One World - Protecting the most significant buildings, monuments and features of Valletta (63)
Niche of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
The statue was sculpted by Salvatore Dimech in 1855 but the niche and the base are faithful copies of the former ones which were replaced when the church was remodelled after World War II. The niche contains a life-size franka stone statue of Our Lady holding a scapular in her right hand and the baby Jesus in her left hand. The statue is standing on a pedestal which has a winged cherub at its front and is placed within a heavily ornate canopied stone niche, with sculptured stone in imitation of frills and fringes. The whole is supported on a tapered base that is also very ornate and has the escutcheon of the Carmelite Order at its centre.
Mepa scheduled the niche of Our Lady of Mount Carmel as a Grade 1 national monument as per Government Notice number 276/08 in the Government Gazette dated March 28.