The Addolorata Cemetery, Malta

The Addolorata Cemetery

Edited by

Conrad Thake Contributors

Mario Borg Mark Sagona James Licari Conrad Thake Photography

Charles Paul Azzopardi

Published by 6 Strait Street, Valletta, Malta www.midseabooks.com

Acknowledgements Joseph Amodio Mgr John Azzopardi Martin Bugelli

Renald Cassar Ian Ellis Dr Charles Farrugia

Joseph Sagona Louis J. Scerri Prof. Keith Sciberras

Institutions Academic Work Resources Fund, University of Malta Addolorata Cemetery Archives Ministry for Health, Malta National Archives of Malta National Library of Malta Richard Ellis Archives – Malta

In collaboration with the Department of Art and Art History Faculty of Arts, University of Malta

Copyright © Text, Conrad Thake, Mario Buhagiar, Mario Borg, Mark Sagona, James Licari, 2020 Copyright © Photographs Charles Paul Azzopardi and as per credits, 2020 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the previous written permission of the publisher.

First published in 2020 Design and printing by Best Print Co. Ltd, Qrendi, Malta ISBN: 978-99932-7-754-5

Contents Preface ..........................................................................................................................................................................5 Introduction Mario Buhagiar.............................................................................................................................................................7 Chapter 1 The Formation of the Addolorata Cemetery...............................................................................................................17 Mario Borg and Conrad Thake Chapter 2 The Addolorata Church and Funerary Chapel of the Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century.......................35 Mario Borg Drawings for Funerary Chapels, National Archives Malta.........................................................................................51 Chapter 3 Freestanding Monuments at the Addolorata Cemetery (1870–1940).........................................................................65 Mario Borg Chapter 4 The Decorative Arts at the Addolorata Cemetery: Epitomizing the Revivalist and Eclectic Attitudes......................91 Mark Sagona Architectural and Decorative Drawings, National Archives Malta..........................................................................125 Chapter 5 Preserving the ‘Values’ of the Addolorata Cemetery................................................................................................135 James Licari Later and Current Extensions to the Addolorata Cemetery......................................................................................149 The Funeral of Chev. Emmanuele Luigi Galizia: A Contemporary Account...........................................................153 Death and Modernity ― Some Reflections on Three Mortuary Chapels designed by Richard England...................................................................................................................................157 Conrad Thake Photographic Plates...................................................................................................................................................159 Documents................................................................................................................................................................225 Select Bibliography...................................................................................................................................................235 Index.........................................................................................................................................................................237

Preface

The Addolorata Cemetery is the magnum opus of the architect Emmanuele Luigi Galizia. The cemetery is an outstanding manifestation of Gothic Revivalism and Romanticism in Malta during British colonial rule.

It is not only a remarkable necropolis but a unique repository of the island’s funerary architecture and sculpture. Furthermore, it is arguably Malta’s finest open-air display of decoration and ornament. The main objective of the book is to provide a comprehensive overview of the cemetery’s historical development, its architectural history and a critical art-historical appraisal of the cemetery complex including the Addolorata Church, the various family chapels and individual funerary monuments.

This publication is the third in a series of standard monographs dedicated to nineteenth-century cemeteries in Malta. The first volume in the series, The Ottoman Muslim Cemetery, Malta was published in 2016. This was followed a year later by the second volume, Ta’ Braxia Cemetery which I co-authored with Janica Buhagiar. Both volumes are enriched by the eloquent black and white photography of the established photographer Joseph P. Borg. These two volumes were the culmination of various years of research conducted at the Department of the History of Art, University of Malta. The research took the form of various lectures, student dissertations and annual symposia that focussed on funerary architecture, and aspects relating to the local visual culture of death.

The third volume dedicated to the Addolorata Cemetery is a more ambitious enterprise than that of the previous volumes, when one takes into account the greater physical extent of the cemetery and the larger corpus of architectural and sculptural works. This

book is the product of the collective effort of various contributors who have all pursued academic research on the Addolorata Cemetery. One of the leading contributors is Mario Borg, an MA graduate of the Department of History of Art, who wrote two research dissertations on the cemetery. His seminal research forms the backbone of this book and he deserves major credit for that. Dr Mark Sagona, a fellow resident academic in the department, provides us with a scholarly and critical appraisal of the cemetery’s decorative arts within an international art historical context. The contribution of James Licari, an established restorer and conservator, sheds light on the valorization of the cemetery within a wider socio-economic context and aspects relating to the cemetery’s conservation and management. My role as editor was that of coordinating the various contributions and overseeing the weaving of the various strands into one holistic narrative.

The photography of this volume was entrusted to Dr Charles Paul Azzopardi who with his perseverance and perceptive eye for aesthetics provides the reader with a rich portfolio of images. One of the most challenging editorial tasks was that of shifting through hundreds of images in undertaking a final selection of photographs.

The medium of black-and-white photography was a mainstay in all the three volumes, capturing the melancholic beauty of the cemeteries.

As editor and on behalf of all the contributors, I would like to express my appreciation to all those who contributed in a meaningful and constructive way to the production of this book: the Addolorata Cemetery authorities, the Superintendence of Public Health and the Ministry of Health for allowing us to conduct research visits to the cemetery; Dr Charles Farrugia 5

and the staff at the National Archives Malta, Rabat for providing us access and permission to reproduce original drawings of the funerary chapels and monuments; Professor Mario Buhagiar for his insightful and lucid introduction; Professor Keith Sciberras, head of the Department of Art and Art History, University of Malta for supporting this project; Ian Ellis for providing permission to reproduce historic photographs from the Richard Ellis collection; Joseph Mizzi, managing director of the publishers, Midsea Books Ltd for his unstinting support and belief in the project; Louis J. Scerri and Martin Bugelli for their rigorous copyediting; and Best Print for their professionalism in the design, layout, and printing of the book.

One hopes that this book will contribute in a meaningful way to a greater appreciation of the Addolorata Cemetery as an outstanding architectural and cultural heritage asset.

