The first
impression one gets of the Mgarr Harbour today is one of
bustling activity. The increase in the number of vessels
using its facilities may be partly the reason fro this
increasing activity. Most of all, however, it is the great
development of the port facilities, presently taking place,
which conveys the impression.
The harbour area
remains one of great scenic beauty. Approaching Gozo from
the sea, one is impressed by the beautiful verdant cliffs
and valleys overlooking the harbour. Fort Chambray is
conspicuous on the wooded hill overlooking the two quays.
Between this hill and the cliffs on which Ghajnsielem
stands, nestling on top an olive-lined hill, one's attention
is captivated by the beautiful church of our Lady of
Lourdes. This church built in a Gothic style is at the
center of attraction.
Video using
the 'time-lapse effect' showing a typical busy morning at
Mgarr
Video taken by Kevin Cauchi
The port is
studded with stores, warehouses, garages and fisherman's
shed. a broad square-like wharf has been built at the foot
of 'Ras it-Tafal' on which Fort Chambray stands. A road extending
from old wharf takes one to the small fisherman's jetty
where all fishing boats unload their catches. The road finds
it way around the bottom of the cliffs on which the Tower
Garzes once stood, to Zewwieqa bay, a popular inlet where
swimming is still possible.
A regular ferry
service from Mgarr to Malta was probably initiated after the
twelfth century. The service, known in Maltese as id-dghajsa
tal-moghodija, literally, the boat of the passage is first
recorded in 1241. The name survives in a toponym at the lateen
sails in Mgarr, sails that were to survive until the twentieth
century. At that time, Mgarr was a shallow harbour affording
anchorage to small craft only and quite exposed from the south
west (lbic) to the south east (xlokk). It did not have a
breakwater but only a small jetty used by passengers to board
and descend from the boats, and by the fishermen to unload
their catches. The jetty is still there just below the
Gleneagles bar (see image below). This bar, once a landmark of the harbour
recognisable with its unique sloping roof, was originally the
harbour's barrakka, a cabin for the shelter of passengers
waiting for the passage boats. It was raised next to a still
standing osteria, a tavern, by Grandmaster Antonio Manuel de
Vilhena in 1732.
The Gleneagles Bar
also known as Il-Barrakka with its unique sloping roof
The problem of
a more sheltered port was first taken under serious
consideration in 1841. In April of that year, the Government
began the construction of a small breakwater some hundred
meters to the west of the existing jetty. During the
following decades it was lengthened several times and it was
last extended in 1906. Yet it hardly offered any shelter and
the streamers could not sail along. The problem was finally
tackled by the government of Sir Gerald Strickland in the
late 1920's and on the 23rd June 1929, the official
launching of the first caisson for a proper breakwater took
place. Construction went until 1935 but on the feast of
Santa Marija 1932, streamers began to berth alongside for
the first time and to discharge passengers and cargo
directly onto the quay that extended 137metres (450 feet)
into the sea.
In 1969, the
Government authorized the extension of the existing 137m g
long breakwater and the building of two modern breakwater -
easily the largest building enterprise undertaken in Gozo
during the whole nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The new
facilities also included a ro-ro berth. The main south
breakwater extends about 490metres (1600 feet) in the sea from
a point known as the 'l-Iskoll ta' l-Ghasafar' while on the
north it extends from il-Hawlija off Zewwieqa for some
175metres (570 feet). This project enlarged the Mgarr Harbour
to an area of over 121,400 square metres (30 acres).
Mgarr Harbour in early 1920's
'Dghajsa Tal-Latini entering
Mgarr Harbour' - 1965
Photo by Joe Vella, copyright STUDIO 4 Creation Cards.
In the early
1990's a small yacht marina was established on the furthest
end, off iz-Zewwieqa. The popularity of the marina is
increasing and from year to year a good number of
Mediterranean based yachts are choosing Mgarr for berthing
during winter. The number of passengers passing through Mgarr
has increased from a few thousands a year in mid-1950s to over
three million during the beginning of the twenty first
century. Now that the new Harbour Terminal (which includes
underground parking and new berthing facilities) has been
completed, there
are also plans to offer berthing facility for the Cruise
Liners near the south breakwater. The Zewwieqa area is also being planned to be changed into a hub
or entertainment activities. The 'Zewwieqa Waterfront'
project will most probably include incentives for new bars
and restaurants, family spaces and the modernisation of the
existing roads and facilities.
Tragedies
The harbour has
seen its share of tragedies. During the second World War, German
planes destroyed the bar known as 'Il-Barraka'. The 'Royal
Lady' ferry was also sunk in the harbour.
One of the
worst tragedies occurred on 30th October 1948 when 23
men lost their lives in the channel between the two islands
when the vessel they were travelling gave way to the
turbulent sea and was overturned. It was Saturday and the
weather was so bad, with a south westerly wind blowing hard
and a raging sea, that it was impossible for the Gozo ferry
to perform the two daily trips to Marfa. It happened that
the following Monday was going to be a public holiday (a day
of obligation), All Saints’ Day, with Tuesday being All
Souls’ Day. Accordingly, a group of determined Gozitans
working in Malta wanted to cross over to join their families
at all costs. With them was a Maltese man, a member of the
Society of Christian Doctrine who was to give a lecture in
Gozo. They all met at the Marfa landing place and from there
phoned a fisherman to cross over with his luzzu (fishing
boat) to pick them up. Out of compassion for the poor
stranded men and one woman he accepted and sailed to Marfa.
