Did you know? This Rabat chapel dedicated to St Nicholas and St Lucy served as a refugee centre in WWII
The town of Rabat is home to many sites full of rich history and heritage, and the chapel of St Nicholas and St Lucy is one of them.
Documents show that the chapel was already built by 1575 but it could very well be even older. According to Kappelli.com, it was built for private use by a noble family in the area.
However, by the early 18th century it needed to be rebuilt as it was run down, and that’s exactly what Agostin Agius did.
Mass was obliged to be held for both the St Nicholas and the St Lucy feast on the 6th December and 13th December.
Nonetheless, the purposes of the chapel changed quite a bit when World War II came around. It started serving as refuge for all those displaced during World War II.
As explained by Kappelli.com, they were not entirely safe in there, as a girl from Romania who was a refugee hiding there still tragically died after a bomb fell nearby the chapel. Even though the chapel was not damaged, a painting depicting the chapel’s saints and Our Lady holding baby Jesus suffered extensive damage.
The chapel was restored once again by Patri Rafel Azzopardi and got a new titular painted by Guzeppi Briffa in 1960s.
Have you ever spotted this chapel before?