Żabbar, the city named after the last Grand Master

Żabbar is a big place, 18,293 people according to the NSO, that most visitors drive straight through on the way to Marsaskala. It has two things that would get me off the bus, one of the most over-the-top baroque church fronts in Malta and a history running from the Great Siege to the Knights’ last days.

A frontier town

Visit Malta places it just inland from the Three Cities, with which it shares a history, with the Cottonera Lines, the landward fortifications, reaching its outskirts. That position explains its two big moments. At the start of the Great Siege of 1565, the Ottoman armies camped here, and around 1800 it was a base for the Maltese insurgents fighting French rule.

The last Grand Master to rule Malta, Ferdinand de Hompesch, granted it city status, and the townspeople thanked him with a triumphal arch on the main road in from Paola. That’s why Hompesch’s name is still tied to Żabbar. It’s a large town today, but the old centre, with its narrow alleys and small square, is a classic Maltese village core.

What to see in Żabbar

The visit is the parish church of Our Lady of Graces, which Visit Malta describes as having one of the most monumental and ornate baroque exteriors on the islands. For me it’s worth the trip just to see it from the square. Beneath the church is the Sanctuary Museum, with a collection showing the links between the Order of St John and the sanctuary. It opens on Sundays from 9am to noon, so if you can choose, come on a Sunday morning.

Heritage Malta’s 2026 calendar also lists a guided walk around Żabbar, the ‘Mixja ma’ Mario Coleiro’, on 1 November. If it lines up with your trip, it’s a good way to see the place with someone who knows it.

The biggest town in the Southern Harbour district

Here’s a figure that surprises anyone who only knows Valletta. Żabbar is the most populous of the 14 councils in the Southern Harbour district, with more than three times the capital’s population, and the eighth largest in the whole country on NSO figures. It grew by 1.8% in 2025 and only about one resident in seven is foreign. So this is a big, very Maltese town rather than a holiday-let suburb.

Visit Malta also picked it for its 2011 project ‘Discovering Malta & Gozo Through its People & Culture’, a set of itineraries for towns and villages off the usual tourist trail. That strikes me as the best description of Żabbar, a place to see everyday Malta.

Getting there and staying over

From Valletta, route 91 runs to Marsaskala via Floriana, Marsa, Paola, Fgura and Żabbar, and there’s also a route that ends in Żabbar, the 90. As for beds, the MTA register lists only three guesthouses and 24 holiday lets. I’d treat it as a half-day stop from the Three Cities, and if you fancy the sea, Xgħajra is on its outskirts, right on the coast.