A four-part series
By Charles Fiott
Published by the Conventual Franciscans of Rabat (Religjon u Hajja), Malta - 1994
(Excerpts)
Books 1-2-3-4
- Book 1: The Twin Harbour Area
1.Valletta 2. Furjana (Floriana) 3. Sliema 4. Gzira 5. Ta'Xbiex 6. Msida 7. Pjetà
8. Hamrun 9. Marsa 10. Rahal Gdid (Paola) 11. Bormla (Cospicua) 12. Isla (Senglea)
13. Birgu (Vittoriosa) 14. Kalkara
- Book 2: The South
- Book 3: The North
- Book 4: Gozo
Foreward by Alexander Bonnici
This four-part series by Charles Fiott - three on Malta and one on
Gozo -will shed an unusual light on the towns and villages of the
Maltese Islands. This first part deals with the localities that
align the two main harbours of Malta. Some of these are cities with
a long, lustrous history, others with archives that aren't as
copious, and a few so new that little has yet been written about
them (...)
What this book gives us is not a tourist guide. This is rather a
comprehensive idea - a glance at the history and at the way in
which these localities have been transformed (...)
This book introduces us to the history and the arts and invites us
to get to know this little island better. The sketches that go with
the articles help the reader follow the author's references to
various sites (...)
Although the books written recently about Malta have been numerous,
this one by Charles Fiott has something that differentiates it from
all others. One may be surprised at what can be written about a
town like Ta' Xbiex. The author overcomes this hurdle superbly,
presenting this and other towns of short history in a very
interesting fashion.
1.
VALLETTA
(...)
Malta owes its architectural lustre to ir-Reli jon (The Religion),
as the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) was called. The
eight-pointed cross carried by the knights on their black vestments
stands for the eight beatitudes, by whose principles they vowed to
live, and for the eight langues, or nations, which comprised the
Order - an early prototype of the United Nations. Established in
1113, the Order of St. John the Baptist is the oldest surviving
order of chivalry. (...) Each langue (rhymes with tongue) had its
own auberge (hostel), church, and duties.
(...)
Running
the half-mile distance from one harbour to the other is the Great
Ditch, a 50-foot-deep, 30-foot-wide chasm hewn out of solid rock by
Turkish slaves.(...)
And
then there is the auberge of all auberges. The Palace of the Grand
Masters was built in 1574 on land acquired from the noble Xiberras
(She-bear-rahs) family, which gave its name to the steep
xebb-ir-ras peninsula on which Valletta stands. (...) Common
people, however, were denied access to "The Palace".
(...)
Not
strangers to the world of chivalry, the British instituted the
Order of St. Michael and St. George with ceremonial grounds in
Malta and Corfu. In Malta, one of the Palace's halls was renamed
for St. Michael and St. George. In Corfu, a namesake was built by
Maltese masons using Maltese stone.
The
British governors took pride in the Palace, which they inherited.
(...)
Carnival
has been celebrated since at least the middle of the 15th century.
(...) In 1639, Lascaris tried to forbid women from wearing masks,
under penalty of the lash, but buckled under strong dissent.
Unforgiving, Maltese women still use the phrase wi Laskri (face of
Lascaris) to describe a contemptuous man. In 1846, Governor
Stuart's attempt to prohibit Sunday masquerading was also
short-lived. In an effective, Maltese-style protest, horses and
goats were donned with carnival costumes and led into the streets
of Valletta. A large crowd, humorous even in the heated rage,
maintained that the governor's proclamation did not apply to
animals. Shortly after this incident, Stuart, a Scottish puritan
and strict sabbatarian, was replaced with O'Ferrall, a Roman
Catholic Irishman...
...Valletta
is tiny, its two coasts but ten short blocks apart, and the
steepness is all too obvious. As if to invoke heavenly help, some
of the stepped streets are named after saints. A not-so-pious
Maltese saying - ghan-nizla kull qaddis jghin (all saints rush to
help as long as the going is downhill or where are the saints when
you need them?) - fits Triq San Gwann, Triq Santa Lucija, and the
other stepped streets well. Lord Byron echoed such sentiments in
his unflattering Farewell to Malta:
Adieu,
ye cursed streets of stairs!
(How
surely he who mounts you swears.)
