The Msida Bastion, garden of rest : a visitors’ guide

Abstract

The Garden was the main protestant cemetery or burial place in Malta from about 1806; 528 persons are known to have been buried there, but the total number would be somewhat greater. We have no records specific to the Garden of Rest, and there are a number of unidentified graves. The Garden was more or less full by 1856, when Ta' Braxia Cemetery was opened, but there were interments at Msida Bastion until at least 1886. The principal occupants of the cemetery are British military and naval personnel and their families, British officials and businessmen. Some are the ancestors of families still in Malta to this day. The visitor will note that many of the graves are of children. Of the 375 ages that are known, 175 were 20 and under, and of these 67 were less than a year old. Mortality during the period was very high. As a comparison, the Malta Census of 1851 records life expectancy for Maltese men as 25 years, and for women, 26 years. The Garden of Rest lies in the Msida Bastion, which is so called because it overlooks Msida across the Harbour. It was originally the Bastion of St. Philip, part of the outer defence works of Valletta commissioned by Grand Master Antoine de Paule in 1635; we remember the ltaliaIn architect involved, Floriani, in the name of the district 'Floriana'.