My town has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately, and it has garnered quite a rough reputation over the years – culminating in a web of criminal activity. Yet my town, Marsa, has been a historic centre of activity since earliest times, and it has a very colourful story which includes all periods of Malta’s history. This part of Marsa has been mostly forgotten, although it should be kept alive as a monument to what this town was.

– Marsa was one of the first harbours in Malta. A Roman harbour existed at Qwabar Creek measuring 1500 ft.

– Marsa contributed to the defeat of the Ottomans during the Great Siege of 1565. 30,000 Turks camped in Marsa during their siege of Valletta since Marsa is roughly a mile away from Fort Saint Elmo and also close to Birgu. During the siege, La Vallette had an idea – he knew that Marsa held natural wells which contained potable water, and guessing that these would be used by the enemy, he instructed Doctor Kamillu Rossi to poison them. It is said that the day after the siege ended, Marsa became a hospital overnight – full of the wounded in battle, as well as the poisoned, who were viciously eviscerated.

– When the British started works on building the port at Marsa – what is now known as il-Menqa – several archaeological artefacts were collected from the sea. Among these were marble columns, pottery vases, and baths. A part of Malta’s historical heritage suffered an ill-fate during the building of the port; a megalithic temple was completely annihilated to make way for the commercial harbour and dock yard. Had this been preserved, Marsa would have had its own megalithic temple!

– The name ‘Marsa’ comes from the Arabic word for harbour. This can be seen in other harbour towns such as Marsaskala, Marsaxlokk, Marsamxett, and Marsalforn. This ancient name confirms the fact that this town had been used as a harbour since its foundation. The megalithic temple found on Kordin Hill (now destroyed, as explained above) as well as structures dating back to Roman times also prove that the town was significant in antiquity – so much so that ancient peoples felt a need to be based here.

– Grandmaster Pinto built the wharf in Marsa (which stretches all the way to Valletta Waterfront) using funds ‘borrowed’ from the Church of All Souls in Valletta. The brothers of the Church never got anything in return of the funds, and when they demanded payment in name of the souls that the church was dedicated to, Pinto replied, ‘I’ll repay them when I see them” #douchebagPinto

– The father of Maltese written history, Gian Frangisk Abela owned a villa in Marsa, precisely on top of Qortin Hill, or what is now known as Jesuit’s Hill. This villa’s entrance was flanked by the famed ċippi which contained the inscriptions in Punic and Greek which cracked the code of the language of the Phoenicians.

– All the Marsin know that the Trinity Church was built by the benefactors Lorenzo and Carmela Balbi – they loom over anyone who strolls by Balbi Street, him solemnly holding his hat, her plopped in a chair. But few know that Mrs. Balbi had promised the first bride to be wed in her newly built church the sum of £10 – equivalent to €300 today.

– The façade of the Trinity church was completely ruined in 1942, after a bomb fell on it during WWII. Most of Marsa was in ruins at the time, as the area was being bombed constantly.

– Maria Regina Church was built after a miracle witnessed by the priest of the Trinity Church while he was in Syracuse. On the 29^th August, 1953, Antoinetta Giusta lay ill in bed on the brink of death, when she saw tears falling from the statue of the virgin Mary which hung above her bed. Fr. Feliċjan Bilocca was there to witness this miraculous event, and set his heart on building a church to the Madonna of Tears (Madonna tad-Dmugħ). The name was changed to Maria Regina after it was deemed unethical to celebrate a Madonna with such a mournful title.

– Marsa has a close connection to Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. During British rule, the harbour area flourished, and it was decided that a new town must be built to accommodate the harbour workers. This new town was created on the Ċejlu area, now mostly known as il-Marsa tal-Ingliżi. Albert Town is now mostly used as an alternative route to Aldo Moro Road, to avoid traffic. This town was almost called Victoria Town, however, since Malta already had a town called Vittoriosa, it was settled that the new town would be named after the Prince.

– San Ġorġ Preca was very fond of the Marsa cross found on the aptly named Cross Road, near Bank of Valletta. He recalled that once, while he was passing near ‘Croce Marsa’ he saw a boy pushing a cart full of rubbish, which he was pulling by a yellow and white rope. The boy demanded help from the priest in a commanding voice, yet when San Ġorġ went to help him, the boy was nowhere to be seen. The saint considered this vision to be a personification of Jesus.

– An Ancient Greek inscription was found in Marsa by the famed Gian Frangisk Abela from an ancient burial site known as il-Gżira. This inscription states (in the translation by Dr Joyce Reynolds of Newnham College, Cambridge): Burial place purchased from Zosimetis and Anicetos. Marketing funeral services in antiquity was quite a macabre affair!

From Bliet u Rħula Maltin by Alfie Gullaumier & The Study of Maltese Paleo-Christian Catacombs by Mario Buhagiar