Kirkop


Kirkop is a village in the Southern Region of Malta. It is found near the Malta International Airport, and has been inhabited since pre-history. The parish church is dedicated to Saint Leonard. The football team of the village is the Kirkop United Football Club.

Etymology and population

The original name of the village was Casal Prokopju, and is retrieved from the registers of the Maltese militia that existed prior to the rule of the Order of St. John. Through generations, the local population corrupted the original name and was changed to Kirkop.
The name of the village is claimed to be from a family name, or nickname, but this has been refuted by scholars. It is believed that the name has Sicilian origins.

History

Punic remains of catacombs are found around the village of Kirkop with some of them remain unexplored, and their exploration has been shelved.
In 1969 Anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain published a research on the social fabric of the village in his book Hal Farrug: a village in Malta. Boissevain claims that the people of Ħal Kirkop have lived in the area for centuries because of his assumed comparable bloodline with ancient Phoenician. The Phoenicians occupied the Maltese islands around 700 B.C..
Kirkop was part of a larger community, as part of the parish of Bir Miftuħ, in the Middle Ages until the Early Modern period. However on 29 May 1592, it was declared a parish on its own right.
The village had a population of 2,260 people in March 2011. By March 2014 this decreased slightly to 2,191 people.

Places, buildings and structures

In Kirkop, one finds the Menhir monolith, which has become the symbol of the village, and a number of Paleo-Christian Catacombs.
Other notorious buildings and structures are listed monuments which include; the Church of the Annunciation, the Parish Church of St. Leonard, the Chapel St. Nicholas at the cemetery, a cross column, and a number of niches scattered around the village. There are two WWII shelters below street level.
There are two band clubs, the St. Leonard Band Club and the St. Joseph Band Club, which are used as recreation.
Kirkop is home to an STMicroelectronics plant, whose production accounts for 60% of national exports.

Kirkop main roads