Welcome to a Knight's Privy Lodge


As one would expect, Cospicua, originally a mere suburb of Vittoriosa, has undergone
enormous changes over the centuries. Due to both urban development and the atrocious
devastation made during World War II, very few buildings from the first decades of the Knights
of St John in Malta still exist, and much less in their original state. As a matter of fact, this lodge
is the only one. By itself this unique background makes it invaluable. But there is more to it.

Some 400 years ago, back in the mid-sixteenth century, what later came to be known as the Cottonera District was very much like an unadulterated wasteland. During and after the Great Siege of 1565 the district was thoroughly changed. Standing on the hill on which Valletta
had to be raised, you would have been impressed by the elaborate line of Fort St Angelo's fortifications, backed up by the little maritime town of Birgu, later called Vittoriosa, shielded by low walls which shortly afterwards were turned into formidable bastions. The rest was simply a
spacious prairie.

To the left, however, around a couple of large windmills, you would have still been able to see
what was left of a former glorious timberland at the tip of plateau. The rest was already build
by low buildings, also shielded by low walls, and headed by a small fortification, Fort St Michael.
The Knights were quick to dub this plateau 'Isla', the Spanish equivalent of 'island'. In the background, than, you would have noticed some modest dwellings sparingly build here and
there. Here the place was known as Bir Mula, later changed to Bormla, which is the master's land. Amongst these buildings, just outside the walls of Vittoriosa, and opposite Isla, there stood this knight's privy lodge, much as it can be seen today.

During the latter half of the sixteenth-century, immediately after the Great Siege, this
mysterious knight had the lodge built at the end of the long pathway coming from the inland
villages, and at the side of deep valley. The lodge served as his shelter-place during the hunting
period. Isla, shortly afterwards completely deforested, and the prairie around Bormla, were
where he gamed with his party.

Then, the lodge consisted of a beautiful entrance, still to be seen today, which opened unto a splendid yard with a corner well of natural running water, adjoining the resting quarters just
beyond the yard. A room on top of the entrance had a balcony, and a niche with the image of the Crucified Christ, opened up to the front of the lodge, just over the main portal. The lodge was built from stone extracted from what was then arranged as a cavern. The stables and the kennels, together with the servants' quarters, were to the right of the lodge, today almost
completely lost.

Other related articles:

Building a history to tell

A tale writ with stone

Riddles of the perplexed

Graffitti of idleness