Bormla, officially Cospicua, is the oldest inhabited of the Three Cities on the southern shore of the Grand Harbour in Malta. The town nestles behind the historic No. 1 Dock, built in the 1840s in what was once the Porto delle Galere. The dockyard here has been in use since Phoenician times, expanded by every successive ruler — the Knights of St John, the French, and the British all used it as their Mediterranean base for ship repair.
The town was laid out on a grid pattern in 1717, though some older streets survive from earlier periods. The Church of the Immaculate Conception, built in the Doric style, dominates the skyline and contains centuries of craftsmanship. The 17th-century Cottonera Lines of the Knights wrap the town in a great arc of bastions, pierced by the baroque Notre Dame Gate; the inner St Helen's Gate carries you through the Margherita Lines. The Bir Mula Heritage museum, a social history collection housed in a small palazzino on St Margaret's Hill, and the smaller St Paul's Church round out the central sights.
Cospicua suffered badly in the Second World War — the dockyard was a prime target — and much of the town was rebuilt afterwards. Today it is quieter and less visited than neighbouring Vittoriosa (Birgu), but the waterfront regeneration around the docks is gradually changing that.