Conrad Thake Architect and Associate Professor Department of Art and Art History Faculty of Arts University of Malta

6

Introduction

Maltese art history has an understandable bias for the era of the Knights (1530–1798) who, with their informed patronage of the best available international and local talent, commissioned notable works worthy of a place of honour in an assessment of the artistic preoccupations of Counter Reformation and Baroque Europe. Emphasis on the importance of this period has, however, been responsible for the widespread tendency of not giving the merited attention to earlier and subsequent times. The Middle Ages have on many occasions been summarily dismissed as a backwater and the nineteenth century stigmatized as an anti-climax. That this unfortunate misconception is happily being redressed is, to a significant extent, the merit of the History of Art classes which I pioneered as an academic discipline at the University of Malta in 1988. The classes matured into the Department of Art and Art History, within the Faculty of Arts, which while retaining a pivotal concern with the Order of St John, has perceptively broadened its perspectives to a comprehensive scholarly analysis of the wider spectrum of the history of art in Malta. The door has been thrown wide opened to a previously underrated legacy.

This book is an eloquent testimony of the Department’s growing concern with the art and architecture of post-Knights Malta. It is, in the first place, related (albeit not exclusively) to the antiBaroque tendencies of Neoclassicism and Romanticism which gained official aesthetic propensity in the British colonial period starting with the turn of the nineteenth century. Conceived and edited by Professor Conrad Thake, its focus is the Addolorata Cemetery, which Dr Mark Sagona perceptively epitomizes as “arguably

the most intense and palpable embodiment of the true spirit of nineteenth–century design and decoration in the Maltese Islands”. The cemetery is notable for the nobility of its architecture, the sensitivity of its planning, and the eloquent aesthetics of its funerary chapels and sepulchral monuments. Taken together, these different elements mirror and contrast the wealth and diversification of Maltese artistic thought and theory in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The primary concern of the book is the building and artistically prosperous early history of the cemetery. The cemetery’s subsequent physical development is told in an addendum while two other appendices give added clarifications. Dr Charles Paul Azzopardi’s evocative photography complements and enriches the artistic appreciation. This makes the book an all-embracing research tool on what is arguably Malta’s most artistically vibrant site.

In the first of the appendices, Conrad Thake borrows the thoughts of Adolf Loos (1870–1933), the Moraviaborn but internationally influential avant-garde architect, who inspirationally describes the realm of a cemetery as a city of the dead permeated by a silence which, removed from the tumult of human-generated noise, is inducive to ‘sensitivity, spirituality and meditative introspection’. Loos saw architecture as an arrangement of spaces based on split levels. Although he was thinking primarily of domestic architecture, he saw form and space within the architecture of death as ‘one of the most permanent manifestations of architecture’. Although the Addolorata Cemetery, with its preponderance on the decorative arts distances itself from Loos’ rejection of decorative features, its arrangement of spaces and split levels are consonant 7

Chapter 1

The Formation of the Addolorata Cemetery Mario Borg and Conrad Thake

Cemetery of ‘Ta’ Braxia’ is open to all religions for the purpose of interment’, and that their ‘recognized ministers may officiate at funerals and within the Cemetery, employ the ceremonies and war vestments enjoined by their religion’.4 However, the local Catholic Church was vehemently opposed to the concept of a Government-owned cemetery that promoted mixedrite burials and ultimately, Ta’ Braxia Cemetery served for the ‘interments of Protestants both Military and Naval, as well as Civil’. The apprehension and antagonistic sentiment expressed by Maltese Catholics is well-encapsulated in this opinion piece published in the local newspaper L’Ordine, following the official opening of Ta’ Braxia Cemetery.

Before visiting the different villages of the Island the attention of the stranger is drawn to the new cemetery recently constructed near Casal Tarscien, at a little distance from the head of the Grand Harbour.

It occupies the whole extent of a hill, and at the top contains a beautiful Church of the Gothic order. The place will be greatly embellished by the plantation of trees and the formation of elegant monuments.1 George Perry Badger

By the mid-nineteenth century, it had become clear that the local practice of burials within churches and adjoining grounds was no longer sustainable. Physical space for interment was becoming very limited and advances in public health dictated that more hygienic methods of burial be adopted. Until that point in time most of the burials within local towns and villages were intramural ones within the church and its immediate environs, specifically underneath the nave, aisle, parvis, as well as in sacristies and crypts. Several epidemic outbreaks were in part attributed to these inhumations which were carried under poor sanitary conditions. Advances in the scientific understanding of epidemic outbreaks served as a catalyst towards a concerted effort to ban intramural burials.2 In 1857, the Ta’ Braxia Cemetery at Pietà was officially inaugurated as the first extramural cemetery on the island that was originally intended to be open to all religious faiths.3 The first set of regulations relating to the administration of the cemetery stated that ‘the

Fig. 4.

Ora noi già abbiamo dimostrato con bastante chiarezza … che nel nuovo cimitero non potrà inumarsi il cadaver di un solo cattolico, e quindi di un sol maltese perché tutti i maltesi ineccezionabilmente che formano i 99 centesimi della popolazione di Malta, professano la credenza Cattolica. Un cimitero per essere un luogo sacro, e quindi un cimitero secondo i cattolici, deve essere necessariamente benedetto dall’autorità ecclesiastica, e questa senza dubbio non potrà prestarsi a benedire un luogo destinato per l’uso indistinto di tutti culti…5

In spite of their outright refusal to participate in the multi-faith cemetery, the local ecclesiastical authorities recognized the urgent need to establish

Emmanuele Luigi Galizia, Church of the Virgin of Sorrows, Addolorata Cemetery, c.1870s (Photo credit: Richard Ellis Archives – Malta)

17

34

Chapter 2

The Addolorata Church and Funerary Chapels of the Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Mario Borg (1883).4 All three shared Gothic Revival borrowings.

Anti-conformism towards the British Government, stemming from a strong Maltese nationalistic sentiment in both matters of faith and politics, might have also been a contributor to this choice.

Styles varied depending on both the architects’ and the patrons’ personal tastes. The Superintendent of Works in charge at the time would have had the last say on the matter, approving or disapproving entire, or sections of, proposed drawings if they lacked decorum or happened to fall outside the established artistic milieu of the day. Galizia was appointed as government architect responsible for the approval of funerary monumental designs from 1870 up until 1888.5 During this extensive period he wielded absolute control over the selection of chapel designs.6

The artist had a “universe-creating imagination.” In his transports of artistic rapture he could sense the dissolving of the boundary between dream and reality.1 Jostein Gaarder

The predominant architectural grammar at the Addolorata Cemetery in the late nineteenth, and early twentieth century was essentially an eclectic one, amalgamating a variety of styles with the intention of creating visually pleasing results. Most of the earlier chapels, those that were built prior to the twentieth century, show a predilection for Neoclassicism. The Neoclassical style in Malta, particularly the Greek Revival style, had reached the Islands with the arrival of the British in the first decades of the nineteenth century.

