COTTONERA AT A GLANCE
Even before the Knights of St John first set foot on the Islands, this is where Malta met the world trading with ports across the Mediterranean. A few hamlets of fishermen and sailors mingled with craftsmen and merchants to create a lively maritime hub where new ideas and learning thrived.
Whilst most of the population eked out a meagre existence tilling the land, the shipyard and naval forces offered employment and an opportunity to see the world.
The area is named after Fra’ Nicolás Cotoner y del Oleza, a Spanish Grand Master who commissioned a set of defences called the Cottonera Lines. These walls wrapped around the three cities and the Santa Margherita Lines, shielding them from land-facing attacks.
Map of Cottonera
Get ready to explore a courageous coastline steeped in history and adventure! Meet a hardy and resilient people who survived two great sieges and reinvented themselves and their homes time and time again.
Bertu, our boatman, has just picked you up in his dgħajsa tal-pass, the iconic Maltese sea craft. Steady on as you find your sea legs and your seat! It can be a bit wobbly. As we leave Valletta behind us and make the short ferry trip across the Grand Harbour, the region of Cottonera looms ahead of us.
Birgu Yacht Marina (Birgu left & Isla right)
Two peninsulas jut out, like tongues licking the deep blue Mediterranean sea, their yellow limestone bastions and ramparts soaring into the sky, glinting golden under the summer sun.
On the left is the city of Birgu, or Vittoriosa as it was called, after beating all the odds in the Great Siege of 1565. Look up at where the flags of Fort St Angelo are fluttering close to St Anne’s Chapel.
The Knights of St John made this their headquarters when they arrived in Malta in 1530, along with a small community of families fleeing from the island of Rhodes. They fortified the old Castrum Maris (castle by the sea) on the tip of the peninsula, dug a ditch between the Castrum and Birgu and constructed a wall around the medieval Borgo. Before the Knights moved to the new capital city of Valletta, this is where they first established the auberges they lived in, their hospital (The Sacra Infermeria, now the Monastery of Santa Scolastica) and their law courts (the Castellania, later to become the Inquisitor’s Palace).
Vittoriosa has been populated since ancient times. The Phoenicians and Romans possibly built a sanctuary for their Gods here, and the Normans and Hohenstaufen protected the promontory with a small tower at the end of the 12th century, which later evolved into the Castrum-Maris. The Angevins and the Aragonese fought over the castle following the fortunes of the Islands’ Sicilian overlords. Under the British, the fort was commissioned as a stone frigate and known as HMS St Angelo!
Isla or Senglea occupies the peninsula on your right. It was built by the Grand Master Claude de la Sengle, who gave the city its name. Previously, it was known as L’Isola di San Giuliano because of a small chapel dedicated to St Julian located there. Foundations were quickly laid for Fort St Michael, and a wall facing Corradino Heights was built in preparation for the expected invasion. Isla managed to resist the brunt of the Ottoman onslaught and was given the title Città Invicta (undefeated city). If you were to peek out on your left from one of the ‘Gardjoli’ or sentry boxes, up there perched upon Isla’s bastions, you would be looking down at French Creek. The British constructed five new drydocks here between 1861 and 1909 as naval traffic to and from India increased with the opening of the Suez Canal.
Hey! My friend Anġlu is waving at us. Sculpted in stone above the sentry box he is waving from, you might just make out various symbols of watchfulness. Look, can you see the shape of an eye, of an ear? And possibly that of a crane, too? Well, there’s not much for Anġlu to guard nowadays, now that ‘we can rest in ease’ as the inscription says, which is why he is usually asleep!
Okay, we’re getting closer, so we’ve got Birgu and Isla right in front of us. On the other side of Birgu, overlooking Kalkara Creek and the Church of St Joseph, there’s the old Royal Naval Hospital Bighi with its classical colonnades on the hill. Originally a summer palace for the knight Fra Giovanni Bichi, it is now part of ‘Esplora’, an exciting interactive science centre, and also the head office and conservation laboratories of Heritage Malta.
