Abbatija tad-Dejr lecture

Professor Mario Buhagiar, head of the History of Art programme within the Faculty of Arts at the University, is giving a lecture on 'The early Christian site at Abbatija tad-Dejr in Rabat - Archaeological and art historical insights on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Din l-Art Helwa, Valletta.

Abbatija tad-Dejr is one of Malta's prime archaeological sites but, while its interest has been recognised since at least the early 17th century, it has never received the attention it richly deserves, and its recent history has been particularly unfortunate.

Although originally an early Christian rock-cut cemetery complex with a built extension of apparent architectural significance, it knew a subsequent use, in the early post-Muslim period, as troglodytic hermitage of Basilian (Greek-rite) monks, who squatted among the tombs and decorated its walls with Siculo-Byzantinesque cult images for their private contemplation.

The lecture discusses the archaeological art historical context of the site and assess its interest to a still largely obscure period in Maltese history.

Professor Buhagiar graduated in History of Art and Medieval Archaeology from the University of London and took his Ph.D. at the same university. In 1988 he was responsible for establishing History of Art as an academic discipline at the University of Malta.

His book The Iconography of the Maltese Islands 1400-1900 (Malta, 1987) consolidated the European context of Maltese art history and provided the essential framework for the future development of scholarly research.

He is a contributor to the Grove Dictionary of Art and is the author of specialised books and studies on art and archaeology which include Late Roman and Byzantine Catacombs and Related Burial Places in the Maltese Island (Oxford, 1986), and The Art and Architecture of Late Medieval Malta (Malta, 2005).