The historic gardens of Villa Bologna, Attard, long-time residence of Lord Strickland, former prime minister of Malta and founder of Allied Newspapers and Progress Press, are being restored. It is there that he died on August 22, 1940, aged 79.

The property, which was built in the 18th century as a dowry, is being restored through a grant that will also promote the villa and its grounds as a tourist attraction.

For centuries Villa Bologna housed successive generations of the same family that built it. Its walls shelter a historical Mediterranean garden, which is probably what it is best known for.

Parts of these gardens are being restored through a private investment of €260,000 and another €200,000 forked out by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), under a scheme that promotes sustainable tourism.

But Villa Bologna is not just a garden – it is a treasure of cultural and political heritage. The main villa was built in 1745 by Fabrizio Grech as a dowry for the marriage of his daughter Maria Teresa to Nicolas Perdicomati Bologna. The old orange groves and fountains date back to this period.

Two centuries later, in the 1930s, Lord Strickland’s second wife, Lady Margaret, built a new garden behind the villa with another fountain, a sunken pond and a marquee. His daughter Mabel Strickland, former owner and editor of The Times and The Sunday Times, was brought up in the villa.

In 1951, her sister Cecilia de Trafford who, like Mabel, was among Malta’s first women MPs, transformed the villa’s stables into a pottery shop which is still in use today.

The shop was set up to provide employment for women and formed part of a larger business that included a weaving company.

The ERDF scheme will also be funding the upgrading of the machinery and infrastructure at the pottery shop.

More details about the restoration are being carried on Villa Bologna’s  Facebook page.