(...) The rapid development is encroaching upon a rugged and scenic shoreline with engaging names such as Bajja tan-Nisa (Bay of Women) and Bajja tal-Qassisin (Bay of Priests). Such names hint at a certain privacy which this place provided prior to the recent influx of residents. In the beginning of the 20th century this shoreline began to attract people seeking a quiet villegjatura (second home), but any real development had to wait out World War II.
The coast is lined intermittently with salt pans. These rock-hewn cisterns designed to trap seawater are a traditional feature of the Maltese coastline. Their shallowness allows the water to evaporate quickly under the strong Maltese sun, leaving the salt for harvest.
Despite its ruggedness, Xghajra had to be protected from invasion just like any other coastal area. In 1620, towards the end of Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt's rule (1601-1622), a tower was built on the design of Vittorio Cassar (1550 - 1607). It was named, in Italian, for the patron saint of Zabbar - Forte Santa Maria delle Grazie. Its battery, known in short as tal-Grazzja, is still extant. At one time, the coast was fortified with entrenchments all the way to the Grand Harbour.
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Zabbarija t-tut ! (Mulberries from Zabbar!). The familiar vendor cry attests to the high quality of Zabbar's agricultural products. (...)
(...) Haz-Zabbar is a varied lot. The western part is congestedly urban and borders on the Kottonera ramparts, which include the magnificent Zabbar Gate. Other buildings of interest include an old (1529) tower in Triq Santa Marija, a windmill tower in Triq Bajada, and Bishop Labini's villa in Triq San Guzepp. This villa served as hospital during the French blockade (1798-1800).
The eastern half retains an idyllic village charm with thick hitan tas-sejjieh (rubble walls) and prickly pear cacti to protect the fields from the wind. Its curiosities vary from prehistoric megaliths to i c- cirku (The Circle), a karstic depression resembling a Roman amphiteathre.
Rural Zabbar extends to a coast characterized by fortifications built over a 300-year period. Although De Redin's tower, one of 13 built around the Maltese shoreline in the middle of the 17th century, is demolished, another survives. This has various names - Mwiegel (Cisterns) for the roughly hewn salt pans nearby, ta' Triq il-Wiesgha (Wide Road) for the open coastal stretch it was built to defend, and ta' Leonardu, a name we find with consistency in Zabbar. The tower is in the company of pre-World War II structures - pillboxes and a coastal searchlight post - as well as a fort which the British built in 1879.
The fort, again named St. Leonard (San Anard), perpetuates a devotion to the saint who used to be called upon in times of piracy. Partial credit goes to Leonardu Sammut, a cleric responsible for the building of the coastal tower as well as a church to his namesake (1656). This is adjoined by a villa which is erroneously referred to as il-Kunvent (Religious House) and which has been used on occasion by the film industry based in nearby Kalkara. (...)
(...) This devotion, which predates the Knights, is rooted in the rites of atonement. With the introduction of carnival, the aspect of repentance gathered strength. Ash Wednesday, which follows the three days of folly, became the day when people fulfilled their vows. Pilgrimages from all over the country arrived at Zabbar with offerings of thanksgiving for favours (graces) acquired through Our Lady's intercession. At times, the walls of the church were covered with these ex-votos. As Ash Wednesday became a regular working day for more and more people, pilgrimages started to occur more often on the following Sunday, which is the first Sunday in Lent. Big crowds earned this day the name Hadd in-Nies (People's Sunday). This pilgrimage is held to this day. (...)
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(...) We meet by the 18th century fish ponds and walk south along Triq tal-Gardiel. In a few minutes we come to a crossroads. Here we have three choices. The road west leads to 17th century structures - the churches of San Gejtan (1657) and Sant'Antnin (1675) and fortifications such as tal-Buttar Tower and the recently restored Mamo Fort. Cross-shaped, this is surrounded by a ditch hewn out of solid rock.
The road south brings into full view the beautiful St. Thomas Bay, which includes a small bathing spot. On the way we pass by tall and narrow tal-Mozz (rhymes with "watts"). This is another 17th century tower (it bears the inscription Die 22 Mensis Octobris 1628 ).
The last choice is a trek down the sad side of progress. Nadur Street is now an easy jog since an old tower known as ta' Gomu ta' Gardiel (soft G for Gomu, hard one for Gardiel), was torn down. Just before we get to Triq il-Menhir, there used to be a 9-foot menhir (prehistoric monumental stone). But this was knocked down and then removed. Finally there is Triq il-Katakombi, without the catacomb. The old Roman tomb is now under the foundation of modern houses.
We are fast approaching Fort St. Thomas, a massive landmark built by Vittorio Cassar on commission by Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt in 1616, two years after a Turkish onslaught. The building of the fort turned this heretofore undefended district into a showcase of strength. The 17-foot thick walls, the eight brazen cannon, and the forbidding moat proved too strong for the Ottomans, who never set foot on Marsaskala again. The fort was used only once in 1798, when the Maltese tried to fend off the French. (...)
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(...) Zejtun is unofficially divided into two main sections known as ir-Rahal ta' Fuq (Upper Village) and ir-Rahal t' Isfel (Lower Village). The descriptions refer to altitude, not geographic location (the upper portion is in the south). Their historic names are Hal Bizbud (or Bisbut) and Bisqallin, respectively. Another village, Hal Gwann, seems to have been squeezed out of existence. The titular painting of Hal Gwann's extinct church, which was dedicated to the Beheading of St. John, survives at the Parish Church Museum. (...)
