Malta – Northern Region – Mosta – Mosta Rotunda

The imposing, but still beautiful, frontage of Mosta Rotunda where work started in 1833 and was finished after just 28 years…. Great civil engineers they had there. Anyway, they built this building around the existing church, and then demolished the church when they had finished it, so that must have been a giant construction site for three decades.

Wikipedia tells me that this was the third largest unsupported dome in the world when it was constructed…. The frontage was also modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, a noble endeavour for a town in Malta to want to recreate.

The domed ceiling, although photos can’t really do this justice.

The altar in what felt a spacious and elegant environment.

Visitors can visit the sacristy at the rear of the church, this is one of the connecting corridors and there are tombs on one side.

One of the elegant tombstones on the floor of the church. I say (well, type) church although it was elevated to the status of a minor basilica in July 2018.

I feel very slightly cheated by this, the church proudly signs internally their unexploded bomb. This was an amazing piece of good fortune, not that the bomb fell through the roof in an bombing raid which in itself is bad news, but that it didn’t explode. Anyway, I thought that this was the bomb. But it isn’t, the actual bomb was chucked in the sea by the Royal Engineers who didn’t want it to explode. However, the story is still marvellous because there were 300 people inside the Rotunda when the bomb fell through the roof, so it could have been one of the worst tragedies of the war if it had gone off.

The pulpit and view across the interior of the Rotunda. The church was quite busy with visitors, but everything was organised and well signed. I got a joint ticket with the war shelter for €3, which was perfectly reasonable value.