The Addolorata Cemetery : a study of a select number of funerary chapels of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to look into the building of several of the funerary chapels that were erected at the Addolorata Cemetery, between the last decades of the nineteenth century, from the submission of the first chapel drawing in January 1870, up to the early decades of the twentieth (1930). Research was based on the information extracted from the original designs submitted by the various architects involved, initially to the Collector of Land Revenue and eventually, after June 1880, to the succession of Superintendents of Public Works. The nineteenth century was a century of contrasts. Important scientific discoveries led to the synthesis of a Western society living simultaneous extreme realities. On the one hand it was a society building its future on newly discovered scientific knowledge which led to industrial and technical revolutions. On the other hand it was still attached to a religious past through which faith and morality exerted their utmost influence on the individual. In Malta innovation in this cemetery was linked to the occupying power of the time - the British Empire. It was the main source of influence behind the introduction of a Neoclassical architectural idiom into the country, which eventually came to form a principal part of an eclecticism that was to embellish the first funerary chapels erected within the Addolorata Cemetery. One outcome of British colonialism was the harbouring of political and religious conflicts between Maltese ecclesiastic authorities and the British governors. The former guided the faithful at a spiritual level by means of its teachings and dogmas. The latter initially aimed to direct the islands in purely political matters but ultimately sought, on several occasions, to mar this border by stressing and encouraging Protestantism indirectly. The British intended to spread their influence throughout the Mediterranean using Malta as a base. This they tried to achieve by introducing their language, politics and Protestant faith. It was during one such conflict, the dispute about mixed burials at Ta' Braxia Cemetery in the 1850s, which triggered off a strong nationalistic reaction culminating in the building of Sta. Maria Addolorata Cemetery at Tal-Horr, limits of Tarxien. A brief history of events which lead to the erection of the Addolorata Cemetery is discussed in Chapter 1. Emanuele Luigi Galizia, the main arbiter of works in this project, along with several other architects who contributed towards the building of a substantial number of funerary chapels, are discussed in Chapter 2 vis-a-vis their involvement in other architectural projects on the island at the time. Stylistic comparisons were drawn from the body of known and attributed works. A chronological study tracing both the architects commissioned for the construction of several of the funerary chapels, as well as an investigation into the architectural borrowings that gave rise to their chapel constructions within an eclectic framework, is then discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. The architectural significance of the funerary chapels in its broader sense imparts a multitude of meanings. Interpretations drawn from these works did not simply reflect economic, political and social attitudes at the time, as is discussed in Chapter 1, but also a religious and symbolic one (Chapter 5) particularly geared towards man's understanding and interpretation of death.