A historic statue of St George on top of a garden wall of the Montanaro family residence in Enrico Mizzi Street, Victoria, has been restored.

The heavily eroded globigerina stone statue needed extensive restoration, including the replacement of a missing hand and the dragon’s head. While most people remember the statue painted white all over, an early 20th-cen tury aquarelle by Edward Caruana Dingli shows the statue in full colour in its original location at Tal-Ħaġar.

In fact, after the statue was cleaned of its many paint layers, the original colours absorbed by the stone could be seen and these were confirmed through a scientific analysis of the paint chips.

The statue has been repainted in full colour as it was originally and plans are under way to install lighting to better illuminate this restor - ed piece of Gozitan heritage.

The project was undertaken by Wirt Għawdex in conjunction with the Ministry for Gozo as part of the Cleaner and Greener Gozo scheme.

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