Għaxaq, a farming village in the south east with its own hotel

Għaxaq looks daunting to type and hardly anyone searches for it, yet there’s more to it than first appears. It’s a farming village in south-east Malta with a baroque parish church you can see from a distance, a shell-covered house that Visit Malta describes as unique in the country and, unusually for this corner of the island, a licensed hotel.

Farmhouses a short hop from the airport

Visit Malta places it among the villages of the island’s south-eastern corner, near the airport, in an area that is still mostly agricultural. It describes a quiet village made up largely of farmhouses, some 300 years old or more, with a timeless feel. According to the same page, the small streets behind the parish church are the most charming and the most typical of an old Maltese village. That’s the walk I’d take without a map, letting the lanes lead me off the square.

The heritage group Wirt iż-Żejtun points out that more than 350 years ago Għaxaq was part of Żejtun, its neighbour to the east. That’s why the two sit so naturally together, and they fit into a single afternoon.

The Assumption and the house of shells

The parish church is dedicated to the Assumption. Visit Malta calls it a huge baroque structure from 1756 that dominates the skyline and holds works of art collected over roughly three centuries. I haven’t found published visiting hours, so reckon on seeing it from outside or around Mass times.

The oddity is in a nearby street. There you’ll find a house whose façade is covered in shells, pebbles and paintings, which the official page presents as a special feature of the village and unique in Malta. It doesn’t give the address, and I won’t invent one. The centre is small enough that asking in the square will do.

Who lives in Għaxaq

The NSO put the population at 5,975 at the end of 2025, 110 more than a year earlier. About one resident in eight is foreign, a low share for Malta, and at 1,551 people per km² it still has farmland on all sides. Statistically it sits in the South Eastern district, while its council’s website places it in the Southern Region. For Luqa council it lies on the east side, like Paola, Santa Luċija and Gudja.

On road signs and official lists you’ll see it as Ħal Għaxaq, with the article in front, just like Ħal Luqa or Ħal Tarxien. Letters such as ħ and għ are far less alarming once you know where they come from, and I go through them in my guide to the Maltese language.

A hotel where there are hardly any

On the MTA’s hotels register, Għaxaq has one, the three-star Palazzo Castagna with 26 rooms, plus 33 holiday lets. It may not sound like much, but the villages ringing the airport to the south, Luqa, Gudja, Kirkop and Safi, don’t have a single hotel listed. If you want to stay inland and would rather have a hotel than a flat, this is your option.

Is it worth it?

As a late-afternoon stop, yes, if you enjoy villages that still live for themselves. As a base, it depends on your trip. If you’re concentrating on the south, with the Tarxien Temples close by and the coast at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra not far, it works. If you want to stroll out to dinner and string museums together, Valletta will suit you better.