Not only are the pictures beautiful and artistic, the trivia is just as interesting!
If you’re currently living in Malta, or travelling through the islands, you’ve certainly come across a Maltese church. The Maltese islands are home to a staggering 365 houses of prayer, in the form of churches, chapels, basilicas and cathedrals, with each locality housing a parish church - multiple ones in the case of larger towns - dedicated to the district's patron saint/s.
Parish churches are fancier than your regular church and are generally decked out with beautiful paintings, gold-adorned religious monuments and elaborate statues. They not only serve as a place of worship but also double as a shrine for architectural, artistic, and socio-religious heritage. It is usually the altar, paintings or the statue of the patron saint that takes pride of mention, but one local Instagrammer has put the spotlight on one often overlooked feature: church domes.
Luke Abela, or @maltadomes, takes photos of Maltese domes from directly underneath, allowing the viewer to feel as if they are standing beside the photographer and looking up.
Each photo is accompanied by a detailed description of the church, providing some pretty cool trivia that even locals may not have heard of before.
One of Luke’s pictures is of the Basilica Collegiate parish Church of St Paul in Rabat, Malta. He provides some interesting information about it:” Unfortunately at midnight on the 18th of September 1923, a powerful earthquake brought down this church’s roof and the walls gave in, probably due to the fact that the walls were not strong enough to withstand the weight of the strong dome,” he wrote. While repairs commenced immediately, the roof caved in again at a quarter to midnight on 29th November 1924, with repairs finally completed on 28th February 1926.
Another picture of the dome of Our Lady of Grace in Zabbar also reveals a similar fate: “A lightning strike hit and destroyed one of the belfries on the 16th of November 1902,” the caption reads.
Yet another photo, this time of the Parish of St Catherine of Zurrieq, narrates the aftermath of a World War II bombing on the island: “This church was damaged during the Second World War – a bomb fell and destroyed part of the church’s sacristy on the 23rd of July 1942,” Luke writes. There were more casualties in the shape of paintings, with one of the eight Mattia Preti paintings in the church left destroyed.
How beautiful are these local domes?