One World - Protecting the most significant buildings, monuments and features of the Maltese islands (46)
Villa Frere
Villa Frere on Marina Street, Pietà is a three-storey seafront palace built in the late 18th century. It was the residence of Sir Hookham Frere during his stay in Malta at the beginning of the 19th century. The façade is characterised by a main doorway having a portico consisting of two Tuscan order columns which seem to have been added in the early 19th century as was the fashion. Above the main entrance is a wide open balcony. The façade is painted in a reddish-brown colour making it more prominent.
The pièce de résistance of Villa Frere is its extensive gardens laid out on terraces up the hill where St Luke's Hospital is located. Frere was fascinated by the antiquities and the Romantic Period and this influence can be seen from the features and garden follies still extant in the gardens, such as a belvedere, a Doric Tempietto, arches and other garden decorative features. In one of his letters, Frere describes how he built a retaining wall constructed in very large masonry polygonal blocks known as Cyclopean masonry and which still survives and are sometimes mistaken for archaeological remains. The gardens of Villa Frere actually the inspiration for Villa Bologna's gardens in Lija as designed by Lady Strickland.
Since the 1950s parts of the upper gardens of Villa Frere were encroached by the building of a small state school named after Frere, and by the helipad at St Luke's Hospital.
Mepa scheduled Villa Frere, ancillary structures, gardens and garden features as Grade 2 national monument and the garden follies (Tempietto, belvedere and arches) as Grade 1 national monuments as per Government Notice no. 629/08 in the Government Gazette dated July 21, 2008.
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liliana spiteri
Oct 13th 2009, 13:06
I grew up in this house and agree totally that it has to be restored to its previous glory. What can be done to get this going? I've got some ideas of my own which unfortunately cannot realise personally but willing to share. What's MEPA's planningwhen they say it's a grade 1/2 monument?
Katia Carabott
Oct 7th 2010, 10:36
hey, by any chance you don't have more info... i'm doing some research re architecture and am doing the Pieta waterfront, and it would really really help...