Cospicua : the need for a sustained effort

Abstract

The city of Cospicua is geographically situated at the edge of a sheltered deepwater harbour. Historically the sea area that kissed Bormla's doorstep abounded in fish, its harbours offered scenes of clanking masts and spars, while its quays hosted fishermen patiently mending nets and caulking their boats. During the Knights' period, it developed into a proud angle of the harbour towns and from 1722 it began to flaunt the title of Civitas Cospicua bestowed onto this town by the reigning Grand Master of the time, Marc' Antonio Zondadari. Cospicua was insulated from the rest of Malta by a vast countryside dominating its hinterland, dotted by isolated makeshift villages whose main attraction was a modest parish church and very few summer palatial residences for Malta's bourgeoisie.