GUDJA
Historical Sites
Although small in size, Gudja is rich in history and beautiful architecture.
Parish Church of the Assumption
In the 1650s the inhabitants of the village made an official request to the bishops to build a new parish church because the old parish church of Bir Miftfuh was situated outside the inhabited area.
The present Parish church of the Assumption was built in 1656 on plans by Thomas Dingli. Construction was completed by 1666. The church was consecrated on the 11th of December 1785. In 1858 a third bell tower was added. In fact it is the only church in Malta with three bell towers. The third tower differs from the two original baroque towers. It was built in the Neoclassical style on plans by William Baker, hence the tower's name as the William Baker Tower.
The titular painting is that of the Assumption of the Virgin, painted by Italian artist Pietro Gagliardi in 1887. The same painter was commissioned for the Our Lady of Mount Carmel painting in 1889. Another notable painting is The Death of Saint Joseph, by Italian artist Domenico Bruschi in 1894. The most important sculpture, inside the church, is the titular statue of the Assumption of Our Lady, sculpted out of solid wood, in 1807, by the Maltese Vincenzo Dimech. It is the oldest statue in the Maltese Islands when featuring the Assumption of Our Lady.
Ta' Xlejli Tower
Its date of construction is not known, but it might have Roman origins. According to Louis de Boisgelin, the historian of the Order of St. John, an urn full of Roman copper medals was found at the tower. The tower also has a round shape, similar to other Punic-Roman towers in Malta.
The oldest reference to the tower dates back to 1570, when it was described as a lookout tower built in the 12th or 13th century. The tower was almost definitely built as a watchtower, since it has views of the southern part of Malta, stretching from Bengħisa to the Grand Harbour.
St Mary's Chapel, Bir Miftuħ
The Chapel of St Mary was built some time in the fifteenth-century, most probably in around 1430.
In 1436, the chapel was mentioned as one of the 12 existing parishes by Bishop Senatore de Mello; it is believed to have existed long before that. It was not in the village center, but mainly covered the areas of Gudja, Ħal Kirkop, Ħal Safi, Mqabba, Ħal Tarxien, Ħal Luqa, Ħal Farruġ and Birżebbuġa.
Originally, the church was longer by two other arches and five adjoining side chapels. Two arches and two side chapels were removed in the late 16th century to enlarge the church in the shape of a cross, which enlargement was demolished in the late 17th century to be used as building material for the new parish church in Gudja. It also had six doors though only two remain. The church served as parish church until 1676 when the present church was built. A belfry was added in the 16th century.
On the arrival of the Knights of St John, a captain was appointed to defend the area of Bir Miftuħ. In 1565, during the Great Siege of Malta, the church was desecrated by the invading Turks. It is said that in order to preserve the treasures of the church, including the bells, from the invaders, the people buried them in the tombs of the church.
The church was visited by the Apostolic Delegate Monsignor Pietro Dusina in 1575 who found it well equipped for divine services. In 1655, the people of Gudja decided to build a new church in the center of the village. Everything was transferred to the new church once it had been built in 1676.
In 1830, Bettina Muscat Cassia D’Aurel restored this church. On April 9, 1942 the church ceiling collapsed as a result of an air raid during World War II. The church was again restored by the parish priest of Gudja. Unfortunately, the church was abandoned until 1970 when it was handed over to the national trust Din l-Art Ħelwa.
Palazzo Dorell
The property was built during the Order of St. John by Count Ignatius Francesco Moscati Falsoni Navarra as a family home and country residence in 1670. The palace was bought in 1760 by Pietro Paolo Falzon d'Aurelle (English: Dorell) Falzon, and is interchangeably named for him and his daughter Marchesa Lady Bettina Testaferrata Dorell.
The palace served as the headquarters for the British forces, under General Graham, during the French blockade (1798–1800).
The Chapel of the Madonna of Loreto
This Chapel was built in 1548 by Knight Imbert de Morine as thanksgiving for his safe keeping during a Turkish battle which took place in the area. It was built on the same site of a smaller medieval one originally located here in the midst of a lost hamlet Casal Qadi.
Chapel of the Annunciation
This is one of the three chapels that were previously built in this area. The present chapel dates to the year 1754. According to the pastoral visit of Bishop Bartolomeo Rull, the chapel was built on a Greek Cross plan and housed a cylindrical dome on top. The facade is plain with strategically placed architectural feats which donate its grandiosity. Flanking either side of the facade, there are two flat austere looking Doric pilasters which are topped by a blank entablature. The main portal is surrounded with a simple thin stone moulding with emphasis on the two top corners of the door. Above the door, one can see a finely executed triangular pediment with a small arch embedded within. Piercing the facade, there is a large ornamental window in executed in the Baroque style. This window and the square belfry on top are a later addition to the chapel and were executed by Anglu Dalli on the design of Carlo Farrugia. At the corners of the facade, there are two stone statues representing Saint Anne and Saint Joachim while on the belfry there is the figure of archangel Gabriel. These statues are the work of Antonio Zammit.
