Believe it or not,
Malta is an attractive destination for big budget
movies, with major blockbuster productions shooting on various locations around the islands. Scenes in movies like
Gladiator,
World War Z and
Captain Philips as well as TV series like
Game of Thrones were filmed here. Since the
Popeye was also filmed here, we visited the
Popeye Village. The buses were on holiday schedule like us, so we walked around a bit and visited the Red Tower and explored the city of
Mellieħa.
Previous days of our trip to Malta:
Day 4,
Day 3,
Day 2 and
Day 1.
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| Popeye Village, also known as Sweethaven Village, is a purpose-built film set village, now converted into a small attraction fun park, consisting of a collection of rustic and ramshackle wooden buildings. It is located at Anchor Bay, 3 kilometres from the village core of Mellieħa. |
Nada and Tuši signed the Sweethaven Logbook
Time for some games
For kids of all ages
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| Dock in Anchor Bay |
Show for the visitors
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| Is somebody home |
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| Big kids |
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| Anchorage House across the Olive Oyl's House |
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| Nada misses riding |
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| To construct this authentic wooden village, tree trunk logs were trailered overland from Holland, and wood shingles, used in the construction of the roof tops, were imported all the way from Canada. A 165 international construction crew consumed eight tons of nails and two thousand gallons of paint to finish off this massive set. |
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| The film set was constructed in Anchor Bay during the last 7 months of 1979. |
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| Anchor bay with the village |
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| Filming commenced on the 23rd of January, 1980. |
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| Map of Sweethaven Village |
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| Popeye the Sailor Man cartoon character was introduced by Elzie Segar in 1929 in a comic strip named "Thimble Theatre". After numerous successful Popeye cartoon strips and features loved by fans worldwide the decision to make a film was taken in the mid 1970’s. |
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| Waitig for the bus for 2 hours, pay 10 € to cab or go hiking |
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| Gorgeous cliffs, wastewater treatment plant, garbage depo and Nada |
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| Lunch break on a granite bench worked out in memory of Duncan Zammit |
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| Cheers, this time with a sandwich |
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| Four species of snake are recorded from the Malta, two of which are probably accidental introductions which have become naturalised - on the photo European cat snake (Telescopus fallax). |
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| Għadira Nature Reserve was unfortunately closed. |
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| Mellieħa Parish Church |
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| Mellieħa Bay |
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| Afternoon recreation |
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| Mellieha Bay, also known as Ghadira Bay, is the largest and one of the most beautiful and popular sandy beach in Malta located in the northern part of the Island. |
The Parish Church of Mellieħa is dedicated to the Birth of Our Lady, and was built between 1881 and 1898. All the stone was cut from a nearby quarry at l-Ahrax tal-Mellieħa and transported up to Mellieħa by the local peasants, who worked laboriously to see their wish of having a new church come true.
Mellieħa was one of the ten parishes mentioned in a document of 1436, but ceased to be a parish when the locality was no longer inhabited for fear of corsair raids.
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| Between 1920 and 1940, the belfries and dome were erected with five bells from Milan - dedicated to St Frances, St Joseph, St Anthony, St Paul and the Virgin Mary. |
GeoCaches found (all received a visit by trackable items "gran san bernardo",
TB84C9J, "De reiziger",
TB6R4VV and "FarmtagZ klompendans",
TB6BAG2):
- Love, Live and Let Live,
GC4GNFM
- Red Tower,
GC1QAHQ
- Jensen's Lookout,
GC1PA4B, where I retreived the "The Green Man",
TB7DXE4 and it stayed with me for the rest of the day
- Parish Church of Mellieha, Multi,
GC7JVBZ
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