In Malta, it won’t take long before someone tells you that Valletta is the ‘new’ capital city and Mdina is the ‘old’ one. Few know that the same thing almost happened in Gozo, Malta’s second island. Tourists in Gozo end up touring the main sights – the Citadella, the Ġgantija temples, Ramla Bay. Maltese visitors who take the 30-minute ferry tend to add one more place to that list: Marsalforn.
The mysterious Ġgantija temples are not far from here.
The Name
‘Marsa’ is an old Arabic word meaning port. Anyone familiar with the geography of the island knows Malta has a few other coastal towns with ‘marsa‘ in their names. These towns were – and still are – ports and the Arabic influence on Malta is visible in these names. For Marsalforn, it is likely the name refers to the name of a type of ship1.
The Illyrian tribes2 who lived in what are the present-day Albania were well-known as shipbuilders and ruled the Adriatic sea2. The Greeks employed Illyrian ship builders to build their navies. They called the ships ‘Liburna’; these were light ships with one row of oars, one sail and a twisted prow2. Being light meant they were useful in battle and on pirate raids.
The Arabs called these boats ‘Lifurna’. These boats were especially used by the Roman Navy2. Given Malta’s vast maritime history, the Lifurna ships must have made their way here. While not definitive, it is very likely that ‘Marsalforn’ means ‘The Port of Lifurna ships’1.
The capital that almost was
Marsalforn has a harbour that made it an obvious choice for ships heading north. North-west winds are a drawback but this still was the primary port for shipments from Sicily1.
The Knights of St John used the port so much they thought it would be a good idea transfer the capital of the island here from the land-locked Citadel. Grandmaster Lascaris ordered military engineer Giovanni de’ Medici to draw up plans.
On 21 June 1643, the Grandmaster visited Gozo to see for himself what the new capital city would look like1. de’ Medici’s plans impressed him with an impregnable fortress overlooking Marsalforn1. The Knights drew up the necessary contracts and asked the Pope for permission to finance this through a levy on Gozitan wheat1.
The Gozitans protested about this, claiming they were too poor to pay this extra tax1. They also weren’t happy about having to transfer their homes away from the Citadel to this new capital1. The Pope sympathised with these objections and refused to let the locals be taxed1.
The Knights didn’t have the funds to do this on their own so, as a result, they abandoned the project1.
If the Knights had their way, Gozo too would have had a ‘new’ and an ‘old’ capital city.