Malta Culture 365

Iż-Żejtun is another of the older Maltese villages and has Phoenician and Roman origins. It was originally know as Terra Santa Catarina and was much larger than the current local council designation since it included a substantial part of the south eastern part of Malta, up to Cottonera. Up until 1680, Żejtun primarily had two separate residential communities: Bisqallin which is still known as Ir-Raħal t’Isfel and Ħal Ġwann and Ħal Bisbut, known as Ir-Raħal ta’ Fuq. In the eighteenth century when the new parish church was constructed between these the two communities, the present urban conglomeration was formed and Żejtun as we know it today came into being. The last Grandmaster of the order during their time in Malta conferred the title of Citta Beland to Żejtun, his mother's surname in 1797. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, there is a digital map which you can use to follow the route.  This walk around Żejtun starts off not from the parish church but from Aedis Danielis ...

Salt is one of the ancient commodities such that it brought prosperity to places where it was available. It was deemed to be so important that Roman legionaries were given part of their wages in salt, resulting in a word we still use to this day: salārium or salary. The origins of salt production around the Maltese Islands are unknown, which leads one to assume that the production of this primary good from a renewable source has been established from well before the formalisation of its production by the Knights. The name of the locality of Mellieħa comes from the salt pans originally extant in the vicinity of Għadira which are denoted as saline vecchie (old salt pans) in maps produced during the time of the Knights in Malta. Gian Franġisk Abela refer to them as primitive pans in his 1647 publication and from the description it appears they were located more or less where the bird sanctuary is today. One of the fresco paintings of the Great siege by Perez d'Aleccio  in the Grandma...