After
clearing customs and quarantine, visitors had to climb the "cursed
streets" under the watchful eye of a round sentry box. They were
harassed by mendicants crying nix mangiare ("nothing to eat" in
German-Italian slang). Early 20th century writers referred to the
first stepped street as the Nix Mangiare
Steps.
...
One date that still exhumes public indignation is June 7, 1919. One
of five state holidays, this is remembered as Sette Giugno, Italian
being the prevailing language at the time. The language question is
crucial to the understanding of the British era in Malta. The
failure to make English the predominant language in Malta was one
of the reasons why England disbanded the Maltese Council, why
London delayed Malta's political emancipation, why British soldiers
fired into a crowd demonstrating for self-government and cheaper
bread, killing four.
2.
FURJANA
(FLORIANA)
(...) 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. (...)
3.
SLIEMA
(...) 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. (...)
4.
GZIRA
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.
5.
TA'XBIEX
(...) 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. (...)
6.
MSIDA
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.
(...)
7.
PJETÀ
The old town is tal-Pjetà (stress on last syllable), a coastal
stretch between Furjana and Msida..
.... The new face is Gwardamangia, a steep hill occupying a
promontory formed by the two creeks. Such prime real estate could
have easily become the domain of some rich nobleman or ruler. Not
quite so. It is said that in the days of the knights the land
belonged to a servant (...). In more recent times Villa
Guardamangia hosted English worthies such as Princess Elizabeth and
her husband Philip. On her latest visit in 1992, the now Queen
Elizabeth II requested to visit the villa where, it is believed,
she conceived her son Charles, current heir to the British
throne.Today the views of the hill are enjoyed by 3,000 ordinary
citizens, and the best area is reserved for St. Luke's General
Hospital. (...)
8.
HAMRUN
Hamrun was born as Ta' Braksja around 1500 and christened with its
present name in 1881. In between, it lived the life of a fragmented
village within the parishes of Birkirkara, Furjana and Qormi, and
was known by the Italian name of its main road - Via San Giuseppe
(Triq il-Kbira San Guzepp).
The transformation of Hamrun from a disjointed village into the
large, busy town it is today started in the middle of the 19th
century (...). It matured between 1881 and 1931, when the
population zoomed from 4,960 to 22,086 to validate the town's motto
Propera Augesco (I Grow Rapidly). (...)
When parish status became imminent in the 1860s and 70s, the
expected patron was Saint Joseph, whose devotion the residents had
cherished since the early 1600s. But Bishop Cajetan Pace Forno
opted for his namesake. (...) Il- Hamrun, a family nickname, was
adopted in 1848. The first official record of the new name was made
in 1878 and the church adopted it in 1881 with the establishment of
the new parish. (...)
9.
MARSA
During colonial days, the Maltese resented the way the British
requisitioned the best parts of their country. A case in point is
an area still referred to as il-Marsa ta' l-Inglizi (English
Marsa). In 1869, the British set up a country club with facilities
for horseback riding, rugby and polo. The rugby field has now been
converted to a full stadium and Maltese-style horse races compete
with the national soccer league for Sunday crowds. Names of streets
in the area attest to the importance of horse racing - Tigrija
(Race), Gerrejja (Jockeys), Serkin (Sulky), Haddied (Blacksmith),
Stalel (Stables) (...)
Marsa was a national museum before it was a town. In the first half
of the 17th century Gian Francesco Abela, "Father of Maltese
historiography", turned his five-room country house at Marsa into
Malta's first historical museum. Called Museo di San Giacomo, it
was considered a collection of hidden monuments of ancient Malta.
Abela's house is gone now, a power station occupying the site. But,
despite damage and looting, the treasure that he left forms the
basis of the National Archaeological Museum now located in
Valletta...
...When the Turkish forces invaded the islands in 1565 they camped
at Marsa to take advantage of the water. Anticipating this, Grand
Master De la Valette had directed the Order's doctor to poison
Marsa's wells. This action turned the enemy quarters into an
ill-equipped hospital, as dysentery threatened more Turkish lives
than Christian guns did. Ironically, part of the area where so many
Turks died was later purchased by the Turkish government to build
an Islamic Cemetery (1874). (...)
10.