Emmanuele Luigi Galizia was the leading architect setting the artistic trend within the cemetery.2 Although he adopted Gothic Revivalism for the main edifices of the cemetery, he did not promote this style when it came to private chapel commissions. Other architects followed suit. A lack of familiarity with the style by both patrons and architects, given its rarity on the Islands, might have been the main reason for choosing the Neoclassical idiom instead. Another possible reason which might have led to a rejection of the Gothic Revival was its association with local British places of worship, these being St Andrew’s Scots church, Valletta (1856),3 the Anglican church of The Holy Trinity, Sliema (1886–87), and the Wesleyan chapel, Floriana

The Early Decades (1870–1890s) Galizia was one of the most talented and prolific architects in Malta during the nineteenth century.

Prior to designing and overseeing the building of this cemetery, he had also designed two other cemeteries, the multi-faith Ta’ Braxia Cemetery, Pietà (1855) and the Ottoman Muslim Cemetery, Marsa (1873– 74). In all three cases he juxtaposed Neoclassical formalist characteristics, such as the use of a regular, symmetrical plan, with picturesque ones relying on ornamentation borrowed from multiple architectural sources. In so doing he imparted a vigorous perception of the Romantic with ‘a note of sweet lyrical sadness’.7

Fig. 16. Emmanuele Luigi Galizia, Church of the Virgin of Sorrows, Addolorata Cemetery

35

Plate 1 Emmanuele Luigi Galizia, Dingli chapel,

elevation drawing dated January 1870

52

Plate 2

Attributed to Emmanuele Luigi Galizia, Barbar chapel, elevation drawing dated 26 August 1870

53

64

Chapter 3

Freestanding Funerary Monuments at the Addolorata Cemetery (1870–1940) Mario Borg Le tombe su cui l’Arte lussureggia colle patetiche sue grazie, non sono una manifattura di morti: i vivi l’hanno erette, a patto che da esse rimbalzi su loro uno spruzzo di gloria.1 L’Arte, 1863

Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Funerary Sculpture in Malta Monuments erected during the first decades of the Addolorata Cemetery, following its opening in 1869, were strongly influenced by European sculptural sepulchral trends where the Neoclassical idiom prevailed. In spite of a predominant display of the Gothic Revival style found in the main edifices (Main Entrance Gate, Chaplain’s Lodge, Worker’s Lodge, Church, and Charnel House), the Gothic element was not evident in free-standing monuments. This style was alien to Malta.2 With the exception of a few monuments ‘insignificantly scattered’ among a vast number of classical monuments, the style was not made use of.

Whether it was Emmanuele Luigi Galizia3 or the clients themselves who triggered off a classicizing trend within the cemetery during its early decades, is hard to tell. Possibly, the numerous funerary monuments erected earlier at the Msida Bastion Cemetery (1806– 86), and the multi-faith Ta’ Braxia Cemetery (1857) which mainly spoke a Neoclassical language, exerted an influence. Urns, altars, relief work featuring garlands, sarcophagi, and pyramidal obelisks were the main representative features. Artistic trends in the late

Fig. 34. Michele Busuttil, Paolo Ciantar monument, 1870

nineteenth century were dominated by an eclectic spirit which allowed both a fusion, as well as a diversification, of styles to take place with ease (Fig. 33). Even though the classical approach was a popular one, it gradually got incorporated and was transformed as a result of this prevailing eclecticism.

Fig. 33. G. Testa Paris, Putto sitting on Rubble Heap holding Garland monument (1902),

with niche of the Virgin and Child in the background

65

90

Chapter 4

The Decorative Arts at the Addolorata Cemetery: epitomizing the Revivalist and Eclectic Attitudes Mark Sagona The Victorian treatment of style depended on the idea of synthesis, in which elements from different sources were combined into a new and coherent whole, eventually losing any link with their stylistic parents. The synthetic styles thus produced reflected a hitherto unparalleled knowledge of historical and non-European ornament and design, a fundamentally romantic approach to history and ornament, and a fascination with complexity and intricacy.1 Michael Snodin

The Addolorata Cemetery, which officially opened its doors on 9 May 1869, is arguably the most intense and palpable embodiment of the true spirit of nineteenthcentury design and decoration in the Maltese Islands.

The spirit of Romantic nostalgia is eloquently transmitted when walking through its panoply of funerary chapels and sepulchral monuments. There is a processional feeling in gradually ascending the steps from the Arcade for Tablets with the unfolding vistas culminating in the church at the summit of the hill. This Romantic mood and the predilection for the Picturesque – an essential quality of nineteenth-century architecture and decoration – is heightened through the architectural grammar of the buildings and ornamental passages, the character of decoration in stone and marble, and the style of wrought iron grills and screens (Fig. 64). The general design concept of the cemetery and everything which was created inside it, from its inauguration up to the first half of the twentieth century, epitomizes the essence of the artistic milieu of nineteenth-century decorative arts.

Fig. 65. Partial view of the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris

The stylistic nature of its ornament and decoration is reflected in the works of various architects, artists, designers, and other artistic practitioners. It is worthwhile to assess their artistic endeavours within the artistic milieu of Malta and the larger European context at the time. It is pertinent to analyse the typology of ornament, the sources of its inspiration, and its artistic quality. The essential element in this study is style rather than the individual artist or creator.

This discussion dwells primarily on issues of aesthetic and stylistic matters and the ways through which the

Fig. 64. One of the gargoyles at the entrance lodges

91

Plate 16 Attributed to Emmanuele Luigi Galizia, Iz-Zuntier tal-Isla, drawing for wrought iron gate, dated 14 March 1871

Plate 17 Iz-Zuntier tal-Isla, drawing for balustrades Plate 18 Iz-Zuntier tal-Isla, plan

126

Plate 19 Giuseppe Ruggiero Busuttil,

Depiro D’Amico chapel, elevation drawing dated 23 July 1872

127

134

Chapter 5

Preserving the ‘Values’ of the Addolorata Cemetery James Licari certain extent, the cemetery was also a social leveller, as it brought all levels of society, irrespective of social class, into one communal burial space. However, the contrary could also apply within its boundaries, since social class and distinction have contributed to the scale and design of funerary monuments and their spatial distribution within the cemetery (Fig. 119).4 Recently there has been a growing interest, in taphophilia,5 the technical term for ‘cemetery tourism’.

