The small village of Malta is built at an altitude of 365 metres, close to the villages of Stavropigio and Kampos Avia. It has approximately 100 permanent residents and was built by repatriated Mani people who returned from Corsica and Italy. It belongs to the famous Lakkochoria or Lakkoi, a group of villages founded by the Catalan Crusaders in the area of Messenia. In comparison, the village is located under the tower of the Koutifaris family, the family of the first Bey of Mani.
In Malta, visitors can see the traditional, stone-built houses and the historic churches of Zoodochos Pigi, Agios Nikolaos and John the Forerunner, which have been declared preserved by the Ministry of Culture. Also, the traditional olive mill of G. Skarpalezos, which has been operating since the Turkish occupation in 1765, is also in the village. Perhaps, in fact, it is the only traditional olive mill in operation in Greece, where the processing of the olive fruit is carried out with millstones- stones.
At a distance of just one kilometre from the village, there is the Androubevitsa Abbey. It is a Byzantine building with elements of Mani architecture, which has been classified as a historic monument by the Ministry of Culture. Finally, on a nearby hill, south of the village, the imposing tower of Mavrikos, built in 1814 and has also been classified as a historical monument, dominates the area. The tower was named after the Ealdorman of Malta, Poulos Mavrikos.
