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History

The Village of Zurrieq claims for a large area of the South Eastern part of the Island of Malta, in which village we find a wide collection of ruins and remains going back to the Bronze and Punic times, through the Roman, Knights and British eras. The village in itself is to a large extent adorned with houses and buildings of historical value dating to the XV and XVI century.

We find the first historical reference to this village back in 1399. The villages of Hal Lew, Hal Millieri, Hal Manin, Bubaqra, Hal Far, Nigret and Qrendi used to make part of the village itself, until in . 1618 the village of Qrendi became a village of its own right while the others dissolved in a natural way with their area now making an integral part of the village perimeter.

The village of Zurrieq is surely not lacking in history, and this can be witnessed by the numerous ruins and remaining structures that indicate the flow of the village through time. These indicate the various settlements of peoples that inhabited the village area, from the Phoenicians to the Carathaginians, Greeks to the Romans. The remains found indicate these peoples as ancestors to the village, yet without excluding the possibility of other peoples, this village is rich in ruins and remains which in future may shed new light on its ancestors. Proof of this may be seen namely in remains such as the Punic Tower, Xarolla Catacombs, Cart Ruts at 'Tal-Bakkari', 'Tal-Hlantun Tower' and many others.

Population

Zurrieq is situated six point eight kilometres ( 6.8 km ) in a direct line from the City of Valletta, and from early time a relatively large population inhabited the area. One of the first written documents found in 1530, when towns such as Gudja where still part of the same town. That years one could find a population of 2,000 people living in 400 houses. This phenomenon kept growing up till the present times when we find a population of 9,850 people residing in the actual town of Zurrieq.

What are the origins of the name 'Zurrieq'?

Many authors give their meaning to the name, origins which have their roots in the history or culture of the same town. Castagna states that the name has Semitic roots where the word zoroq would mean blue, referring to the colour of the eyes so common to the town inhabitants. But on the other hand, Abela and Ciantar state that though the name would be from the same semitic roots, it referred to the blue seas of Wied iz-Zurrieq and Blue Grotto, which are synonymous with the village of Zurrieq. One must at this point say that the motto in Latin coming from past times and making part of the town emblem says: Sic a Cyaneo Aequore Vocor, which means.....From the blue sea I took my name.