The conservation-restoration concept for the Addolorata Cemetery should adopt a values-based approach, clearly identifying, analysing and preserving its special characteristics. These values would include its historical, identity and religious significance, its architectural and artistic heritage, its ecological and environmental contribution, besides its education, social, and political aspects.

Cemeteries make up the most important openair museums, visible and accessible to everyone, everywhere. The effort required to maintain and promote this significant heritage is our mission.1 Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe

The Addolorata Cemetery is a cultural construct,2 an ensemble of various elements, moulded from various creative processes, stratified layers of changes and growth over time, which together have shaped its present-day values [Plates 72, 73].3 The values of a site or artefact are interlinked with the qualities and characteristics of the society they exist in, and may change over time. Different values may sometimes be in tension or even in conflict, with each other, such as that between the need to preserve and safeguard the site, its day-to-day function and its considerable cultural and historic legacy. Reconciling these tensions and conflicts is one of the key challenges in preparing a sound and effective conservation-management plan order.

Extramural cemeteries, such as the Addolorata Cemetery, were one of many social complexes that grew in popularity during the nineteenth century.

Garden cemeteries were considered innovative, with their spatial design and garden/park-like qualities offering not only a tranquil atmosphere to help soothe mourners, and provide a contemplative space for one to reflect upon one’s mortality, but also to prominently display architectural and sculptural endeavours. To a

The Functional Value The Addolorata Cemetery has always functioned to serve its purpose as ‘the main burial place in Malta and every Maltese citizen shall be entitled to be buried in the said cemetery’6 The functional value is attributed to a site based on civilization’s requirements for its construction and use both in the present as well as in the past.7 Human remains within the cemetery add a major element of heritage significance due to their archaeological, scientific, anthropological, and religious potential.8 Continuation of this traditional function reinforces the potential of the site and

Fig. 119. Funerary chapels, Addolorata Cemetery

135

Fig. 123. Aerial photograph of Addolorata Cemetery (15 July 1927) (Private archives)

148

Later and Current Extensions to the Addolorata Cemetery By 1889, a mere two decades after the official opening of the cemetery, the available burial space had become very limited. Following initial doubts and prejudices expressed by some, the new cemetery had proven to be very popular as demonstrated by the high demand for applications for the purchase of burial plots. The authorities tried to economise and contain the allotment of graves in order to utilise to the full the remaining land available.1 Between 1911 and 1914, a substantial extension was proposed at the back of the cemetery. The extension also envisaged the construction of a third ossuary building. The project to extend the cemetery was put on hold probably due to the outbreak of the First World War. In 1919, a plan signed by Lorenzo Gatt, in his capacity of Superintendent of Public Works, proposed a larger extension than that originally proposed. A year later, plans were officially announced for a new lateral extension on the west side, the extension of which was to follow the existing layout and to respect the terraced topography of the land (Fig. 122). A new boundary wall would also be erected. Furthermore, it was decreed that no private chapels would be constructed within the new extension until such time that the ground was levelled.

Major James Galizia, son of Emmanuele Luigi Galizia, serving as Superintendent of Public Works (1921–30), was responsible for the implementation of the project.2 The extension as proposed was a natural continuation of the existing layout, and in many respects the project was more of an engineering enterprise rather than an architectural one, with the main tasks focusing on levelling works, the formation of catchment areas and an adequate drainage system.

There were other minor extensions and modifications to the cemetery. A plan dated 22 May 1929, signed

by the Chief Civil Engineer, Frederick C. Bonavia, and endorsed by James Galizia, proposed a further extension to the West Division, specifically along Section T, Compartments E, F, and G. Another plan dated 21 June 1937 proposed the formation of an open space in front of the cemetery to serve as a car park.

There were two small gardens adjoining the priest’s quarters and the keeper’s lodge referred to as il-mixtla, and which were originally intended for basic cropgrowing and citrus trees.3 In the 1970s these garden plots were converted to burial grounds in response to the pressing need for more graves.4 In 1987 the cemetery was further extended with a major extension along the East Division. In 2002, a planning permit was issued for an additional extension to the South West Division.

However, although excavation works started in 2008, within two years works had ground to a complete halt and no construction of graves was undertaken. In September 2016, the Minister for Health Chris Fearne, launched a public-private partnership project that would encompass both the restoration and extension to the cemetery. The area earmarked for the extension is the same one as that where excavation works had already been carried out. The designated area for the cemetery extension in the South West division has a total superficial area of just under twenty-six thousand square metres and would provide an additional 2,880 new graves. Furthermore, the consortium in charge of the project is contractually bound to spend the sum of six million euros in restoration works.5 In June 2018, the government announced that the consortium Campo Santo Ltd had been awarded a fifteen-year concession to extend, restore, and manage the Addolorata Cemetery.6 Works are currently underway on the extension of the cemetery.

149

Death and Modernity

Some Reflections on Three Mortuary Chapels designed by Richard England Conrad Thake

ones. The representation of silence in architecture defies purely technical and prescriptive formulae. It can only be invoked by architects and artists imbued with sensitivity, spirituality and meditative introspection. Architect Richard England (b.1937) is a pioneer in introducing to Malta a modernist architectural language that was sensitively attuned and in synergy with the Island’s rich vernacular tradition (Fig. 123).3 Throughout his extensive architectural career he has also distinguished himself with the design of several religious buildings

When we come across a mound in the woods, six feet long and three feet wide raised to a pyramidal form by a spade we become serious and something in us says: someone was buried here. That is architecture.1 Adolf Loos

The Austrian architect Adolf Loos once wrote that ‘only a miniscule proportion of architecture belongs to art: the tomb and the monument.’2 The absence of variable functionality renders architectural form and space within the setting of a necropolis as one of the most permanent manifestations of architecture. The ‘architecture of death’ poses a challenge to the modern-age architect who has to divest oneself of the distractions of material consumerism and focus instead on non-tangible issues relating to the realm beyond that of the living. The design of a funerary monument in a modernist idiom entails a recall to basic primordial and elemental forms devoid of any superfluous decoration. This was encapsulated in Loos’ unrealised design of a mausoleum for the Austrian Czech art historian Max Dvořák (1921). Loos envisaged a stark solid cubic form that was to be built entirely of blocks of black granite and covered by a low-stepped roof reminiscent of a ziggurat.

