31st March 1979 - Freedom Day

The Freedom Monument on Valletta's waterfront commemorates 31 March 1979, the day the last British forces departed Malta after more than 160 years of military presence. The bronze sculpture depicts a Maltese civilian shaking hands with a Royal Navy sailor as the Maltese flag is raised — a deliberately warm gesture reflecting the remarkably amicable nature of the handover. The Royal Navy, the final branch to leave, had made Malta the most strategically important British naval base in the Mediterranean for much of the 20th century. Small in scale but dense in meaning, the monument sits amid well-tended flower beds and a spreading Jacaranda tree, with views across the Grand Harbour to Fort St. Angelo.