Żejtun, the olive town Hompesch named Città Beland

Żejtun is one of those big Maltese towns that go unnoticed because they aren’t on the coast. It has 13,045 residents according to the NSO, more than plenty of well-known resorts, and its own heritage group admits it isn’t on the organised tourist itineraries. I count that in its favour, because what it keeps are two very fine churches and an old core that still belongs to the people who live in it.

The olive-oil town

Visit Malta explains that the name comes from the Semitic word ‘zejt’, olive oil, and that Punic tombs and the remains of a large Roman villa, complete with cisterns and an olive press, have been found here. Olive oil, in other words, has been made in these parts for a very long time. The prehistoric site of Ta’ Silġ nearby suggests people lived here even earlier.

Being close to the bays of Marsaxlokk and Marsaskala left it open to attack from Barbary corsairs and Ottoman Turks, and you can still spot fortified houses in the old core. The last Grand Master, Ferdinand de Hompesch, raised it to city status as Città Beland, after his mother’s lineage; Wirt iż-Żejtun dates this to 1797, in the Order’s final months on Malta, the same honour he gave Żabbar.

St Catherine’s, the cathedral of the south

The parish church of St Catherine, from 1692, is what I’d come to see. Visit Malta calls it ‘the cathedral of the South’ and says it’s perhaps the finest work of Lorenzo Gafà, the Maltese baroque architect. The devotion runs deep. Qrendi council, telling the legend of Il-Maqluba, places a great storm in 1343, on the night before Żejtun celebrated St Catherine.

St Gregory’s and its secret passage

On the edge of town stands the old church, St Gregory’s, from 1592, which Visit Malta describes as fascinating. In 1969 a secret passage was discovered in its walls with the remains of some 80 people. The page suggests it may have been a hiding place for villagers during raids. I haven’t found visiting hours for either church, so I’d plan on seeing them around services.

A walk through the old hamlets

Wirt iż-Żejtun, the town’s heritage group, recommends getting lost in the narrow lanes of the old hamlets of Bisqallin and Ħal Bisbut and resting in San Girgor Garden, with views over the farmland. It says the local council hands out a heritage-trail map at its office near the bus terminus, and suggests walking on to Delimara and Marsaxlokk, which was part of Żejtun until the 19th century. It also warns there are no restaurants in town, just cafés and snack bars, so I’d save lunch for Marsaxlokk.

Its big occasions, according to the same group, are the Good Friday procession, the festa of St Catherine on the third weekend of June and the olive harvest celebration on the last weekend of September. I don’t have the 2026 dates from an official website.

Getting there and staying over

The 85 leaves Valletta and runs via Floriana, Marsa, Paola, Tarxien and Żejtun before finishing in Marsaxlokk, and the network also has two routes terminating in Żejtun, the 84 and the 206, plus a circular, the 407. Timetables are covered in my guide to Malta’s buses. When it comes to beds, the MTA register lists one guesthouse and 32 holiday lets, and no hotels. I’d stay in Valletta and give Żejtun a morning before a fish lunch in Marsaxlokk. If you’d prefer a hotel nearby, neighbouring Għaxaq, which was part of Żejtun more than 350 years ago, has a three-star one, the Palazzo Castagna.