Silence permeates the realm of the necropolis, as it is not only the city of the dead but also the city of silence.

The elimination of the cacophony of human-generated noise induces an altered state of being whereby the visitor is beckoned to reflect upon various alternative states of being beyond death and the memory of loved

Fig. 126. Richard England, B-chapel, 1975

Fig. 125. Richard England, T-E chapel, 1998

153

Plate 27 Emmanuele Luigi Galizia, Galizia chapel, 1871

(Photo credit: Richard Ellis Archives – Malta)

160

Plate 28 Emmanuele Luigi Galizia, Pace Sapiano chapel, 1875

(Photo credit: Richard Ellis Archives – Malta)

161

Documents Letter from Chief Secretary to Government to the Assistant Military Secretary 24 July 1861

Dear Sir, It being necessary to form a large and proper Roman Catholic cemetery in a locality not far distant from the principal centres of the population, namely Valletta and Floriana on the one side and the three cities over the water on the other and it having been suggested that the side of the Cordin Hill fronting Floriana would be a very fit place for that object, I am desired by H.E. the Governor to request that the military authorities may be moved to state whether there is any objection on military grounds.

The proposal is that the cemetery should be formed in two or three terraces, commencing from the road “(Della Croce della Marsa)� and that at the top of the Hill in the vicinity of the road, a chapel should be constructed with same accommodations consisting of two or three rooms.

Signed, Wilford Brett (Acting Chief Secretary to Governor) National Archives Malta, CSG 04/33, no. 6361

225

Letter from Chief Secretary to Government to the Vicar General Can. Filippo Amato The Very Reverend Canon Filippo Amato, Vicar General

24 July 1861

Sir, The cemetery in the San Giuseppe Road ‘Tal Blata il-Baida’ being almost full, H.E the Governor has it in contemplation to prepare a new one and in a fitting locality.

The place which seems most adapted for a large cemetery after the models of the cemeteries of other Roman Catholic Countries is the so-called ‘Jesuits’ Hill’ that is to say, the upper sloping part of the Hill, either on the side facing Floriana or on the opposite side facing Casal Luca, at some little distance from the road now in course of improvement called ‘Della Croce della Marsa’. The advantages of that locality are obvious. It is situated at a moderate distance from the principal centre of the population, namely Valletta, Floriana, Pietà and Msida on one side, and Cospicua, Vittoriosa and Senglea on the other, besides some of the neighbouring villages. It is close by a road which will soon be one of the most important highways in the island, but still not on the road itself; and the sloping form of the ground, admits of the construction of the cemetery in different terraces, the one above the other, thus offering to the view of the public any ornament which, consistently with the nature of the Roman Catholic burial place, might be made, so as to create feelings of Religious reverence instead of those, of a very different character, which the sight of a barren cemetery naturally engenders.

His Excellency hopes also to be able at the proper time to move the council to vote the necessary amount for building a chapel and other accommodations within the proposed cemetery as well as to make any other provisions which a burial ground on a proper scale, might require.

Before, however, taking any step in the matter, His Excellency would be glad to know whether His Grace the Archbishop Bishop of Malta has any objection and for that purpose I have been directed to request that you will have the goodness to submit to His Grace the pre-going statement.

Signed, Wilford Brett Acting Chief Secretary Governor

National Archives Malta, CSG 04 /33, no. 6362

226

Index A

balustrade 109, 229 Balzan 48, 119 Barbar chapel 38 Barbatus, Cornelius Scipio 84, 108 Bardiglio 78, 79, 88 Baroque 30, 37, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47, 71, 73, 115, 116, 118 Baroque Revival 76, 102, 106 Barry, Charles 97 Bartolo chapel 72 Basile, Ernesto 49, 119 Basilica-type 42, 45 Bay Laurel 140 B-chapel 154 Beckford, William 96 bell-cot 98 Bernard, A. 94 Bernard chapel 102 Bianchi 44, 46 Birżebbuġa 112 Blakemore, Messrs. 26 Bonanno-Demajo family chapel 110 Bonavia, Frederick C. 149 Bonavia, Giuseppe 48, 97, 122 Bonavita, Ignazio Gavina 117 Bonello, Vincenzo 47 Borg, Agostino 73, 145 Borg, Emmanuele 43, 45, 117, 119 Borg Gauci, Emmanuel 76 Borg, Ġorġ 76 Branch Cross 68 British Academy of Art 76, 86 British colonial authorities 30, 76 broken cippus 106 broken column 67 Brongniart, Alexandre-Thèodore 18 Buckingham Palace 95, 117 Bugeja, Carmelo 76 Bugeja, Vincenzo Marquis 73 Buhagiar, Emanuele 94, 121 Buhagiar, F. 71, 79 Buhagiar, Giuseppe 118 Buhagiar, Salvatore 108 burials 17, 18, 20, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 138, 139, 141, 144, 145 Burke, Edmund 96 Busuttil, Giuseppe Ruggiero 37, 43, 49, 112 Busuttil, Michele 23, 66 Busuttil, Michele 97, 111, 122 Butterfield, William 95, 97 Buttigieg chapel 38, 69 buttresses 37, 95, 99, 100 Byzantine 116

Abingdon 26, 101 acanthus leaf 66, 67, 89 acroteria 44, 66, 107, 109, 110, 113, 116 Acting Collector of Revenue 27 Addolorata Cemetery 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 44, 48, 49, 65, 67, 69, 70, 72, 73, 76, 77, 79, 80, 86, 88, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 116, 120, 121, 122, 123, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 144, 145, 146, 149, 154, 155, 157, 233, 235 Addolorata church 24, 25, 30, 35, 37, 138 Agents General for Crown Colonies 26 Agius, Tancredi 102 aisles 36, 47, 48, 100, 122 Alberici, Agnese 87 Alberici, Cavaliere Angelo monument 73 Albert Memorial, London 97 Aleppo Pine 140, 154 Algarotti, Francesco 40 All Saints’ church, London 97 Anastasi chapel 44, 49, 50 Angel holding a Trumpet 79 Angel of Justice 72, 77, 86 anthemion 39, 106, 109 antiquity 71, 84, 106 Apap family chapel 115 Apap Testaferrata chapel 72, 77 Apap, Vincent 76, 87, 88 Arcade for Tablets 23, 91, 99, 100, 117 architectural grammar 35, 42, 91 Arpa family chapel 108 Art Nouveau 44, 47, 49, 79, 119, 120, 123, 235 arts and crafts 123 Arts and Crafts 104, 122, 123 Assumption 80, 122, 141 Attard 49, 119, 121, 123 Attard, C. 87 Attard, N. 49, 123 Attard, Norbert 235 Attard, P. 37, 48 Attilio Micali monument 120 Auberge de Castille 18, 230 axis mundi 42, 138 Azzopardi family chapel 117