The chapel that stood before the present one was an early medieval one, which was the principal chapel of the then hamlet of Gudja. Most of the bishops’ visit reports give interesting details about the original chapel such as that it was endowed with several benefices, it had a flagstone floor and whitewashed walls. Mass was said twice a week, feast of the titular Saint celebrated annually with some meals distributed to the poor on the feast day.
Chapel of St Catherine
Situated in the central street of the village, this chapel built in 1631 replaced an older one built in 1562 on a site provided by bishop Cubelles on 30th May 1562 together with other benefits to render its upkeep. It is an interesting example of 17th Century rural ecclesiastic architecture consisting of a rectangular building with a slightly pitched roof allowing the rainwater runoff through characteristic projecting waterspouts. Presently it is used as a storage space.
Lieutenant’s Garden
Sir Alexander Ball was Civil Commissioner of Malta from 1799 to 1801, and again from 1802 until his death in 1809. During his second term, between 1802 and 1805, he commissioned 21 gardens to be built in various casali (towns or villages) around Malta, one of which is this one in Gudja. Ball meant that the gardens would be accessible to the public, and he gave them to the temporary Luogotenenti (lieutenants) who were responsible for the administration of the casali. The Luogotenenti did not open the gardens to the public but kept them for their own use, and the gardens subsequently became known as Il-Ġonna tal-Kmand, which means "Commander's Garden" in Maltese.
The gardens were meant to increase the greenery around the Maltese Islands. They were also used for agricultural experimentation, and this resulted in the introduction of the potato crop which yielded greater revenue than cotton, Malta's primary agricultural export at the time. Ball also meant the gardens be used to freely provide farmers with seeds and shrubs, but this was not done and the gardens were not always well-maintained since the Luogotenenti were inexperienced with agricultural improvement.
Old House Insription
In the village of Gudja stands a small old house, situated in Main Street, number 83. This is the oldest still in use house in Gudja that dates to at least to 1533. This house proudly parades an intriguing inscription above the door of what must have been a stable, now partly blocked up. The letters are engraved in relief and are presently in a rather bad shape, obviously due to the corrosive action of the weather and pollution agents. The owner however deserves credit for sparing it when the wall was plastered. Nine letters are missing, completely or partly, but the surviving ones still allow deciphering.
At first one gets the impression of a Greek script because of the letters pi and rho in the first line. There are two graphemes for the M, a square one for the phoneme in Maius and a rounded one (Gothic?) for the numerical symbol meaning one thousand. The X indicating the number ten is very elaborate and shaped like two Cs back to back held together by a dash in the middle. The square M suggests that the letter shaped like a Greek capital pi is actually an N, making it relatively easy to fill in the missing letters and read
ANNO INCARNAC
IONIS CRISTI MCCC
CCXXXIII dIe XXIII dI MAIUS
As regards the graphic aspect, apart from the use of the Greek letters pi and rho for N and R one can also note that the letters d and e are not in Roman capitals, as one would expect them to be in a Latin inscription. In fact they look like small letters extended to the size of capitals, the d occurring twice in a very rounded style with the top part bent forward, while the e is rather narrow and sort of squashed at the top.
It is rather curious that the word which has come down in the worst condition is Cristi, in spite of its central position. It is also the only word on which there is disagreement between P.F. Bellanti and Sir Themistocles Zammit who both copied it in their unpublished notes. Although in their time pollution was not what it is today (traffic in Main Street, Gudja is surprisingly frequent and rather noisy even on a Saturday afternoon, the two transcriptions seem to be a reconstruction rather than a reproduction of the actual state the inscription was in, expecially in Zammit’s case. Bellanti however admitted difficulty by writing CI’ITI whereas Zammit has CPISTI. Although there is no sign of the vertical line of the P, the wide C shows a small rounded figure at its top end which resembles the top of the P in the line above it. What remains of the T is quite recognizable but the tapering S and the I flanking it are very faint. Neither Bellanti nor Zammit give any information about the building. The latter however records the exact date when he copied it “Friday 26th November 1911”, and adds that he was in the company of Prof. Tagliaferro, Mr. and Mrs. Peet and Mr. Whittmore.
From the linguistic point of view it is interesting to note a few pointers showing that the inscription did not belong to the higher cultural level, which means that it was not a very formal one. First of all there a C in the suffix of INCARNACIONIS where etymology prescribes a T. This was not unusual in the Middle Ages, in fact I have met with quite a number of examples in Latin texts written in Sicily: caucione (1285), solucione (1312), iusticia (1373), mercanciis (1401) existencium (1455). In this context the letter C, like the correct T, was read Z. The influence of Italian is evident in the spelling of Cristi without the etymological h (Christi) and in the preposition di which precedes Maius in the nominative case. The avoidance of the genitive, which would have been more appropriate here, shows inconsistency for the case turns up in the phrase Anno Incarnacionis Cristi. One notes therefore that it is used in the stereotyped formula which gives the year but not in the indication of the day of the month. The use of prepositions was never admitted in Classical Latin but it emerged very early in the Middle Ages in Vulgar Latin and Church Latin. In fact there are examples dating from the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. in the Vulgate of St. Jerome and the Peregrinatio Aetheriae ad loca sancta. For these reasons the Gudja inscription is in contrast with most contemporary Latin inscriptions which were generally formal and correct.