As such, in 1440, the land was first passed on to the distinguished warrior Pietro Busco who then died without heirs. The Marsa lands were then granted to Giovanni De Nava in the year 1469. This honorable gentleman was the appointed Castellan who held hereditary possession of the castle Sant’ Angelo in the Grand Harbour, outside the jurisdiction of the Maltese authorities ensconced at Mdina. De Nava was also granted a title of nobility, becoming the first Barone della Marsa, a title doomed alas to extinction.

Years later in July of 1551, the quiet of these same meadow plains was broken by the thunder of horses’ hooves as the valiant English knight Nicholas Upton led his Maltese horsemen into a fierce battle against the invading enemy forces landed from the Turkish galleys of the famed corsair Dragut. Although a resounding victory was to be had by the native army, it came at the highest cost to their illustrious leader who subsequently died of the many wounds he had taken.

The beating of drums and the playing of fifes joined the bellowing of oxen and other beasts of burden as they strained to pull high-laden cartloads of supplies to their appointed place, urged on by the shouts and beatings of their drivers and scouts. What a spectacle must have greeted any who witnessed the grand scale of that frightful event.