B Bajada monument 72, 82 Balbiani, Fra Flaminio 67 baldacchino 118 Ball, Alexander 39, 106

237

Byzantinesque 44

contractor/s 23, 25, 26, 28 Corradino Prison 29 Cospicua 28, 33, 49, 116, 123, 226 Cospicua parish church 116 Cottam and Co., Messrs. 26 Council of Government 20, 21, 233 crenellations 99 crockets 42, 98, 99, 104 Cross monuments 67, 68, 104 Cross of Golgotha 68 Crown Agents 26 cultural construct 135 curvilinear pathways 20, 31 Cypress trees 31, 139, 146, 154, 155

C Cachia Caruana, Giuseppe 94, 121 Cachia di Michele, Vincenzo 97 Caduceus 138 Camenzuli chapel 105 Camera degli Architetti 49, 118, 123 Camposanto, Naples 18 Cannataci, Saverio 97 Canova, Antonio 66 Capuchin friars and clergy 21, 233 Capuchin Order 141 Carbonaro, Ettore 42, 49, 102 Carboni, Sir Joseph 118 Cardona, Vincenzo 76, 86 Carmelite church, Valletta 87, 118 C[arm]elo Schinas Firm 84 carriage-ways 19 Caruana, Raffaele 97 carver/s 50, 94, 98, 99 Casal Luca 226, 227 Casal Tarscien 17 Casa Said, Sliema 44, 49, 119 Casino Notabile 105 Casolani chapel 45, 112 Casolani, Michele 112 cast-iron 98, 102, 137 Catholic cemeteries 18 Catholic Church 17, 30, 33, 37, 145 Catholic population 18 Cauchi, Giovanni 84 Cefai, Ignazio 76, 79, 88 Cellini, Pio 73, 118, 145 Chaplain’s lodge 27 Chaplain’s Lodge 65 Charnel House 27, 65, 100 Chetcuti, Giuseppe 115 Chief Perito 19, 32 Chief Police Physician and Medical Inspector 29 Chief Secretary to Government 32, 33, 79, 87, 88, 150, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232 Church Building Act 96 Ciantar, Paolo 66 Cifariello, Filippo Antonio 73, 74, 87 Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris 92 Cimetière du Nord, Paris 92 Cimitero del Verano, Rome 92 Cimitero Monumentale, Milan 92 circulation system 31 Classical Antiquity 71, 106 clerestory 101 coat of arms 67, 89, 137 Codussi, Mauro 112 Coleiro chapel 44 Collector of Land Revenue 24, 33, 48, 229, 231, 232 Collegium Architectorum Melitensium 118 Colonial government 22, 28, 30, 76, 92 compartments 31, 37, 146, 149

D Darmanin family 108, 117 Darmanin firm 73 Darmanin, Giuseppe 117 Decandia, Vincenzo 67, 70, 86 Dei Dolori Cemetery 27 Della Croce della Marsa 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230 Demajo monument 80 Deposition 47 De Rohan 106 Dingli, Sir Adrian 28, 37, 107, 111 Divisions 31 dome/s 43, 44, 88, 114, 115, 116, 117 Doric Revival 108, 109, 110 drawing/s 20, 23, 24, 26, 35, 38, 40, 45, 48, 49, 76, 79, 84, 85, 93, 94, 98, 109, 110, 112, 113, 114, 116, 118, 121, 122, 123, 155, 236

E Ecclesiologists 67, 86 Eclecticism 44, 49, 65, 76, 93, 94, 96, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 121 Ecosystem 139, 140 Edward and Evelyn Xuereb memorial 110 Edwards, Boris 71, 72, 82, 86 Egyptian Revival 45, 66, 112, 122 Ellul family chapel 114 Ellul, Leonardo 23 Emmerson and Murgatroyd 98 Empire Styles 106 Enforcement Act 28 England, Richard 153, 156 Entrance gate 65, 93, 98, 100 epidemic 17 exemplars 84, 85, 94, 100, 155 exotic 113 extramural cemetery 17, 21

F Farrugia Bugeja chapel 38, 39 Farrugia Bugeja, Lorenzo 113 festoons 38, 73, 108, 109, 115 figurative statuary 69, 70, 84

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finials 41, 42, 93, 98, 102, 109, 115 floral garland/s 67, 84, 89, 115 Floriana 18, 22, 28, 33, 35, 49, 73, 87, 88, 97, 225, 226, 227, 230 Fonthill Abbey 96 France 18, 19, 49, 73, 84, 89, 94, 106 French Flamboyant Gothic 42, 49 French Revolution 97 Funerary chapels 28, 35, 37, 39, 51, 85, 91, 106, 121, 137

Hyzler, Giuseppe 95

I Il-Miżbla 138 Il Portafoglio Maltese 22, 30, 33, 233, 234, 236 interdict 138, 139 Intramural 17, 18, 22 inverted torch/es 37, 41, 44, 66, 67, 89, 108, 109, 116 iron railing/s 98, 145 ironwork 98 Iz-Zuntier ta’ l-Isla 28

