Bubaqra is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

with its own administrative division in

Żurrieq Żurrieq ( mt, Iż-Żurrieq ) is a town in the Southern Region of Malta. It is one of the oldest towns in the country, and it has a population of 11,823 inhabitants as of March 2014. The first documentation about it being a parish dates back to ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. It is a small rural village between Nigret and

Ħal Far Ħal Far is one of the main industrial estates in Malta. It is at the southern extreme of Malta, between the localities of Birżebbuġa, Safi and Żurrieq. In the past, Ħal Far housed the RAF Hal Far airfield, which was known as HMS Falcon when ...

. It has a population of 2,000 people. At the centre of the zone is St Mary's Chapel.

Overview

The area was mentioned by Giovanni Francesco Abela in 1647 as ''Dejr el Bakar'' meaning ''house (territory) of the cows''. Also known as Bvbakra, literally meaning 'father of the cows'. According to Godfrey Wittinger, Bakar may be a direct reference to a god that wakes the villagers, or a reference to a cowman who gives milk from his cows - which in the first case which originated from the Arab period, while the second case origins from the

Siculo-Arabic Siculo-Arabic ( ar, الْلهجَة الْعَرَبِيَة الْصَقلِيَة), also known as Sicilian Arabic, is the term used for varieties of Arabic that were spoken in the Emirate of Sicily (which included Malta) from the 9th century ...

influence or Italian from the word 'vaccaro'. In 1579, the

Bubaqra Tower Bubaqra Tower ( mt, Torri ta' Bubaqra), formerly named as Saliba Tower, is a fortified house in Bubaqra, limits of Żurrieq, Malta. It was built as a country retreat in the late 16th century. The tower and its gardens have been restored, and no ...

was built on the outskirts of this hamlet. It was built as a country retreat by a member of the Order of St. John, and was used for defensive purposes at some points. The tower is currently privately owned, and it has been restored.

References

Populated places in Malta Żurrieq {{Malta-geo-stub