An outline of Maltese Baroque architecture

Abstract

There is a general consensus amongst scholars of Baroque architecture that Sicily constitutes Europe's southern most frontier of Baroque culture. One can cite the studies of various renowned architectural historians including Argan, Blunt, Norberg-Schulz, and Wittkower, who have identified Sicily as the ultimate frontier of Baroque architecture within the Mediterranean basin. I will in this brief exposition seek to challenge this position and attempt to extend this frontier slightly further to the south of Sicily, precisely to the island of Malta. Malta is situated some sixty miles south of Siracusa. In the fourteenth century Malta formed part of the Aragonese kingdom which also comprised Sicily. The political administration and economy of the island was based on a type of feudal system with a hierarchical relationship between the feudatori, the burghesi, and the local contadini. This state of affairs changed radically with the arrival of the Order of St. John in 1530. After their expulsion from Rhodes by the Ottoman Turks the knights decided to accept Emperor Charles V's offer of establishing their base in Malta. From this point in time the common political destiny of Malta and Sicily became a thing of the past even though the close commercial links between the two islands persisted especially those involving the maritime cities of Siracusa, Augusta and Licata. [Excerpt]