Tal-Koccla territory : understanding the genesis of the Maltese suburb of il-Fgura at the outskirts of the Cottonera harbour towns (1842-1925)

Abstract

The urban zone, now known as il-Fgura, started spreading like a fungus a few decades ago, but the appearance of the first lined houses in the area dates back two centuries. It was in the middle of the nineteenth century that this district began to develop into a marginal suburb of the harbour town of Bormla, which is one of the three towns situated in the south-east of the Grand Harbour. However, if one wants to unearth the history of il-Fguta's remote past, i.e. before the sixteenth century, one has to rely mainly on archaeological evidence and from what has been unearthed one can try to make an interpretative reading of the habitation patterns and use of the land of the area for the period which lacks written historical evidence. After all, very few, if any conclusions can be drawn from archaeology as this area has been savagely built up and like other places close to it, development was undertaken regardless of the historical remains. The latter were either destroyed or sold on the market. Thus, in the unearthing of recondite historical figures, the major evidence about il-Fgura's past can only be drawn from surviving written information and oral traditions; it should be stressed that unfortunately archaeology in this particular case cannot be used as a substitute.