Qawra

Where it sits. Qawra is the blunt headland that closes the eastern side of St Paul's Bay, with Buġibba immediately to its west and the Salina inlet and its salt pans on its southern side. Like Buġibba it is a zone within the St Paul's Bay local council rather than a locality of its own, and the two run into each other without any visible boundary. What distinguishes Qawra is its position: the point sticks out into open sea, so the promenade that wraps around it faces north, east and southeast in turn, and the sunrise over the water here is one of the better free spectacles in Malta.

The tower on the point. Around 1638 the Order raised Qawra Tower on the tip of the headland, one of the towers erected under Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris to close the gaps in the coastal watch. A battery was added around it in 1715, and in the 1760s an entrenchment wall was run across the neck of the point to stop troops landing and working inland. The tower and battery survive and now house a restaurant, with parts of the entrenchment still traceable in the rock nearby — a very Maltese arrangement in which you eat fish inside a seventeenth-century gun position. From the tower, the line of sight runs west to Wignacourt Tower at St Paul's Bay and southeast toward the towers of the northeastern coast, which is exactly how the system was designed to work.

Salt and wetland. Behind the headland, the shallow creek at Salina holds the largest surviving set of salt pans on the main island, rectangular basins cut into the rock and still worked in a limited way; the Knights developed them commercially and the name survives in the modern place name. Beside them, the Salina wetland and the planted Kennedy Grove form one of the few green spaces in this stretch of coast, and the inlet attracts herons, egrets and waders in migration season.

Modern Qawra. Everything else here is postwar. The area filled with hotels, apartment blocks and self-catering complexes from the 1960s onward and now runs continuously into Buġibba. The parish church of St Francis of Assisi, serving both zones, began functioning as a parish in December 2004; it was designed by Richard England, Malta's best-known modern architect, and departs entirely from the Latin-cross plan used by almost every other Maltese parish — a low, sculptural building in pale stone rather than a domed Baroque monument. England also designed the far smaller church of St Joseph at Manikata, a few kilometres northwest, which is generally regarded as his masterpiece; the two together make an interesting pair for anyone tracking modern religious architecture in Malta.

What there is to do. The Malta National Aquarium, opened in 2013 on the Qawra seafront, is built around a starfish-shaped main hall with a walk-through tunnel, and concentrates on Mediterranean species alongside tropical tanks; it doubles as a rescue and rehabilitation facility for sea turtles. The Malta Classic Car Museum sits a short walk inland with a large collection of mid-century vehicles and period memorabilia. Between them, the promenade offers rock bathing from concrete platforms, diving schools, jet ski and speedboat hire, kayaking and snorkelling around the point, and a long line of bars and restaurants, many of them showing British football. Summer temperatures regularly sit above 30°C and can touch 40°C in a heatwave, which is why the promenade only really comes alive after six in the evening.

On screen and on the water. The northern resorts have supported Malta's film industry mainly as accommodation and support bases rather than as locations, though productions working the St Paul's Bay area have used the seafront repeatedly. More visibly, Qawra Point is a working dive site: the drop-off around the headland gives shore access to reef and rubble at moderate depth, and the wreck-diving fleet uses the bay as a starting point.

Getting there and timing. Buses 31, 45, 48, 186, 221 and 222 serve Qawra from Valletta, Sliema and the airport; the ride from the capital is around 45 minutes and the new Buġibba fast-ferry terminal is a walk away along the promenade. May, June, September and October give the most comfortable conditions, with sea temperatures that stay swimmable well into autumn. The point is exposed, so a strong gregale from the northeast will close the rock lidos and send spray across the promenade — impressive to watch, but not a swimming day.