Cospicua Favorites

Favorite thing: The drydocks are Malta's largest industrial enterprise. There are seven docks in all with Cospicua joining Senglea to Vittoriosa at the head of Dockyard Creek behind Dock No.1, built in 1848. The largest is Dock No. 6 built by Chinese experts some years ago and can take the largest tankers and cruise liners in the world. The smallest Dock is No. 7 built by the Maltese. During a harbour cruise, which started from Sliema, we saw one of the large cruise ships of the Saga line in for a refit.

Favorite thing: Cospicua is surrounded by fortifications - we saw quite a few of these as we were walking through Cospicua to get to Vittoriosa and now wish I'd taken some pics of them. Originally a fishing village Cospicua's importance increased with the arrival of the Knights of St. John. The Port of Cospicua had docks constructed and became a leading docking centre for ship repair used by the knights and also used especially during the second world war. Today they looked in a sad forlorn state.

Favorite thing: Today Cospicua is an important market centre in the heart of the dockland. The war damaged houses are being rebuilt and gradually residents are returning here. Balconied houses, typical through Malta, can be seen here. We strolled through residential areas and past schools and local shops where we brought a drink - it was thirsty work with the walking around the three cities. We past the Bastions (built for protection ogf teh cities after the Great Siege) and before we knew it we were walking through the gate entrance to Vittoriosa. Now thats an area which does deserve more time in and its own page :-)

Favorite thing: Cospicua is the largest and youngest of the three cities. It is more commonly known to the Maltese as, Bormla - virtually all the signs you will see refer to this name rather than Cospicua and why we didn't really know we were here:-S. The city became known as Cospicua (i.e. the Conspicuous) because of its valiant role it played during the siege of 1565. We thought it was Conspicuous by its absence though as we hadn't realised we passed through it!