Ta' Qali Crafts Village, craft workshops on a wartime airfield

Ta’ Qali tells Malta’s story from an unexpected angle. Where you now buy a piece of pottery, RAF aircraft were taking off eighty years ago. The plain sits in the centre of the island, below Mdina, and Visit Malta places it within the limits of Attard. It’s also where Visit Malta sends you to buy Maltese souvenirs.

From airbase to crafts village

Visit Malta tells the story in some detail. Shortly before the Second World War a military airfield and Royal Air Force station was built here, which the British called RAF Ta Kali, and it stayed in use as an RAF base until the mid-1950s. After the RAF left, the area became a recreation ground, and many of the military huts and buildings were turned into workshops where Maltese craftsmen make their wares. That’s how the Ta’ Qali Crafts Village came about, which Visit Malta describes as a very popular attraction and an ideal place to buy Maltese souvenirs made by local experts.

Today the plain also holds the national football stadium, Ta’ Qali National Park and a national vegetable market. In summer 2026 its Concert Area hosted some big-name gigs too.

What to buy at Ta’ Qali

I need to be precise here. There’s no official list of workshops that I could find, and no common opening hours either. What I do have is that Visit Malta, on its local crafts page, lists a ceramics workshop in the Crafts Village, Alka Ceramics, and says Malta’s most precious production is filigree and jewellery. The Malta Aviation Museum, for its part, mentions glass and ceramics workshops a few minutes’ walk from the museum.

As for the well-known Mdina Glass, the brand’s website is a shop and doesn’t say where its workshop is, so I won’t place it here. My rule is simple. Buy where you can see people working, and ask where a piece was made. For a wider look at what to bring home, see my guide to Malta souvenirs.

The Aviation Museum

Next to the crafts village is the Malta Aviation Museum, a non-profit foundation set up on 1 November 1994 that restores aircraft to flying, taxiing or static display condition. It opens Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 17:00 and on Sundays 09:00 to 12:00, closing on several holidays including 10 February, Good Friday, 29 June and 15 August. Tickets are €9 for adults, €7 for seniors and students and €3 for children aged 3 to 12, and parking is free. Having the museum on the very airfield where the RAF flew gives it real meaning, and it ties in with what I cover in Malta in World War 2.

If you can only come once, I’d pick a Saturday. The museum is open until 17:00 and the farmers’ market runs all day, whereas on Sunday the museum closes at midday. For RAF enthusiasts, standing on the old airfield before going into the museum is part of the appeal.

Shopping with some judgement

My general advice for Malta souvenirs applies twice over here. Visit Malta calls filigree and jewellery Malta’s most precious production and lists ceramics workshops here, so those are what I’d look at first, with glass close behind. Ask whether a piece was made on site, compare a couple of workshops before buying anything expensive, and don’t feel you have to buy at the first door you walk through. The whole point of coming to Ta’ Qali rather than a Valletta gift shop is that you can see who made what.

Markets and getting there

The farmers’ market opens on Saturdays from 9:00 to 17:00 and Tuesdays from 16:00 to 19:00, with around 30 stalls selling only Maltese produce, according to Visit Malta, which adds it’s cheaper than the shops. The same site hosts an open-air market on Sundays, from noon to late afternoon. Visit Malta warns that the area gets crowded at weekends and is quiet during the week.

The Aviation Museum gives three routes to the Stadium stop, the 56 from Valletta to Dingli every hour, the 186 from Buġibba to Rabat every half hour and the 202 from Sliema to Rabat every hour, and the 404 and 405 also end at Ta’ Qali. For food, the MTA register lists the Crafts Village Restaurant and two snack bars with a Ta’ Qali address.

I’d pair it with Mdina, a few kilometres away, or with San Anton Gardens, also in Attard.