Stop 10 of 16
Cospicua & the Santa Margherita Lines
A wall built in a hurry, then finished a century late
Free to hear. You have 3 of three free stops left, on any tours.
Guide to Cospicua & the Santa Margherita Lines
The inner of the two rings of fortification around the Three Cities, laid out in 1638 by the Dominican engineer Vincenzo Maculano da Firenzuola during a war scare, abandoned half-built, and finished only in 1736 with St Helen’s Gate. The town that grew inside, Cospicua, was the most heavily bombed in Malta in 1941 and 1942.
Begun in a panic
By 1638 the harbour towns had spread far beyond the walls that held in 1565. A war scare that year persuaded the Order to enclose Birgu and Senglea inside a line of bastions on the high ground behind them. The scare passed, the money ran out, and the walls stopped at waist height for eighty years.
Work resumed in 1716 and finished in 1736 with St Helen’s Gate, widely thought the finest gateway on Malta. The town inside was titled Città Cospicua, the conspicuous city, by the Grand Master in 1722.
The price of the dockyard
Cospicua sat at the head of Dockyard Creek beside the Royal Navy’s yard, and in 1941 and 1942 it was bombed more heavily than any other town on the island. The walls came through; most of the town inside them did not, and much of what stands today is post-war.
What to look at
- The bastion faces above the road, older at the base than at the top
- Post-war housing inside the walls, where the old town was
- The far larger Cottonera Lines on the ridge beyond, the next stop
Practical
- Terrain
- Uphill from here to the outer gate, on pavements shared with traffic.
- Shortcut
- The medium route turns back to the waterfront before this stop; only the full walk goes inland.
Walk to stop 11 · Cospicua & the Cottonera Lines
This is the inland fortifications extension, not the waterfront shortcut. Follow the mapped pavement route uphill through Cospicua to Notre Dame Gate. Cross roads only at the marked crossings and keep to the pavement; the walls are traffic routes here.
About 14 min · 885 m
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