History of Marsalforn

Marsalforn has a history which dates back to Roman times. Until the sixteenth century, the port was the most important in Gozo. Imported food supplies from Sicily were unloaded at Marsalforn, and it was from there that passengers boarded to travel to Licata in Sicily and other continental ports. The importance of Marsalforn had grown so much that by the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century the Knights of the Order of Saint John, the rulers of Malta at the time, considered abandoning the old Citadel in the centre of the island and building a new town overlooking the port. Hostility from the Gozitan people meant that the plans were never realised. They protested that they were too poor to pay the extra tax needed to finance the move and the disruption caused by the transfer of their homes from Rabat to Marsalforn would be too great. With the development of Mgarr harbour, Marsalforn lost its importance and for several centuries it remained a quiet fishing village inhabited by a small community of fishermen and their families