The Garden of Rest (Ġnien il-Mistrieħ) : a nineteenth-century Protestant cemetery on the Floriana bastions

Abstract

Hidden in the Floriana bastions overlooking Msida, Ta’ Xbiex and Manoel Island, lies the beautiful and quiet ‘Garden of Rest’. This old Protestant cemetery was created and used in the nineteenth century when the British had first settled in Malta and took up the reins of government of the island. Among the eminent persons buried there are the diplomat and scholar John Hookham Frere, and the linguist and writer Mikiel Anton Vassalli, often named as ‘father of the Maltese language’. This article traces the history of the cemetery from its foundation to its restoration and management by Malta’s national trust Din l-Art Ħelwa.