For long periods of its history Comino was an unsafe place in which to live, nevertheless, people did inhabit this tiny island on and off, the population figures flactuating from nil to sparse.
In 1416 the Maltese petitioned the Aragonese king, Alphonse V, to build a tower in Comino as a deterrent to the corsairs who made it their base, but the people of the island had to wait two hundred years before work was taken in hand; eventually the Tower of comino was finished under Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt in 1618. Despite the protection of the tower, people were chary of making Comino their home; in fact, the ancient church here, was desecrated in 1667  as being derelict; in 1716 the church was repaired and recosecrated and,by this time the island had been repopulated to some extent. With its handful of resident families and a single hotel, Comino, even now, has an air of forsaken but beautiful island.