The walled city of Valletta is capital of Malta, an island nation south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. The city is named for Jean Parisot de la Valette, grand master of the Knights Hospitalers, or Knights of Malta, a military religious order which founded the city in 1565. Valletta is built on a tongue-like peninsula enclosed in a bay on Malta's east-central coast. Well-preserved underground control centers in the city served as headquarters for Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery as they planned the Allied liberation of Italy during World War II. Nowadays, Valletta's harbor has been converted from a naval dockyard to an active maritime trade and tourism center.The Maltese Islands (Malta, Gozo, and Comino) were granted independent nation status in 1964. English and Maltese are the official languages, with Italian widely spoken among the nation's 350,000 citizens. Malta's democratic government maintains neutrality in foreign affairs.