The parish church dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady in Birkirkara was for a time the town’s sole parish, dating back to the early 17th century.

The church deteriorated from disuse and neglect owing to the fact that a new parish church, dedicated to St Helen and within the same town, was built in the mid- 1700s.

In 1950, the Collegiate Chapter of Birkirkara decided to start restoring the church, which was later opened for worship in 1973. Today it serves as the parish of an autonomous pastoral zone.

The plan of the church is laid out on the Latin Cross with simple geometric proportions, designed by Vittorio Cassar, and the façade by the scalpellino Tumas Dingli. Experts in the field describe the front elevation of the church as a fine rhythmical façade, richly carved and decorated based on a temple front with giant Corinthian pilasters framing it. The façade is loaded with elements that are found in earlier churches and were repeated here in a relatively dense concentration, limited to the central part of the façade. The building is worthy of admiration and as Hugh Braun in 1946 stated: “it is a fine specimen of early Renaissance in Malta”. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority scheduled the parish church as a Grade 1 monument on August 26, as per Government Notice 782.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.