It was dark when he arrived there. Several men, either
because they got fed up or did not like the weather, had
decided not to undertake the journey and had turned back to
their places of residence in Malta. The group left Marfa in
pitch darkness and a heavy swell. Because of the direction
of the wind, the fisherman skipper sailed north east to be
sheltered by Comino. But when the boat started sailing
towards Mgarr having left Comino, the full force of the
waves started pounding it. The fisherman therefore made port
at Hondoq ir-Rummien in Qala but because of the dark and the
wild terrain to get to Qala there were protests from those
on board, insisting that he takes them to Mgarr Harbour. Not
long after leaving Hondoq, the boat could not take any more
pounding and it sank taking down with it twenty three of
those on board.
Click
here to read the whole story in Maltese.
In 1957 there
occurred during one of the heaviest storms to hit our island
occurred the shipwreck of the Ferry 'Bancinu' which broke
off from its moorings and was wreked at Zewwieqa. The
night-watchman trapped on the ship was drowned when caught
below deck, an area which was totally flooded.
The Mgarr Harbour Terminal
Entrusted to
the Malta Maritime Authority, the project dates back to 1995
when the Nationalist government was planning to consolidate
the Cirkewwa terminal and to cut down on idle hours due to
choppy seas. But the idea soon grew to include a car park
and passenger terminal in Cirkewwa and Mgarr equipped with
separate ramps for passengers and vehicles and elevators and
escalators. At that time, the government had announced that
the whole project had to be completed by September 2003, but
since then the completion date has been changed quite a few
times...
The works in
Mgarr officially started on September 2002. The project
consisted of a state-of the art passenger terminal building
with an underlying 190-car underground car park plus a new
marshalling area. Unfortunately the works on this exciting
project were halted after just a few months due to lack of
funds, leaving the idyllic harbour with a huge scar on its
face for a number of years.
New designs
for the construction of a sea passenger terminal were
approved on the 13th of May, 2005. The main changes included
the reorganisation of access routes, a reduction in size and
height of the terminal building and a change in its external
appearance. The new terminal building was a considerable
improvement on the design previously approved. Its impact on
Fort Chambray backdrop has was significantly reduced by
limiting its height and integrating it into the marshalling
area and car park levels. A viewing tower has been
integrated in the terminal building design. It is proposed
to accommodate a small office and has a profile similar in
appearance to a ship's funnel. Works re-started immediately
and the whole project was now split in two phases.
Phase A involved in the construction of the underground car
park, the construction and finishing (including all
services) of the marshalling area, the construction of new
ramps and an exit road that connects the ferry vessel exit
to port entrance and the construction of the
sub-station/switch room complex. This was completed on April
2006. Works on Phase B included the building of gangways on
Berths 1 and 2, the construction of the Terminal and
associated road works, as well as the final works on ramp
number 2.
The total
expenditure on the Mgarr Terminal changed considerably over
time. The Mgarr terminal was initially supposed to cost Lm1
million, but over just a couple years the cost had soared to
three times as much after it transpired that reinforcement
works on reclaimed land proved to be more expensive than had
been estimated. The total expenditure has now spiralled to
nearly Lm13 million.
After eleven
years of long delays under four consecutive administrations
and heavy criticism due to the negative impact on tourism,
the Malta Maritime Authority finally completed the works on
the terminal and formally handed it over to Gozo Channel on
November 2007.
It was
officially inaugurated by the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi
on the 21st of February 2008. Catering for 600 passengers
and 200 cars at a time, the terminal is complete with lifts,
escalators, air conditioning, a spacious, squeaky-clean,
marble-clad waiting area, cafeteria and baggage deposit and
pick-up spot, a roof garden and 180-vehicle car park, under
the marshalling zone.
Gozo can now pride itself with an efficient and modern ferry
terminal that meets the various needs of the Gozitan
community and its visitors, increasing facilities connected
to the island’s accessibility with mainland Malta and
therefore, beyond.
The Mgarr
Terminal project is set to be complemented by the
embellishment of the 'Zewwieqa Waterfront', a project
announced in 2008. The 'Zewwieqa Waterfront', once
completed, will rehabilitating the area known as
Taz-Zewwieqa transforming it into a waterfront area by
creating pedestrian zones, landscaped plazas including
seating area with open sea views, an area hosting the
restored Dghajsa tal-Latini and an informal stage structure.
The project aims to create another tourism zone in Gozo by
turning it into a hub or entertainment activities. The 'Zewwieqa
Waterfront' project will include incentives for new bars and
restaurants, family spaces and the modernisation of the
existing roads and facilities. Works on the project started
in January 2011 after court delays on the tender process.
Plans to
privatize the Zewwieqa Marina has been announced on July
2008. Two years later, on the 26th of May 2010, a
25-year-agreement was signed between Harbour Management Ltd
(one of two bidders interested in taking over the facilities
in Mgarr) and Transport Malta for the management of the
marina. The 200-berth yacht marina will see an investment of
€350,000 over the next two years, upgrading the pontoons and
the facilities there. The winning bidder, Harbour Management
Ltd, a consortium which also operates part of the Ta' Xbiex
yacht marina, made an upfront payment of €513,000 to the
government and will be paying €60,000 annually in rent. The
rent will increase by 10 per cent every five years. Finance
Minister Tonio Fenech said that if the number of berths
increased, the rent would rise accordingly and berthing fees
would not increase after the company completed the
investment and this in consultation with Transport Malta.
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