One World - Protecting the most significant buildings, monuments and features of the Maltese islands (29)
Sisters' Quarters, Mtarfa
Sisters' Quarters, Mtarfa
This two-storey-building built in 1924 as shown by a scroll at the centre of the roof wall. It served as the quarters for nuns who served as nurses at the ex-British Military Hospital complex of Mtarfa.
It is located at the corners of Triq Dar il-Kaptan and Triq il-Konti F. Theuma Castelletti in Mtarfa and has a façade with a veranda with nine arches supported on pilasters. The central arch has two pilasters on either side.
The first floor is receded with a balustraded terrace.
The western façade also has a veranda at ground floor with five arches and a terrace at first floor supported by four square columns. On each corner is a tower with arches at ground and first floors.
The east and south faces are irregular but both contain verandas, terraces, arches and plain sections.
The building is abandoned and has been vandalised several times.
One of the front rooms has been gutted by fire in more recent times and although the stone suffered some damage the building is otherwise still in a good condition.
What is likely to be a World War II air-raid shelter was uncovered during rock excavations for social housing adjacent to building.
It is possible that this shelter was for the use by the sisters/nurses during air raids.
Mepa scheduled the Sisters' Quarters in Mtarfa as a Grade 2 national monument as per Government Notice number 628/08 in the Government Gazette dated July 12, 2008.
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B Agius
Aug 8th 2009, 17:03
@ M Sciberras
I agree with you 100%. As a Maltese living overseas, and one that still loves Malta, one feels ashamed that these things never seem to improve in Malta. I feel sorry for the people living there but, on the other hand, they seem to be used to the general malaise that exists or, as they can't do anything about it, they simply accept it. I know comparisons are odious but, as you said, these things don't happen in most other developed countries. I think it's unfair to compare Malta with much bigger developed countries , however one expects that some real improvement will eventually take place. Some of us have been waiting for ages for this to happen and it doesn't seem to matter who is in Government - the result is the same.
Daphne Caruana Galizia
Aug 8th 2009, 17:00
There is some confusion here: in the British hospital system, a 'sister' is not a nun, but a nursing grade. In the English language, 'sister' is used as the form of address for nuns, but it is not used as an alternative noun for 'nun'. In English, a nun is a nun, and not a sister.
MSciberras
Aug 8th 2009, 10:29
This building is simply abandoned and no matter if MEPA has scheduled it, it will eventually go the same way as the beautiful gutted Âustralia Hall in Pembroke. This is the whole problem with Maltese so called legal protection of historic buildings as well as with the state of our urban environment. Whoever owns any sort of building - government or private landlord - should be required by law to maintain the building as is common practice overseas. And of course, the law should be enforced. The absence of such legislation is the prime reason why Malta looks so shabby - think of the entire Pieta seafront, the crumbling hotel at Riviera beach, the abandoned long forgotten hotel in Mellieha above the Green Village.
B Agius
Aug 8th 2009, 10:05
Another disgusting presentation of what is supposedly heritage. Why is it that in almost all of these photos one sees rubble and or rubbish or vandalism around. And then Maltese newspapers are so proud of all this that they publish it! What exactly is being protected and by whom in this instance? Maltese don't even know when to be shamed!!