Tunnara Museum

Museum

Museum · Mellieħa, Malta 35.9666°N 14.3570°E

Why you should go

Ninety seconds on Tunnara Museum

Time needed

1 to 2 hoursDisplays and the roof

Best time

Weekday morningsFewer crowds

Access

BusMellieħa Bay to Ċirkewwa

What a tunnara is

What is a tunnara?

A tunnara is a traditional Maltese method of fishing for tuna. At Mellieħa Bay, fishermen used the Westreme Battery as a store for their nets and other tunnara equipment. The system has stopped, and the battery is now the Tunnara Museum.

Who runs it

Who runs the Tunnara Museum?

In 2011 the museum was managed by Art Club 2000, a non-profit group under the patronage of the Mellieħa Local Council, set up to revive the history of the battery and the story of the tunnara.

Worth visiting

Is the Tunnara Museum worth visiting?

Yes, for the building as much as the collection. Its blockhouse was one of the largest in any of Malta's coastal batteries. Inside, the displays cover both the tuna fishery and the battery's own story through its different eras.

Step inside a coastal battery on Mellieħa Bay and see original tools from the tunnara, Malta's old way of trapping bluefin tuna.

What makes it special

The Tunnara Museum fills the blockhouse of the Westreme Battery, a coastal fortification on Mellieħa Bay. Its whole subject is the traditional methods of tuna fishing in Malta.

Much of the collection is original. The cases hold artefacts used for the mattanza, the tuna catch, over past centuries, conserved from remains found in the battery itself.

The walls of the blockhouse itself are pierced with musketry loopholes, one of the features that made this battery unlike any other in the Maltese islands.

The building has a later story of its own. In the Second World War, British forces added a beach post at the water's edge and a searchlight room beside it.

Visiting

Buses on the main route past Mellieħa Bay toward Ċirkewwa, the Gozo ferry port, pass the museum. Its address is Triq Dawret it-Tunnara. It opens Monday to Saturday from 10:00 until midday, and on Sunday afternoons instead.

The displays hold fishing gear, boat models and documents. Together they tell the history of the tunnara and of the fishermen who worked to trap bluefin tuna in the bay.

The roof is part of the visit. From it you look over the open bay, the same water where the gear downstairs was once used.

Tips

Mellieħa Bay, the sandy beach on the same shore, makes the natural second half of the day. From Monday to Saturday, see the museum first and go on to the beach after.

On a Sunday the order flips. Spend the morning on the sand and go over to the museum once its afternoon session begins.

Know before you goHours are short and can change, so ring the museum on +35699407704 before you go.