(...) The first part of our journey, however, is underground. All aboard a train that operated between 1883 and 1931. A whistle sent the train from Valletta across a viaduct into a 15-foot wide hand-dug tunnel. Though 90 feet below the suburb, this tunnel was ventilated by two shafts, and during World War II it served as a bomb shelter.It took the train three minutes to travel the 913 yards of tunnel.
Attendants lighted candles in every coach. The train emerged out of St. Philip Bastion only to enter another short tunnel penetrating the fausse-braye (wall in front of a bastion). (...)
At this spot we must descend from the train to explore Furjana's beginnings. To the north is Sa Maison Bastion, complete with a jutting vedette (sentry box), regimental badges, and a garden known as nien tal-Milorda (translatable as "My Lady's Garden"). Going backward in time, we find that an eccentric 19th century woman was responsible for the name of the garden, that a freemason group including a few knights convened in these parts in the 18th century, and that during the Great Siege of 1565 the enemy forced christian slaves to carry their galleys across the isthmus to the Grand Harbour, where they launched their offensive against the Maltese positions. (...)
The suburb is also a tribute to the victims of the two world wars. A Poppy Day ceremony, an event originated in 1938 to honour the fallen of World War I, is conducted at the foot of the War Memorial on the second Sunday in November. (...)
(...) Sliema's origins are rather humble. The very name fits a remote hamlet better than a sophisticated city. Sliema is the aloha of the Maltese language. It means peace, comfort, trouble-free, and just about any other pleasant situation. Tas-Sliema, the popular name, stands for something like "an area of good health".
Sliema got its name from a prayer. Seamen entering and leaving Marsamxett Harbour saluted Sliema galik Marija (Hail Mary) as they rounded a church at the tip. (...) It is believed that the main painting of the church depicted the Holy Family's safe escape from Egypt. The key word here is "safe", which translates to bis-sliema. (...)
One of the legacies of British presence in Sliema is an Anglican church built in 1866. Holy Trinity owes its existence to a donation by Dr. Trower, bishop of Gibraltar. Eager to attract Maltese people, a protestant mission distributed packages consisting of a bible, a loaf of bread, and a shilling (about a dime). Quick with nicknames, the Maltese started calling the people of Sliema tax-Xelin (the Money Hoarders). The mission failed, but the nickname stuck. (...)
[GO BACK TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS] Like titles of nobility and imperial wigs, coats of arms were supposed to have died with the French revolution. In Malta, which had only two years of Napoleon, such heraldry is still evident in historic palaces and churches, while modern suburbs have instead opted for covered bus stops. (...)
The history and name of il-Gzira (the island), revolve around a small leaf-shaped island in Marsamxett Harbour. The isolation and, at the same time, the close location of what is now Manoel Island provided Grand Master Lascaris (1636-57) with a perfect site for a plague hospital, a necessity which had arisen from the outbreaks of 1592 and 1623. Lazzarett, which was built in 1643, contains records of every epidemic since 1654, the last one occurring in 1936. A folk rhyme captures the feeling of resignation that gripped the people during an outbreak of the Spanish flu soon after World War I:
If you catch the Spanish flu
You'll be dragged to Lazzarett.
There you'll get a bowl of soup.
It will be your very last.(...) Manoel Island offered full quarantine facilities to several Mediterranean countries. This produced substantial revenues to the Maltese treasury. (...) Mail was disinfected by slitting the envelopes and immersing them in vinegar.
[GO BACK TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS] (...) The streets of Ta' Xbiex take off from the seafront and shoot straight up the hill without losing sight of the water. Their names honour pioneers such as Onorato Bres, a nationalistic spokesperson for the Maltese intelligentsia who fought for Maltese civil and political rights in the early part of the British era. His fight, continued by his successors, ended with the acquisition of independence in 1964, when the town of Ta' Xbiex was coming into being. Not long ago, the most common sight along this charming coastline was the quaint harbour boat. Its origins rooted in prehistory, the multi-coloured dgajsa is recognizable, among other things, from the sculpted eye of Osiris. This pagan god of the underworld, appeased throughout two millennia of Christianity, offers protection against the evil eye. An eye for an eye!The dgajsa is still around, ever as colourful as its history. But it is dwarfed by big, mostly foreign yachts lined up along the glorious Yacht Marina. (...)
[GO BACK TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS] The first scene of Msida's changing drama is set sometime in the 15th or early 16th century. It is an altogether bucolic landscape, straight out of a painter's canvas. A rugged harbour with no permanent residents is surrounded by hills, whence descends a meandering wied, or dry river bed. As the wied approaches the harbour, it becomes a stream, a narrow arm of the sea. At this point it is also the source of a natural spring, which has been harnessed into a pool. Fishermen use this pool as a storage to keep their excess catch alive for another day's dinner. Nearby is a little chapel. (...)
Scene Two takes us to the first part of the 18th century. There are now a few houses, among them one belonging to Fra Wolfgang Philip Guttenberg (1647-1733), Baron of the Holy Roman Empire and Grand Bailiff of Brandenburg within the Order of St. John. The residents call themselves misidjani. L-Imsida means "a fishing place", but one historian - let's call him poet - links the name to that cry of the fishermen: Omm Sidna.It wasn't a hollow cry. Miraculously rescued, the grateful fishermen erected a church to Our Lady near their fish tank. (...)
The third scene is being unfolded right now. Msida is a town of almost 7,000 people. And very few of them are fishermen. (...)
[GO BACK TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS]
We would like to thank Mr. Charles Fiott for granting us permission to publish the above excerpts.
Copyright © 1994 Charles Fiott - All Rights Reserved -
Towns and Villages in Malta and Gozo
Part 1: The Twin Harbour Area
Published by the Conventual Franciscans of Rabat (Religjon u Hajja), Malta - 1994
Page Layout and Side Bars
Copyright © 1998 Michael Riccioli All Rights Reserved
[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
[THE GEORGE CROSS ISLAND]
[BACK TO ESP-EFL BRITISH CIVILISATION HOME PAGE]