Fort Ricasoli, across from Bighi, protects the entrance to the Grand Harbour on this side, and if you’re feeling hot and sticky, you can stop for a refreshing dip at Rinella Bay, a sandy inlet at the mouth of Rinella Valley below Bighi.
We are now entering Galley Creek or Porto delle Galere. The swanky hotel on your right was once the Malta Labour Party Club headquarters, but before that, il-Maċina, as it was known, was used to raise masts and lower them into galleys anchored beneath. Just ahead, between Birgu on our left and Isla on our right, and connecting the two fortified peninsulas, lies the city of Bormla or Cospicua. During the Great Siege, you would not have been able to enter this creek, as a great chain tied from Birgu to Isla prevented Ottoman boats from barging through.
Villa Bighi, Kalkara
In Phoenician times, ‘Maleth’, meaning ‘port’ or ‘refuge’ was the name given to both Malta and Bormla. One of the oldest buildings in this area is a rock-hewn chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Succours near St Helen’s Gate. Right in the inner part of Galley Greek, the first dry dock was constructed in 1844 by the architect William Scamp, replacing ‘Is-Suq’, the old marketplace. During the Second World War, the drydocks and three cities were heavily bombed. Families were evacuated to the countryside, and anti-aircraft gunners worked around the clock to protect the ships that were being repaired in the dockyard. Casualties were high, and morale plummeted. But in Malta’s darkest hour, the tides of fortune began to change. On the 15th of August 1942, the remnants of Operation Pedestal limped into the Grand Harbour carrying fuel and ammunition and saving the Maltese from being starved into surrender.
SS Ohio entering the Grand Harbour
Senglea Peninsula
Birgu Waterfront
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine those troubled times. The creek is a bustling marina and promenade with restaurants and cafes offering every type of cuisine. Look at all these superyachts moored where once the galleons of the Knights bristled in the breeze, impatient to set out on the Corso, a lucrative ‘trade’ plundering the enemy ships of the infidel.
We’re almost there! The big building with the blue windows and the tall clock tower along the Birgu waterfront is the old Naval Bakery, also built by Scamp, and in its heyday, 17,500 rotoli (14,000 kg) of bread and biscuits were churned out by its ovens every day. The Order’s galley arsenal was demolished to make way for the bakery. Today, given its history, it is a fitting home for the Malta Maritime Museum. So this is where you get off. Careful now as you stand up!
Freedom Monument with St Lawrence Church
The monument on the man-made hill in front of you symbolises Malta’s struggle to achieve nationhood and freedom. After having been dominated over so many centuries by foreign powers, the monument commemorates the closing of the British military base in Malta on the 31 of March 1979. A British sailor bids farewell with a last handshake to a Maltese worker whilst the Maltese flag is being hoisted.
Behind the monument is the Church of St Lawrence, used by the Order of St John as their conventual church when they arrived on Malta’s shores, which brings us full circle.
Oh, here’s Salvu. He’s here to take you to the Inquisitor’s Palace close by. I hope you have enjoyed this brief introduction to my neighbourhood. Before you leave, remember to rummage through this website and learn more about Cottonera’s secrets and its fascinating history. Enter majestic buildings, encounter some soulful people along the way, and listen to our stories.
Cottonera: Three Cities behind Brother-in-Arms
The Three Cities – as Birgu, Bormla and Isla are collectively known – share the same story, and the importance of this story extends beyond the grand enceinte commissioned by Grand Master Nicholas Cotoner in 1670. It is key to a full appreciation of the island-state of Malta, in particular the past 500 years. Alongside Valletta, on the opposite flank of the Grand Harbour, the Three Cities acted as Malta’s gateway throughout the Order’s and British tenures. The arrival of the Order in 1530 metamorphosed Galleys’ Creek into a bustling maritime hub. Strong trade links with all major ports of the Mediterranean were forged, while hundreds of foreign craftsmen and businessmen mingled
with the local folk. For well over four centuries, Cottonera proved to be Malta’s multicultural hotspot.