class="apple-converted-space"> emerged from parts of the Parish of
Żejtun. In the medieval years Zejtun was bordered by Zurrieq because Birzebugia
was part of Zurrieq. they share the same patron Santa Katarina. most of these
are today separate parishes. The local militia regiment of Żejtun was one of
the first to engage the Ottoman forces in the initial stages of the
Great Siege
of 1565, but the town continued to
suffer attacks by Turkish
pirates
up to 1614, when an attack by the
Turks was repulsed without aid from other militias
The town served a minor role in the
French Blockade of 1799/1801 as a depot for soldiers. It was one of the first
towns in
Malta, outside the main
fortified areas of Malta, to boast a Public Garden. This garden, the
Luqa
BriffaGarden, still stands today. It is named after a famous cavalryman
during the
Great Siege of Malta.
Żejtun passed the
British-rule of the Maltese islands as a rural-backwater in the green fields of
the Mazza Valley. In
this period it had one of the many hospitals in Malta for wounded British and
French soldiers in the First
World War,
