Last portrait from the Medieval Mdina Festival. This is the proud falconer.
"Since the Middle Ages, Malta has been famous for breeding falcons. In 1239, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II dispatched a team of 18 royal falconers to capture these famed birds, and he chronicled the sport in his text The Art of Falconry. In 1530, King Charles I of Spain deeded the Maltese islands to the Order of the Knights of St. John in exchange for an annual gift of one peregrine falcon. The Knights created the post of Falconiere Maggiore, to whom a number of hunters reported, and in the 17th century, falconry became so important that the street in Valletta where this official had his residence changed from Strada Pia, an homage to Pope Pius V, to Strada della Falconieria. Despite this connection to the famed Knights of Malta and its popularity among nobility, the practice of falconry fell into decline once the British took control of Malta in the 19th century and favored hunting with guns over birds." (Newsweek -Ross Kenneth Urken)
