and because of the loose life of their wives; Pinto, who expelled the Jesuits; and in 1775, a popular uprising was savagely suppressed (by Ximenes).

He also mentioned Napoleon, who invaded the island in 1798. Two years of French occupation ensued. At the beginning of the 1800s, the island became a British possession.

At the Main Guard (“die hauptwache”), Wehrli noticed a soldier on the beat carrying a rifle on his shoulder and doing the goose step.

In the towns and villages, he heard English and Italian, and an Arab-sounding dialect: “die lingua Maltese”. The cultured people spoke Italian, while the businessmen and public officers spoke English, which remained a foreign language. He heard the Arabic number three: “tleta” for the price of bread.

In the elegant Strada Reale in Valletta, Wehrli also heard a milkman shouting “alab” (in Arabic), “ħalib” (for milk, “milch”) at the end of a herd of 20 goats with muzzles and multicoloured strings fastened round their necks, as he pulled the bells from house to house. He described how from the balconies, empty pots and jars in small baskets were lowered down by ropes so as to pour the goat milk in them.

Wehrli visited the museum in the former Grandmaster’s Palace, including its two courtyards. As trees were scarce, the huge Araucaria excelsa in the upper courtyard was quite unusual. The council hall, with its Gobelins tapestries, and the Order’s armoury and trophies, were well worth the visit, he wrote.

He took a trip by train (1st or 3rd class, no 2nd class) for a few pence to Città vecchia (Mdina). He described how on arrival, one walked a steep road leading to the bridge across the moat and that in the ditch below, a “true flower paradise” (“ein wahres blumenparadies”) greeted and welcomed the visitor.

He continued that in the city, the only sign of life was a priest in long black soutane hurriedly going in the church. The pavement of the church consisted of an “impressive array” of mosaic tombstones of church prelates and ecclesiastics, which Wehrli mistook for knights.

A nun saw Wehrli round the main courtyard of the Benedictine cloister. She showed him “the world-famous Maltese lace” (“die weltbekannte Malteser spitzen”). He acquired one of the lovely patterns at a moderate price.

Wehrli found the phrase “fior del mondo” (flower of the world) as a description of Malta rather puzzling.

In the concluding part of his narrative, he mentions Friedrich Schiller’s unfinished drama “die Maltheser” (the Maltese). He learned yet another Maltese word: “mektub” (“es steht geschrieben” or it is written).

On April 16, 1927, Wehrli left Malta for Syracuse on board the SS Lubiana at the end of his four-day Malta visit.