The Malta coat of arms, piece by piece, and how it differs from the Order's

Malta’s coat of arms reads almost like a sentence. It has four elements and each says something specific about the country, and handily, the law that governs it explains what each one means. Here it is piece by piece, how it differs from the Order of Malta’s arms, which is where most of the confusion lies, and where you’ll come across it on a trip.

What the Malta coat of arms looks like

It’s set out in the Emblem and Public Seal of Malta Act, Chapter 253, and the Government reproduces the wording on its flags and symbols page. At the centre is a shield with a heraldic representation of the national flag, white and red with the George Cross. Above it sits a gold mural crown with a sally port and eight turrets, only five of them visible. Around it are two branches, olive on the dexter side and palm on the sinister, in their natural colours. And at the base they’re tied with a white ribbon, backed in red, reading ‘Repubblika ta’ Malta’ in black capitals.

It’s a republican emblem through and through. The motto is simply the name of the state in Maltese, Republic of Malta, and the flag inside it is the one described in the Malta flag, with the 1942 medal in the canton.

What does each piece mean?

The crown carries the most meaning, and the law is blunt about it. The turrets represent Malta’s fortifications and the crown denotes a city state. I think that’s spot on, because if anything defines these islands’ landscape it’s the bastions, watchtowers and forts I cover in the forts of Malta. UNESCO’s Tentative List entry puts the harbour walls alone at some 25 km, and the crown sums it all up in eight turrets.

The branches are simpler. The law calls the olive and palm symbols of peace, traditionally associated with Malta. And the ribbon, white on the front and red on the back, repeats the colours of the flag.

It isn’t the Order of Malta’s coat of arms

This is where most people go wrong, because a search for the Malta coat of arms often throws up the Knights’ arms instead. They’re two separate things. The Order of Malta describes its arms as a white Latin cross on a red oval surrounded by a rosary, all set over a white eight-pointed cross and beneath a princely mantle and crown. For its medical and humanitarian work it uses another emblem, a red shield with the white eight-pointed cross.

The Republic’s arms carry neither a Latin cross nor an eight-pointed one. They carry the national flag, which in turn carries the George Cross. For more on the Knights and their symbols, see the Knights of Malta.

Where you’ll see it

The most visible place is the President’s flag. The Government explains that it was introduced by proclamation on 12 December 1988 and is blue, with the Malta coat of arms at its heart and a gold eight-pointed cross in every corner. It flies at the President’s residences and offices and wherever the President is present, so in Valletta you’ll see it at the Grandmaster’s Palace, home to the Office of the President. What the President actually does is covered in how Malta is governed. The merchant ensign and the naval jack don’t carry it, using the Maltese cross and the George Cross instead, which is one more reason the three symbols get muddled.

What the law protects, and Malta’s other symbols

The Emblem Act is fairly strict. It makes it unlawful to publicly vilify the flag or the emblem, by words, gestures, writing or pictures, or to deface them in any way. It also bans incorporating them, or Malta’s former emblems, into any design without the Prime Minister’s written authority. If you fancy a souvenir with the coat of arms on it, buy one from a shop rather than printing your own.

The coat of arms has company. The Government lists the other symbols of the state, the national anthem, ‘L-Innu Malti’, covered in the Malta national anthem; the Maltese cross as the national symbol; and the Republic’s two honours, the National Order of Merit, ‘Ġieħ ir-Repubblika’, and the ‘Midalja għall-Qadi tar-Repubblika’. Together with the flag and the coat of arms, they’re how Malta has presented itself as a republic since 1974.