RAHAL
GDID (PAOLA)
The hundred years between the building of Valletta and the plague
of 1676 were prosperous for the Maltese Islands. But prosperity fed
a problem: the harbour cities became overcrowded. During that
period the population of Kottonera (Birgu, Bormla and Isla) doubled
and that of Valletta skyrocketed. In the meantime an attractive
area between the two remained largely uninhabited. Today this area
is popularly known as Rahal Gdid (New Village), but it's not really
a village and it's not exactly new either.
(...) Paula (also written Paola and Pawla) is now home to 9,522
people - more than Valletta or any of the other fortified cities.
There is some light industry, but many of its residents make their
living at the historic dry dock facilities located at Kottonera,
where many pawlisti trace their roots to...
...The most important site of this archaeologically rich town was
uncovered in 1902 by workers digging the foundation of new houses
at al Saflieni, which lies in the vicinity of Ta' l-Gherien (Cave
Lands). Maybe this name is coincidental, but what was discovered
was an underground, three-storey, prehistoric structure built
partly into existing caves and used for several religious
functions, including burial. Every type of neolithic tool, from
flint scraper to mallet, is represented. Parthenon of the Maltese
stone age, it is known as Hypogeum, Greek for "beneath the ground",
its lowest chambers lying 34 feet below the surface.
11.
BORMLA
(COSPICUA)
(...) The Ottoman threat, though, did not end in 1565. Recurring
rumours of attacks forced the knights to spend much of their
remaining two centuries in Malta fortifying and refortifying every
vulnerable spot. As Furjana was built to shield Valletta, so was
Bormla designed as a second line of defence for the rest of
Kottonera, i.e. Birgu and Isla. This term - Kottonera - derives
from Grand Master Nicholas Cotoner (1663-80), the driving force
behind the fortifications. Cotoner's coat of arms, a cotton tree,
is portrayed on Bormla's emblem above the motto Ingens Amplectitur
Agger (Embraced by Bastions).
This motto is a perfect description of Bormla's history. As the
population grew, Bormla was wrapped with a wall, then another. To
acknowledge its leading role, Grand Master Zondadari renamed the
city Città Cospicua (1721), a name that is still in use.
(...)
Another strength of this city-fort is its faith. Again, Bormla's
rise to fame started rock-bottom - inside a rock, actually. An
early centre of devotion was just a cave dedicated to Our Lady of
Succour but known also as St. Helen (Santa Liena). The devotion to
this saint, responsible for the name of the nearby city gate, is
due to a corruption of Chantereine, which sounds like Santa Liena.
This was the city by which Pietro De la Fontaine, the knight who
founded the church in 1557, was known.
There are other churches of old. Saint Theresa Church and Priory
(1626) are noted for a presepju (Christmas scene) which has been
featured on postal stamps. Mattia Preti and native son Rokku
Buhagiar are among the major painters here, while Francesco Zahra's
works adorn St. Margaret Church and Convent (1739) and St. Paul's
Church (1590, rebuilt 1741). (...)
12.
ISLA
(SENGLEA)
On January 10, 1941, the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious
staggered into the Grand Harbour. Damaged but not sunk after
repeated bombings, it anchored near Isla. But the enemy was on the
trail. Six days later low-flying German Stukas left 21 residents
dead, widespread devastation, and the church clock stuck at 2:15
pm, as if to record the onslaught. A monument commemorates the
victims of a war that severely tested the city's survival
instincts.
War and survival weren't new to Isla, which was undergoing its
second great siege. On their first school-day, the children of Isla
enter the walls of war. Fort St. Michael, whose gallantry saved
Malta from Suleyman's might in 1565, was torn down in 1922 to make
room for the city's elementary school. Isla's Main Gate cuts
through a bastion that once encased the fort.(...)
Another impressive bastion stands at the other end of town, at
il-Ponta ta' l-Isla (Isola Point). This is best known for a
frequently photographed vedette known as il-Gardjola ta' l-Isla.
Sculpted on one side of this gardjola is an eye, an ear on another,
a warning that the enemy can be seen and heard. An old Maltese
saying - l-ajru ghandu ghajnu u l-hajt ghandu widintu (the air can
see and the walls can hear) - is at times linked to this landmark.
