Comino, so desolate, yet so rich a part of Malta's story

This is the first guest post from Evarist Bartolo, Shadow Minister for Education and a lecturer in communications at the University of Malta. More than 30 years ago, he taught one of Malta Inside Out’s founders, Alex Grech, to write and appreciate English literature.

There are at least 500 islands in the Mediterranean. One of them has six inhabitants: four men and two women. The youngest is a 42-year old man; the oldest is a woman, twice his age.

Throughout the last 23 centuries pirates, hermits, prisoners of war, exiled knights, farmers and tourists have settled the island. Some 80 years ago, one of the German prisoners of World War I held there, built a water mill driven by a rat. Apart from rats, bats and wild rabbits, most of the inhabitants there have been pigs.

2,500 years ago, the navigator Scillace called it ‘Lampas’. Cluverius called it ‘Hephaestia’. 1,800 years ago Ptolemy referred to it as ‘Chemmona’. ‘Kineni’ in Greek means nearest to and Comino lies nearest to Malta. The Arabs called it ‘Kemmuna’ perhaps a corruption of the Greek word, or a reference to the plant of ‘kemmun’ (cumin) which covered large areas of the island at the time.

In 1285, Abulafia, one of the earliest Cabalists and born in Saragossa in 1240, arrived on Comino to live there for three years during which he compiled his “Sefer ha-Ot” (The Book of the Sign).

Five years before he found refuge in Comino, Abulafia went to Rome to convert Pope Nicholas III to the ideal that Moslems, Jews and Christians could live together in harmony, instead of persecuting one another. He fled to Comino after being flung into prison for four weeks in Rome and then having to leave Palermo hastily as his teachings were considered too dangerous and he was going to be stoned by the people.

While Abulafia lived in a cave at one end of the island, at the other end pirates sheltered in the bays and caves which were excellent hiding places for them for many centuries. We know of at least two local hermits who lived there for some time. A small Catholic community must have lived there over 600 years ago, big enough to sustain a medieval chapel.

The island was probably abandoned when the raids by corsairs became frequent, as the inhabitants had no fortifications in which to seek refuge. In the 15th century, taxes had been collected by imposing an excise duty on wine imported from Sicily but the money was not used for the tower that had been planned for Comino. In 1533 Grand Master l’Isle Adam also commissioned a plan for a tower on the island but again this project fizzled out.

Grand Master Wignacourt built the existing tower in 1620 and 30 soldiers were stationed there. At this time, knights who had misbehaved in Malta were punished by being sent to Comino.

The island was to serve as a prison camp on a number of occasions. At the end of the French occupation, Comino was used for French prisoners, Maltese who were accused of spying for the French and common criminals.

150 years ago, farmers from Naxxar settled on Comino and started growing crops. The 1881 population census for the Maltese Islands tells us that 20 males and 13 females lived in Comino. Ten years later, the population had increased by 10: 25 males and 18 females. Nearly half of the inhabitants, 17, were children under the age of five.

In 1912, Comino served as a site for an isolation hospital for cholera victims. Soldiers wounded in the war of the Dardanelles were also sent to Comino for treatment. The hospital building still stands there.

Several times during the last 200 years there were several big projects to make use of Comino, including a big pig farm in 1993, when the island was considered ideal to rebuild the Maltese and Gozitan pig industry after African swine fever disease destroyed it.

Comino is a small rock that has seen almost as many twists and turns of fate as its larger sister islands. These days, apart from its six residents, it’s home to one hotel, seasonal staff and tourists, numerous sea craft and a very popular blue lagoon.

Photo: Therese Debono

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A far cry from Malta's regular baroque churches, but draws a packed house

At Malta InsideOut, we’re starting a section of insider views on Malta and Gozo’s town and villages. It’s all well and good to read the brief guidebook entries, but nothing beats the views of someone living in the localities themselves. Here, in our first ‘my kinda town’ post, Andrew Galea Debono talks about Swieqi; a somewhat urban sprawl that nonetheless has its traditional bars and quainter aspects….

My Swieqi

What is Swieqi? Well, Swieqi is mainly a residential town, with a few hotels, tourist apartments and a couple of language schools thrown in. It is adjacent to the party area of St. Julian’s and Paceville and is easy walking distance for St. George’s sandy beach, and around a 20-minute walk from the beginning of the charming Sliema promenade.

I’ve been living, on and off, in this town for 25 years or so. Well, to be fair, the area I live in was previously known as St. Andrews but has been engulfed by ever-expanding Swieqi until the two towns became one. Swieqi also includes the areas of Madliena and Ta’ l-Ibrag. Like almost every other Maltese town, Swieqi (with a population of around 8,200 people) has grown rapidly over the years – an urban development which, more often than not, has been far from pleasing to the eye.

Geography
Having said that, Swieqi (close to, but not touching, the coast of the north-eastern part of the island) still has its charms. To one side is the valley of St. Anthony, a part of which has been saved by the obnoxious urban expansion, where it is still possible to enjoy relatively quiet walks. In springtime, the valley is particularly green and has lovely views of the sea. There are a couple of farms by the valley, one of which sells fresh agricultural products.

