Żurrieq, Mattia Preti's village by the Blue Grotto

Żurrieq is one of those places most visitors only know from a road sign on the way to the Blue Grotto. I think that’s a shame, because the village has more to see than plenty of better-known spots, and hardly anyone else looking at it.

The biggest village in the south

Visit Malta calls it the largest village in the southern area and one of the original medieval parishes, and it adds something I find fascinating. Much of the old core predates the Knights, so this is a chance to see Malta as it looked before the baroque took over. The NSO put the population at 13,095 at the end of 2025, with about one in ten residents foreign, a world away from the north coast.

The local council fills in the history. The first written reference is from 1399, and the village once took in hamlets such as Ħal Millieri, Bubaqra, Nigret and Ħal Far, today home to the Playmobil FunPark Malta, as well as Qrendi, which went its own way in 1618. On the name, it says the Semitic root ‘zoroq’ is thought to mean blue, though no one’s sure why, and quotes the old Latin motto claiming the village took its name from the blue sea.

What to see in Żurrieq

I’d start with the parish church of St Catherine of Alexandria. It was built between 1634 and 1659 to plans by Lorenzo Gafà, on the site of a chapel from 1436, and it holds six paintings by Mattia Preti. There’s a good story behind that. Preti, the Calabrian painter of St John’s Co-Cathedral, took refuge in Żurrieq from the plague and painted many of his works at No. 4 Triq il-Fjuri, now occupied by the council itself. The altarpiece is his; the one it replaced, by Matteo Perez d’Aleccio, hangs in the cloister.

Next, the chapels at Ħal Millieri on the edge of the village. Visit Malta dates them to between the 14th and 16th centuries and says one still has its original medieval frescoes. They only open on the first Sunday of the month, from 10am to noon, and if your dates line up I’d make the effort.

From the outside you can see the Armoury Palace, from the late 17th century, which stored weapons under Pinto, Ximenes and de Rohan and where, the council says, Napoleon was entertained. Then there’s the tax-Xarolla windmill, built by Manoel de Vilhena in 1724 and restored in 1992, which the council describes as the only working windmill in Malta and Gozo.

Visit Malta also mentions a Roman tower, Punic tombs and an odd free-standing room with an Egyptian cornice that may have been part of a temple of Melqart. I have no official address or opening times for any of them, so I won’t send you hunting.

Two hamlets and a painting from Filfla

Żurrieq’s limits reach out to two hamlets, Bubaqra and in-Nigret, and the council’s list of chapels has a couple of details I’d look out for. Bubaqra’s church of Our Lady replaced two plague-era chapels and keeps a painting of St Roque from 1599, a votive offering by Giovanni Battista Riccio, who had survived the plague of 1592-93 in Malta. And in the chapel of Żurrieq’s cemetery, also in Bubaqra, hangs an altarpiece said to have come from the little chapel that once stood on the islet of Filfla, moved here when that chapel was closed. You can see Filfla from the coast below the village, which makes the story all the better.

Wied iż-Żurrieq and the Blue Grotto

The village is inland, but its name reaches the sea. Wied iż-Żurrieq is a tiny harbour at the end of a gorge, and it’s where the boats for the Blue Grotto leave from, never in a southerly wind. Heritage Malta recommends it for lunch if you’re visiting Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, just along the same coast.

Getting there and staying over

From Valletta, bus 74 reaches Żurrieq via Ħamrun, Marsa, Luqa and Mqabba, and from the airport there are routes 71 and 73. As for beds, the MTA register lists just one guesthouse and 16 licensed holiday lets in the village. My choice would be a Valletta base and the bus down, or fold Żurrieq into a day touring the south with Qrendi and the temples.