G gabled doorway 120 Galdes, Cesare 95, 122 Galea, Baron 18, 19, 230 Galizia, Emmanuele Luigi 92, 97, 110, 113, 118, 121, 149 Galizia, Godwin 112, 118, 123 Galizia, James Major 49, 149 Gambin 44, 46, 50 Gambin family chapel 112 Garden park/s 31, 146 Garden Pavilion, Buckingham Palace 95 gargoyles 99 Gatt chapel/s 46, 77, 105, 117 G-chapel 155 Geometric style 104 Għarb, Gozo 49, 112 Glasgow Necropolis 18 Gothic Revival 23, 25, 30, 35, 37, 42, 47, 48, 65, 73, 85, 86, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 101, 102, 104, 112, 121, 122, 136, 155, 235 Gothic Revivalism 30, 35, 37, 42, 136 Gothic Romantics 96 Gothic visual terminology 99 Governor Le Marchant 18 Grand Harbour 17, 18 grave-diggers 27, 99 graves 26, 27, 28, 109, 110, 137, 139, 141, 145, 149, 150, 231, 232 Great Exhibition of London 94, 97, 117 Grech Mifsud monument 109 Greek Revival 35, 43, 107 Grognet de Vassé, Giorgio 106 grotesque monster 99 Gruner, Ludwig 95 Gulielmus Parnis tomb 84 Gustus 72, 77, 78, 82

J J. Darmanin & Sons 117, 122 Jervis, Simon 94, 121 Jesuits’ Hill 18, 226, 228, 230 Jones, Owen 94 Joseph Rossi funerary chapel 102 J.W. Tyler and Co., Messrs. 26, 101

K Keeper’s lodge 149 Kensal Green Cemetery, London 18, 92 Kordin 18

L La Gazetta di Malta 73, 87 Land Revenue and Public Works Department 23 laurel leaves 37, 38 Law on Extra Mural Interment 22 Ledoux 40 Liberty style/s 44, 47, 49, 66, 73, 74, 75, 79, 80, 81, 94, 145 Lignum Vitae cross 68 Loos, Adolf 153, 156, 236 Lotus flower bud 155 Loudon, John Claudius 25, 30, 31, 33, 139, 143, 146, 235 Loughborough Pearson, John 112 Lower Barakka Gardens 39

M Maddalena Attard monument 67 Magri SJ., Reverend Emanuel 79 Mallia Milanes, Giuseppe 139 Malta Government Technical School 76 Manara, Alessandro 49, 84, 123 Manchè, Lorenzo 72, 73, 78, 111, 235 marble firms 85 Maria Cristina of Austria 66 Maria Paleri monument 70 marmista 118 Martyrium 41 Mdina cathedral 87, 88, 95, 122 Mdina Cathedral 68, 122 Mediterranean Cypress 138 Meeks, Carroll L.V. 96, 121, 123 Mercieca family chapel 114 Messina chapel 41, 116

H Hamilton Gordon, Lady 112 Heaton Foundry 98 Herculaneum 106 High Victorian Age 94 High Victorian Gothic 97 Holy Trinity church, Sliema 35 hood moulding 100 Hookham Frere, John 106, 108 Houses of Parliament, London 96 Howard family chapel 108

239

‘metropolitan’ cemetery 18, 20 Micali, Attilio 74, 145 Micali monument 120 Micallef, Antonio 76, 87, 88 Micallef Eynaud chapel 39, 48, 145 Micallef, Sir Antonio 117 Miggiani chapel 43, 44 Milizia, Francesco 40, 48 Millward & Co. 85 Minister for Health 149 Montano, Giacomo 40, 48, 105 Montebello, Marco 80, 85, 87 Moorish 116 Morris, William 104 Moschetti, Giulio 73, 145 Mosta Rotunda 106 Mother of Sorrows monument 70, 76 Mournful Seated Angel 82 Msida Bastion Cemetery 49, 65, 66, 106, 108

Pensa, Francesco 27 Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris 94 Picturesque 35, 37, 91, 113, 121 Picturesque Eclecticism 96, 121 Pietà 17, 27, 106, 226 Pietà monument 47, 70, 77 pinnacles 37, 97, 98, 99, 100 Pio Clementino Museum 108 Piranesi, Francesco 106 Plague Cemeteries 18, 22 Pompeii 106 Portelli chapel 117 Porto Salvo 107 Portrait busts 72, 82, 87 Prayer in Distress 77 President of the Court of Appeal 28, 117 Prince Albert 95 private chapels 28, 37, 149, 154 Protestants 17, 141 Provincial Father of the Capuchins 26 Psaila, Giuseppe 49, 119 Public Works Department (PWD) 19 Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore 37, 48, 67, 86, 95, 97, 100, 102, 122, 235, 236 Pullicino chapel 39, 72, 82 Pullicino, Giorgio 106 Pullicino, Paolo 95 Putto sitting on Rubble Heap holding Garland 65, 69, 71

N Naples 18, 32, 73 Napoleon I 18 Naturalism 43, 113, 116 Nazarene 87, 118 Necropolis 18, 20, 71, 121, 153 Nelli foundry 74, 145 Neoclassical 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 65, 66, 67, 69, 71, 84, 95, 106, 110, 116, 122, 155 Neoclassicism 35, 37, 40, 94, 95, 106, 107, 108, 113, 122, 136 Nile campaigns 45 Normand ‘the Elder’ 84 North America 92

Q quadripartite vaulting 23 quatrefoils 98, 99, 100 Queen Victoria 95 Queen Victoria monument 70

O

R

Obelisks 38, 65, 66, 109 ogee arch/es 99, 104 openwork 99, 115 Order of St Michael and St George 118 Orthodox Classicism 113 ossuary building 149 Ottoman Muslim Cemetery 35, 121 owl 105

Racinet, Albert-Charles-Auguste 94 Rawdon, Francis 39 Razzini family 73 Reformed Gothic Style 95 Regia Accademia di Belle Arti 76, 88 Renaissance Revival 95, 110, 111, 113, 121 Revivalism 93, 106 Roberts, David 45 Rococo Revival 44, 113 Roman Antiquity 84 Romanesque Revival 44, 46, 47, 49, 112, 122 Romantic 32, 35, 48, 91, 92, 93, 96, 121, 235, 236 Romanticism 30, 32, 37, 48, 75, 96, 235 Royal Engineers 33, 106, 122 Ruskin, John 97, 104

P Pace monument 80 Pace Sapiano family chapels 113, 114 Palladian 39 palmettes 110, 116 palm trees 41 Parapet walls 99, 100 Parisian cemeteries 84 Parnis, Guglielmo 108 Pattern Books 40, 84, 85, 94, 95, 97 Paulson, Webster 37, 48, 94, 105, 145 pediment 37, 38, 40, 43, 44, 47, 102, 107, 111, 114, 115 Pellegrini, Stefano 85 pendant 99, 100, 102, 115, 116

