Stop 12 of 16
The Immaculate Conception, Cospicua
The church the bombs missed
Keep going
Stop one of The Three Cities plays straight away. The other 15 are one payment:
- Every stop from here to The Gardjola, narrated
- The map following you from stop to stop, hands free
- The whole tour saved to your phone — no signal, no roaming
Not sure yet? Start with Vittoriosa Waterfront.
The written guide below is open either way.
Guide to The Immaculate Conception, Cospicua
The parish church of Cospicua, a parish since 1584 and built up through the seventeenth century as the town grew around the Order’s galley yard. In 1941 and 1942 the town around it was flattened by bombing aimed at the dockyard; the church was not seriously hit, and much of the Three Cities’ art and archives survived the war inside it.
A dockyard parish
Bormla became a parish in 1584, a scatter of houses at the head of the creek, and its church grew with the town through the seventeenth century into a wide-fronted, twin-towered baroque parish church of the Maltese kind, plainer outside than in.
Standing when the town fell
From 1941 the naval dockyard next door was the most important target on the island. Cospicua, wrapped round it, took the bombs meant for both. Whole streets went and the population was evacuated inland for years. The church was not seriously hit, and the town has its own explanation for that which owes nothing to engineering.
The town was rebuilt outward from this square through the late 1940s and 1950s, quickly and cheaply, which is why Cospicua is a baroque church, a few old streets and a great deal of post-war housing. The feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December is Cospicua’s day, with fireworks over the creek.
What to look at
- The twin bell towers, a landmark from the water
- Post-war building on every side of the square
- The dockyard cranes visible down the hill, the reason for everything here
Practical
- Opening
- A working parish church, free to enter outside services.
- Terrain
- Steps and a slope down to the dock from here.
Walk to stop 13 · Dock No. 1
Take the steps and lanes down the hill to the waterfront. Dock No. 1 is the long stone basin at the head of the creek; stand on the quay beside it.
About 6 min · 359 m