Stop 11 of 16
Cospicua & the Cottonera Lines
A wall for a siege that never came
Free to hear. You have 3 of three free stops left, on any tours.
Guide to Cospicua & the Cottonera Lines
Cospicua is the least visited of the three towns and is wrapped in the largest fortification in Malta. The Cottonera Lines were begun in 1670 to shelter the island's entire rural population inside them in the event of another siege, and were never attacked once.
Five kilometres of wall
Work started in 1670 for Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner to a design by the Italian engineer Antonio Maurizio Valperga. The enceinte runs in a great arc behind all three cities with eight bastions and several gates.
The intention was explicit: if a second Great Siege came, the rural population of Malta and their animals would be brought inside this line and held there.
A monument to a war that never came
It cost a fortune, was never brought to completion as drawn, and no army ever came at it. The Mediterranean had rearranged itself in the meantime, and the Ottoman danger that justified the whole undertaking had faded before the walls were tested.
The greatest work of fortification the Order ever built therefore commemorates a war that did not happen — which, in fairness, is what deterrence looks like when it works.
The price of being next to a dockyard
Cospicua was among the most heavily bombed towns in Malta, and a great deal of what stands is post-war rebuilding.
Look for the older houses surviving between the newer blocks, and for the dockyard gates, still in place and still enormous.
What to look at
- The scale of the bastion faces — several storeys of dressed stone
- Notre Dame Gate, also called Żabbar Gate, the main opening in the line, with Cotoner’s arms
- Post-war housing beside the few pre-war survivors
Practical
- Terrain
- This stretch is the least scenic of the walk and involves roads with traffic.
- Shortcut
- If time is short, a bus or taxi from Cospicua to Senglea saves fifteen minutes.
Walk to stop 12 · The Immaculate Conception, Cospicua
From the gate, follow the mapped pavement route back down through Cospicua towards the creek. The twin bell towers ahead belong to the collegiate church; stop in front of it.
About 15 min · 927 m
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