Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery in Paola is Malta's general public cemetery and was designed by the Maltese architect Sir Emanuele Luigi Galizia. It is designed in the neo-gothic style and divided into a symmetrical and radial arrangement of burial sections and ceremonial paths arranged on the slopes of a steep hill.

The original layout is set within a pentagonal area having parallel sides. The internal avenue network is set around a central diamond-shaped space occupying the highest point and on which the main church was built on a platform.

From this central area radiate eight avenues in symmetrical directions, forming burial areas in triangular shapes. The main features comprise an entrance gate, administrative offices, keeper's lodge and chaplain's quarters, the exedra, church, a number of ossuaries, as well as the boundary wall, monumental stairs and revetments.

The cemetery contains a large number of private mausoleums, chapels, grave monuments and grave-stones of high artistic and architectural quality.

Mepa scheduled the Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery and ancillary public structures as a Grade 1 national monument as per Government Notice number 628/08 in the Government Gazette dated July 21, 2008.