Buskett Gardens nature reserve

The Buskett Gardens are located in a fertile valley to the south of Rabat and just east of Dingli. The gardens are at their best in the spring but they offer shade from the harsh mid-summer sun and offer a quite place for a walk in the Winter months. Verdala Palace is located on the edge of the Gardens.

Many different trees and shrubs grow in the gardens but there are also many fruit-bearing trees there as well. This is one of the greenest areas in Malta. Indigenous forests once covered Malta, but trees were cut down for shipbuilding in the era when galleons plied the Mediterranean waters. Perhaps the Buskett Gardens offer a glimpse of what Malta looked like in those days.

The gardens are very popular. People often visit the gardens for walks in the peaceful settings and to enjoy a picnic in the shade of the trees. The gardens are also the site of the popular feast of Imnarja (the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul) which is celebrated on June 28th and 29th. Hundreds of people flock to the gardens to eat the traditional Maltese dish of Rabbit Stew cooked in wine and to listen to traditional folk music and singing. Many people stay overnight although not too much sleep can be had in the festive atmosphere. The morning after the Imnarja festivities, there is usually an agricultural show where farmers and gardeners exhibit their produce, plants and flowers and enter them in competitions.

L’Imnarja:  Summer Folk Festival

The feast of Saints Peter and Paul on 29th June marks an important event in the calendar of Maltese popular customs and traditions.  It is the biggest, traditional summer festivity and held as a country harvest and folk festival as well as a religious holiday.  It dates back even further than the arrival of the Knights of St John in 1530. The festival is named L’Imnarja, a corruption of the Italian ‘Luminara’ and means festival of light.  It is named after the bonfires that used to light up the festivities in the town of Rabat. 

Today, the feast is marked by events at nearby Buskett.  It is a sociable and fun affair: families and friends picnic almost all day and night in Buskett Gardens, Malta’s largest area of natural woodland.

Wine flows, food is consumed and the night passes with singing, guitar playing and music by local folk bands. The day after, the celebration continues with an agricultural show followed by bareback horse and donkey races at Saqqajja Hill below Mdina.  The winners are awarded colourful banners to take proudly home to their villages.

L’Imnarja, along with the Feast of St Gregory, was considered many years ago as a principal feast on the Islands.  Tradition years ago stated that brides to be should go the feast at Buskett in their wedding dresses, even if they were to be married in another season.