History & Places of Interest
Compared to other Maltese towns, there is very little history to Swieqi. Most of the existing sites can be found in Madliena: the Victoria Lines, Madliena Fort, the Batteria San Giovanni and the Madliena Chapel. Looking for these sites is an enjoyable stroll among luxurious villas and fields. The only other historical buildings are the British Army barracks dating back from the 2nd part of the 19th Century, which can be found on the border between St. Andrew’s and Pembroke.

The most famous bar would probably be Jessie Bar, right in front of the Luxol St. Andrews football ground. Jessie Bar has been around since the time of the British regiments in Malta, who used to visit from the barracks close by. Luxol Football Club premises not only offers people a chance to hire out one of their 5-a-side football pitches or have a pizza and beer whilst watching a game on the big screen inside their bar. From time to time, the main football ground is used for some of Malta’s biggest concerts – hosting the likes of Roger Waters, Brian Adams, Zucchero and the famous Maltese tenor, Joseph Calleja.

The Swieqi parish church, in the Ta’ l-Ibrag area, is dedicated to ‘The Immaculate Conception Mother of the Church’. Being a somewhat new town, with the majority of its population coming from other parts of the country, Swieqi does not really celebrate its feast (commemorated on 8th December) except for a mass and small procession. The church is a modern building, it’s first stone being laid in 1964, and is built in a very minimalistic style. It’s far from being one of Malta’s most impressive Churches with regards its artistic value, but the Sunday Mass – especially a Mass in English at around noon – is very popular with believers from other parts of the island.

My favourite things to do in Swieqi

• taking a stroll to the top part of St. Anthony’s valley and enjoying the sea view below
• taking a beer surrounded by the colourful characters at Jessie Bar
• eating pizza at the Brewmaster (surely one of the best pizzas on the island)
• playing some football at Luxol Football club and having a drink afterwards
• walking to the nearby town Paceville for some nightlife or to Pembroke for a more relaxed walk near the sea at dusk.

What I dislike most about my town
The senseless and tasteless construction of multi-story buildings in the area, and the rowdy drunken youths in the lower part of Swieqi going home after a night of boozing.

How to get there
From Valletta you can catch buses 64 (stopping at the upper part of Swieqi), 67, 68 (which keeps on going to Bahar Ic-Caghaq) and 671 (which is an ‘express’ bus passing through the quickest route).
From Bugibba / Marsaxlokk (via University and the Three Cities) you can catch bus 627
From Sliema / Cirkewwa (via Mellieha and St. Pauls’ Bay) catch bus 645.
From Sliema / Bugibba catch bus 70 (operational only in Winter months).
From Sliema / Golden Bay (via Bugibba) catch bus 652.
Bus 675 commutes between Swieqi, Sliema, the Univesity and Mater Day Hospital.

Photo: Andrew Galea Debono

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A cloud on the horizon of summer

When you get to late August, you’re expecting it. The first storm that heralds the end of summer. Not that temperatures plummet or that summer is over by any means. But, once we’ve had the first deluges – which occur any time between mid August and mid September – then, for the Maltese, summer is ‘over’.

Today, saw parts of Malta get their first real taste of rain since around early May. Anyone in Valletta shopping this morning would have been soaked. But, my neck of the woods got a mere rumble of thunder, some threatening skies, and not a drop to drink for my dehydrated garden. Small though Malta is we still get localised storms. Half the island was praying for rain, half the island experienced it and wished it hadn’t! So harsh is our rain when it comes. It’s nearly always in the guise of an electric storm.

Water is always a hotly-debated topic in Malta. The islands are the ninth thirstiest country in the world if you calculate consumption per capita. So it’s little wonder that we have priests praying for water (as happened, ironically, two winters ago when the rains failed). We have people researching water conservation, and come winter, we’ll have people moaning about water-filled potholes. Children get lectured to save it as water metres whirr with each passing shower; while parents bemoan the high-priced water bills. Water bowser men struggle in the heat and warn of dwindling supplies from their bore-holes (those mysterious sources that plummet the depths to find Malta’s few remaining aquifers).

Water, water everywhere surrounds us in the form of sea, so the islands have been pioneers in reverse osmosis (an expensive and energy-intensive way to generate water). Old houses have their wells or reservoirs under courtyards to catch each drop from our flat roofs. But most new-builds and tower blocks aren’t built to save the rain.

In Malta, we like to joke about the British having an obsession with weather, but rain is as popular a topic here, if not more so, than in any northern European climate. It’s just not possible to be half-hearted about the subject of rain and water when you live on a small rock made of limestone that sees most of its water drain back into the sea. And rain, when it does come, is also not half hearted as it is nearly always in the form of a violent storm.

If you want a more analytical low-down on Malta’s water issues and controversies visit this link for an excellent article by Marco Cremona. Marco has been shortlisted for the Good Entrepreneur, a pan-European competition organised by CNBC for business plans or ideas that will create a greener future for generations to come.

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