Recently while I was in Malta I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit ‘Popeye Village’, though not the usual ruin or site featured on this blog still I felt it deserved a mention. ‘Sweethaven Village’ – as its known in the 1980 movie ‘Popeye’ – was constructed during the last 7 months of 1979. The wood for the 20 buildings had to be imported from Holland with the shingles being imported from Canada. A serious amount of work went into constructing the set, 165 construction workers using 8 tonnes of nails and two thousand gallons of paint for example! A 200-250 foot breakwater had to be built in the bay to protect the set from high seas. After filming ended the local authorities decided to keep the village as a tourist attraction, even rebuilding it twice after it was destroyed by fire.

Popeye Village is aesthetically very pleasing to look at though its description as a ‘fun park’ is quite the stretch, maybe it was the time of year we visited but the level of fun involved is minimal, although it must be said as a childhood fan of the videogame ‘Monkey Island’ I loved wandering around and inside these old ramshackle buildings.

GPS: 35.96083, 14.34111