S Sacco, Salavatore 108 Sagona, Joseph 94, 121 Said chapel 46, 50 Salvatore Flores monument 108

240

Sammut, Andrea 23 Sammut, John 94 Sanctuary of the Virgin of Ta’ Pinu 112 Saqqajja Hill, Rabat 105 sarcophagi 39, 65, 67 scaled model 20 Schembri, Tommaso 18, 230 Schinas, Giorgio Costantino 40, 48, 105 Schlieber monument 68 Scicluna, Charles Archbishop 138 Sciortino, Francesco Saverio 71, 72, 77, 79, 86, 88, 111 Scott, George Gilbert 97, 113, 123 Second World War 80, 81, 101, 117, 139 Sections 31 Selvaggi monument 79 Senglea 28, 33, 226 Senglea parish authorities 28 Senglea parish church 109 sepulchral monuments 67, 69, 85, 91 Sette Giugno monument 82 silver 106, 116, 122, 141 Sliema 35, 44, 49, 87, 119, 235 S. Michele in Isola, Venice 112 Società Operaja Cattolica 71 Sommaruga, Giuseppe 119 Souchet, Salvatore 117, 123 South West Division 149 Spampinato, Innocenzo 72 Spampinato, Sebastiano 72, 81, 87 spire 25, 30, 37, 48, 100, 102 Spiteri Sacco, Giovanni 76, 79, 80 stained glass 26, 101, 122 Standing Victorian Woman 70 St Andrew’s Scots church, Valletta 35, 97 St Anthony of Padua 80 St Domitilla 71 stele 106 St Giles, Cheadle 101 St Gregory parish church, Sliema 49 Stile Floreale 77, 119 Stile Liberty 119, 120 Stilon family chapel 108 St James Cemetery, Liverpool 18 St John’s Conventual Church, Valletta 46, 67 St Joseph 80 St Joseph holding the Christ Child 71 Stockport 98 St Paul 70, 80, 86, 122 St Publius Enthroned 68 Strada Levante, Valletta 117 Strada Reale, Ħamrun 108 strapwork 110, 114 Strawberry Hill 96 Street, George Edmund 95 St Stephen 80 Stuart, James ‘Athenian’ 106 Sultana, Dr A. 78 Superintendence of Cultural Heritage 142

Superintendent of Police 28 Superintendent of Public Works 32, 48, 49, 88, 149, 157 Surveyor of the Public Works department 28 symbolic value 138

T Ta’ Braxia Cemetery 17, 18, 32, 35, 37, 65, 112, 122, 236 Tal-Ħorr Hill 18, 19, 20, 25, 30 Tancredi, Octavius 46 T-E chapel 155 tempus fugit 42 Testa Paris, Giuseppe 71, 86 The Builder 32, 36, 48, 150 The Malta Government Gazette 22, 33, 236 The Malta Observer 20, 32, 236 The Malta Times 21, 22, 33, 233, 234, 236 Thomas monument 79 Three Steps to Heaven cross 68 topography 20, 30, 136, 149 tracery 37, 85, 97, 98, 100 transepts 25, 36, 48, 87 Trapani, Paolo 37, 38, 69 trefoil/s 99, 100, 102, 104 Trinity church, New York 100 Trollope, Messrs. 26 Turin 18, 94, 121

U United States of America 100 University of Malta 32, 33, 48, 49, 86, 87, 88, 105, 121, 122, 123, 235, 236 Upjohn, Richard 100 urn/s 37, 38, 40, 44, 65, 66, 67, 69, 71, 79, 106, 109, 110, 113, 114, 115 urn-type 66

V Valenti, Giuseppe 68, 70, 74, 76, 86, 123 Valletta 18, 22, 28, 33, 35, 39, 46, 48, 67, 70, 86, 87, 88, 89, 94, 107, 117, 118, 122, 225, 226, 227, 230, 235, 236 Vassallo, Andrea 44, 46, 47, 49, 72, 112, 119 Vassallo, Filippo 23 Vela, Vincenzo 76 Vella chapel 117 Vella Pullicino monument 104 Verismo 73, 74, 75, 79, 145 vermiculated rustications 113, 117 Via Crucis 101 Vicario Curato 27 Vicar General 21 Victoria and Albert Museum 117 Victoria, Gozo 94 Victorian Age 94 Victorian England 113 Victorian-era cemeteries 30 Victorian garden cemetery 142 Vincenti, Gustavo R. 119 Virgin and Child 70, 80, 89

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Virgin of Sorrows 100 Virgin of the Girdle 70 Vittoriosa 28, 33, 70, 226

W Walpole, Horace 96 water pipes 99 Wesleyan chapel, Floriana 35 West & East Highgate Cemeteries 18 West Highgate Cemetery 24 Whitmore, George 106 winged cherub/s 114, 115, 116 winged hourglass/es 38, 42, 66 wood-inlayer 94 wrought iron 74, 91, 102, 105, 108, 110, 111, 114, 116, 120, 137, 145 Wyatt, James 96

X Xuereb, Evelyn 110 Xuereb family chapel 44, 119

Z Zammit, Francesco 40, 41, 48 Zammit, Nicola 20, 30, 33, 41, 44, 72, 82, 87, 92, 116, 121, 123 Zammit, Salvatore 23 Zammit, Temistocles 79 ZappalĂ , Gregorio 74, 75, 76, 120, 123, 145 Zarb, Vincenzo 41

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ANNOUNCING THE PUBLICATION OF

The Addolorata Cemetery

The Addolorata Cemetery is the crowning achievement of Emmanuele Luigi Galizia (1830–1907), Malta’s most eminent nineteenth-century architect whose Gothic Revival language marked a decisive break from the deeply-rooted Baroque tradition. In addition, the design and form of the cemetery created a unique space for architecture and artistic invention in the design of chapels and sepulchral monuments.

This makes it a vibrant enclave of Maltese funerary art and architecture.

Professor Mario Buhagiar, 2020

Edited by Conrad Thake with contributions by Mario Buhagiar, Mario Borg, Mark Sagona and James Licari Photography by Charles Paul Azzopardi Specifications The book has a large format (300x300mm), 320 pages, produced in a limited hardbound edition of 500 copies.

Pre-Order your copy NOW!