Zejtun is a different kind of town. For starters, it is hardly a town at all. Despite a large population and several urban amenities, Zejtun sticks to a village way of life. But it's more than the rural aspect that sets Zejtun apart. Superstitious accounts make iz-zwieten even physically different, like having flat feet.
Less peculiar is the theory that they resisted Christianity in the 1st century AD, while under Roman rule. Apparently St. Paul had better luck converting their distant countrymen across the archipelago. Remains of Zejtun's Roman past include a villa within the limits of Carlo Diacono School and a cistern in a private residence a few hundred feet to the north.
Zejtun's dialect is also quite distinctive. A good example is the word mano a or manucca (kite), from the Italian words mano (hand) and uccello (bird). Elsewhere, it is called tajra (bird) or hamiema (pigeon); only at Zejtun is it a bird in the hand! Another interesting word, though not restricted to Zejtun, is culqana, a traditional black robe with a stiff hood that is otherwise known as faldetta or ghonnella. Prior to World War II, this was quite common in Zejtun and other localities. (...)
(...) One of the major changes of the late 17th and early 18th centuries was the advent of windmills, whose lofty sails altered the skyscape and a way of life.
At Zejtun, though, the mill resembled the iron-spiked wheel to which St Catherine was tied before she was beheaded. Out of respect for their saint, Zejtun women refrained from taking their grain to the mill on St Catherine's day. It is said that a woman who refused to follow this tradition was killed by a splinter from the rotating wheel. (...)
(...)Towards the end of the 18th century, villages vied for township status.
Thrilled with the presence of Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch at St. Catherine's festa, village elders requested this symbolic tribute citing some engaging arguments. The village had a population of 6,000, they said (an exaggeration), its militia unit was under the command of a colonel (rather than a captain), and it had a flourishing commerce. His eminence was convinced. Only trouble was he had already conferred the titles Città Hompesch (to Zabbar) and Città Ferdinand (to Siggiewi) and was running out of names. So he called Zejtun Città Bilandt (now spelled Beland), after his mother's lineage. (...)
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Numerous incisions relating to the Phoenician goddess Astarte (Axtart) have been found in a site dating to the 7th or 8th century BC. Ptolemy wrote of a prehistoric temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Hera. Orator Cicero accused Caius Verres, Roman governor of Malta, of plundering a sanctuary of goddess Juno. And ruins of a Byzantine church dedicated to the Virgin Mary were discovered in 1966.
These four diverse sites have something in common: they are but one. Astarte, Hera, Juno, and the Virgin Mary, equivalents of one another, have taken turns presiding over tas-Silg before succumbing to the Arabs in the 9th century. At this site, where large amounts of Greek and Byzantine pottery have been collected, brothers Abdosir and Osirxamar offered cippi (incense-burning pillars) to Melqart, the Phoenician equivalent of Hercules. Two such cippi, with inscriptions in Phoenician and Greek, were discovered in 1697. Grand Master De Rohan donated one to King Louis XVI of France. This is now at the Louvre. The other can be seen in the Phoenician section of the National Archaeological Museum in Valletta. (...)
(...) Nobility and churches go hand in hand in Marsaxlokk. Il-Madonna tas-Silg, originally built around 1650, was reconstructed in 1832-3 thanks to a donation by Marchioness Elizabeth (Bettina) Muscat Cassia Dorell, who also paid for the tower at Xrob l-Ghagin. The Testaferrata family of nobles built Palazzo Marnisi in 1650 and St. Dominic's chapel in 1683. Then in 1875 they enlarged St. Peter's Chapel, originally designed by Lorenzo Gafà in 1682, so they could get buried in it. In 1876, a donation by noblewoman Margerita dei Conti Manduca helped build the Sacred Heart Chapel, now no longer in use, within the pink Torre Kavallerizza (1613), a tower that the Knights of Malta built for their horses. (...)
(...) The Turks were not the first to make use of Marsaxlokk Harbour. Nor the last. Presidents Bush and Gorbachev chose this gaping mouth of the fish-shaped island to dump the cold war in 1989. Centuries before the birth of Christ, the Phoenicians had also anchored their ships in this cliff-ringed bay which they called "Harbour of Melqart". The term survives as Marsaxlokk's nickname, Portus Herculis. (...)
(...) Seafaring people these xlukkajri are, worthy of their ancient predecessors. They are a hardy stock of fishermen who ply the harbour and the open sea in traditional boats still displaying the eye of the Phoenician god Osiris. There are some 200 full-time fishermen and several part-time ones, more than in any other Maltese village. Groupers, squid, and other delightful catches can be savoured at authentic restaurants along the wharf or bought fresh. Vendors yell ghadhom telghin mill-bahar (straight off the sea) and il-lampuki haj (the fish are alive), and sometimes they are right. Market day is Sunday, when the aroma of the mqaret (date-filled fried pastries) also fills the air. The unforgettable scene may also include open-air bingos and vendors selling fishnet mesh bags near a historic covered spring known as Ghajn tal-Hasselin (Washers' Spring). The spring's loggia, was installed in 1876 at the cost of 20 English pounds.
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We would like to thank Mr. Charles Fiott for granting us permission to publish the above excerpts.
Copyright © 1996 Charles Fiott - All Rights Reserved -
Towns and Villages in Malta and GozoPart 2: The South (Portraits of 21 towns and villages in the souhern part of Malta)
Published by the Conventual Franciscans of Rabat (Religjon u Hajja), Malta - 1994
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Copyright © 1998 Michael Riccioli All Rights Reserved
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