During World War II this vedette was disassembled, stone by
numbered stone, and thus spared. (...)
Other outstanding citizens earned fame around the world. Seaman
Juan Bautista Azopardo (1772-1848) achieved the highest naval
honours in Argentina, where he is nothing short of a folk-hero.
Ship-builder Louis Schickluna (1808-80) took his native skills to
Ontario and became one of Canada's best.
Andrea De Bono (1821-1871), who traded ivory and explored part of
the White Nile, was falsely accused of being an inhumane slave
trader, but he defended himself valiantly and, in 1862, all charges
against him were dropped.
Isla also defended itself valiantly against plagues and invaders.
Thanks to its faith and determination, this gallant city
survives.
13.
BIRGU
(VITTORIOSA)
It was never officially a capital, yet Birgu (Vittoriosa) is the
epitome of a medieval capital city. Like Mdina, Valletta and Rabat,
the cities that served as capitals for Malta and Gozo, il-Birgu
consists of a heavily fortified citadel and a suburb across the
moat. Similar to the Italian Borgo and the Greek Pirgos, the
popular name was unique in the 15th century, when most localities
in the archipelago had Arabic ones. In 1530, when the Knights of
St. John arrived in Malta, Grand Master L'Isle Adam was given the
keys to Mdina amid great pomp, but it was from Birgu that the
Knights governed, leaving Mdina in the hands of the Maltese
nobility. (...)
In 1565, the invading Turks opted to do away with St. Elmo, the
fortress across the harbour in Valletta, before tackling the
brawnier St. Angelo. St. Elmo took over a month to fall and cost
the Turks 8,000 men. In a macabre tit-for-tat, the contemptuous
Turks floated the headless bodies of Christian prisoners across the
harbour and Grand Master Jean Parisot De la Valette fired the heads
of moslem prisoners from his cannons in Birgu toward the fallen St.
Elmo...
...De la Valette exhorted the defenders towards an astounding
victory that earned their city the name Vittoriosa (Victorious) and
the motto Victrix Palmam Fero (Victorious, the Palm I Bear).
(...)
St. Angelo's victory was not only Malta's victory but also
Europe's. Even protestant Queen Elizabeth I had expressed fear for
her Britain when the Ottoman empire attacked Malta. London
celebrated with bells and fireworks and prayers of thanksgiving
were read for six weeks.The fort's cemetery holds the remains of
the fallen, their graves covered by the Land Caltrops (Tribulus
Terrestris). Legend claims that this flower feeds on the blood of
the Great Siege heroes. Nature seems to support this tender fable.
The flower resembles the eight-pointed Maltese Cross.
14.
KALKARA
Kalkara is like the fourth member of a trio. Though excluded from
the Kottonera group of cities (Birgu, Bormla and Isla), Kalkara is
economically and historically an integral part of the area.
The war between the cross and the crescent four centuries ago was
fought mainly at Forts St. Elmo and St. Angelo. The former fell,
the latter carried the day. Both St. Elmo, rebuilt and standing
proudly in Valletta, and St. Angelo, Birgu's symbol of
magnificence, still bask in that triumph.
Today Kalkara has its fortress too, thus completing a formidable
triangle of strongholds at the entrance of the Grand Harbour. But
during the Great Siege of 1565 Kalkara was barren and in enemy
hands. Still, it performed its daring part, dispatching
replacements and supplies under cover of darkness. Kalkara was thus
the lifeline that kept the defenders going. It is the unsung hero
of the Great Siege.
Kalkara's relief at the end of the siege is portrayed in a moving
piece of folklore. In a gesture of thanksgiving, a knight planted
his sword in the ground in the image of a cross and knelt before
it. Moved by his example, the people erected a large cross on the
site of a church which the battle had destroyed but which was
rebuilt soon after on orders by Grand Master De la Valette.
..If anything looks out of the ordinary, it could be a 20-metre
iceberg or some other special effect built at the Mediterranean
Film Studios. Here the traditional shipbuilding skills of the
Maltese have been solicited to generate replicas and scale models
of venerated vessels such as the Titanic and the Santa
Maria.
END OF BOOK
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We
would like to thank Charles Fiott for granting us
permission to publish the above excerpts.
'Award of Excellence' received from StudySphere (July 2006)