St Roque Chapel on Zebbug's Main Street is one of 14 houses of worship that dot this flourishing, historical town - the birthplace of so many key figures in Malta's story.
Standing proudly at a crossroads of narrow, densely populated lanes, with its tiny parvis and round window above the front entrance, the chapel has a modest history - told on a marble tablet beneath the only stone altar - that has however not gone unnoticed by historians and heritage custodians.
Military and architectural historian Quentin Hughes admired the chapel enough to put in on the front cover of his book The Building of Malta 1530-1795, published in 1956.
Ecclesiastical authorities entrusted the chapel to Din l-Art Helwa in April 1980. Nine years later it was inaugurated as a cultural museum by then Culture Minister Ugo Mifsud Bonnici.
Zebbug Nationalist MP Michael Bonnici was appointed custodian at around the same time and has since dedicated many hours of his spare time tending to the tiny chapel.
Measuring just eight metres by seven, the chapel, complete with its own belfry, was commissioned in 1592 to fulfil a pledge made by Tumas and Katarin Vassallo, a local couple who had been spared from the dreaded plague.
It is dedicated to St Roque, the powerful French-born patron of the sick and suffering, who contracted the plague in Piacenza while caring for sufferers in the early 14th century.
A large and somewhat mysterious oil painting of the saint, who was born with a cross-shaped birthmark on his chest, hangs over the altar. The painting was recently restored by Rose Borg Olivier. (The feast of St Roque is celebrated on August 16).
The chapel is a humble cultural museum - over the years a small collection of pictures, photographs and mementoes of local personalities has been put together by Mr Bonnici, who also had the façade restored last January and was responsible for seeing that electricity was installed.
The local residents, he says, are a great source of help and he gratefully accepts donations in the form of objects of interest from relatives of local heroes for safekeeping in the chapel. He does come across bits and pieces himself, like the original model for a bust of national poet Dun Karm, and two marble tablets from a dismantled memorial to the Zebbug war dead.
Taking pride of place in a glass casket on the altar are ancient pottery artifacts in pristine condition, a bronze needle and pieces of bronze and iron jewellery which were found in two burial chambers in Gate Avenue in January 1964.
Above the casket are the water and wine containers belonging to Fr Tomaso Ebejer, who died in July 1948, aged 74. (For many years after the last Mass was celebrated in 1965, the chapel assumed the undignified role of store room for the large banners for St Philip's feast). There is a also a beautifully restored mother-of-pearl crucifix and pedestal. Next to the altar is a wax mannequin dressed in antique vestments.
In the centre of the chapel is a glass-topped display cabinet, containing, among other things, the original deed that entrusted the chapel to Din l-Art Helwa, several publications relating to Zebbug , its history and local personalities, and coins dating to Grand Master De Rohan's time.
The walls are adorned with pictorial memories and memorabilia. Michael Bonnici, who was also secretary to the Zebbug civic council between 1964 and 1974, even collects old frames and restores them for pictures earmarked for the chapel.
There are pictures of Zebbug churches and chapels, all with their own history to relate and some in need of deserved resurrection.
Artist Lazzaro Pisani, a cousin of the celebrated Zebbug sculptor Antonio Sciortino, is given due recognition here - there are early drawings and sketches of works that now adorn Nadur parish church in Gozo and a portrait of the artist who died in 1932.
Other 'framed' personalities include Indrì Borg, the 19th century father of the village band as we know it, acting parish priest Fr Loreto Callus during a local ceremony with Governor Lord Gort in 1945, Mgr Salvatore Milanesi (Zebbug archpriest, 1919-1938), Professor Philip Farrugia, Judge Wallace Gulia, and Antonio Debono, the first Christian Doctrine Society superior.
Antonio Sciortino, who made a name for himself in Italy and Malta, is given ample recognition - there are pictures, miniature models and replicas of his most famous works.
Mr Bonnici has also managed to get hold of watercolours depicting scenes in Zebbug by artist Richard Horncastle who died in 1987. Also taking pride of place are postcards designed by Frangisku Sciortino (Antonio's brother) complete with Italian postmarks.
St Roque's chapel makes a modest monument but it has made it onto local schoolchildren's cultural calendar. It is little treasure troves like these that give residents of all ages a greater awareness of their town's own contribution to national history and a sometimes much needed injection of pride in the local community.
Visits are by appointment. Call Michael Bonnici, MP, e-mail: michael.bonnici@ magnet.mt.