Mosta Dome

In this world you often find places that claim to have 'a something’ for every day of the year. So, you have York in England with 365 pubs and the Caribbean with its reputed 365 beaches. In Malta it’s churches. There are, so they say, 365 of them … though ‘they’ don’t ever seem to have counted them … and ‘they’ don’t appear particularly keen to do so!

Exact numbers aside, we reckon it’s very fair to say that there are blinking loads of them, and they range from the windswept cliff-top chapels to lofty city-centre cathedrals - from Gothic fortresses with adjoining graveyards, to ultra-modern structures that wouldn’t look out of place battling the Starship Enterprise.

Actually, you’ll also find an underwater chapel, although admittedly it started out as one of the aforementioned cliff-top chapels but got a little ‘too windswept’. From this, we can cheerfully conclude that the Maltese like their churches and one of the examples that gives them the most pride is the magnificent Mosta Dome, or the Rotunda Santa Marija Assunta.

This architectural masterpiece is notable for many reasons and is distinguished by the grandeur of its 67 metre high domed cupola. This was designed by Maltese architect Giorgio Grongnet and is the third largest unsupported dome in the world. It’s also one of the most attractive when viewed from inside, with its daisy like centre and swirlingly patterned decoration.

The church also has a fine neo-classic façade embellished by Ionic columns and it’s no coincidence that it bears more than a passing resemblence to Rome’s Pantheon.

But as well as being a ‘looker’ there are two other remarkable episodes from this building’s past that you should be aware of; the first being its construction. The new church was built to replace an existing and still-standing parish church, on the same site.

So how do you build a new church on the same site as an existing church? Easy, build the new one up, around and over the old one! And that is precisely what they did in the mid 19th century. When complete, they demolished the old church inside the new one and bingo! Church replaced without worshippers ever being churchless, or whatever the word for that might be. Genius!

The second, even more amazing, and possibly miraculous episode occurred in the Second World War. During an early evening air-raid on the 9th April 1942, a 200kg German bomb passed through the dome into the church below, where 300 people were gathered in prayer - praying, ironically, that Malta would survive the ongoing aerial battering. The bomb smashed onto the floor in the middle of the church and … well, and nothing! It failed to explode and amazingly it injured no-one.

A miracle? Possibly! And that’s why a replica of the bomb remains on display in the church today.

The church also boasts the largest mechanical organ ever installed in Malta. It was built in Italy by the famous organ builder Pacifico Inzoli and was installed along with around 2,000 pipes in 1885.

Mosta is pretty much bang in the middle of Malta - west of Sliema - and is easy to reach by car on well-signposted roads. On the bus, there are loads of routes that call at Mosta - most of them on their way to Mdina so why not combine the two for a day out? As for directions to the church, we’re not giving you any as it’s fairly obvious where it is in the city. You’ll see when you get there!

Admission to the church is free and it’s open every day from 5.30am to 7pm. Women are advised to dress acordingly or suffer the indignity of being given a fetching church issue shawl and skirt to wear.