The Manikata parish church dedicated to St Joseph was designed in the early 1960s by Richard England in one of his first design projects given to him by his father, himself an established designer on the island.

Sitting proudly above the once small rural hamlet of Manikata, the church was conceived during a time of change for the Catholic church, with ongoing major reforms from the Second Vatican Council aiming to bring the celebrant and the congregation closer together in unison. England, aware of these reforms decided to dispense with the traditionally styled baroque churches of yesteryear and focused on the site and its surroundings, searching for sources of inspiration. He found it close to where the church sits today in the shape of the traditional structures known as corbelled huts (giren) and from Modernist architectural influences to which he was exposed when studying in Milan.

What resulted was a building that many architects aimed for during the Modern movement but rarely achieve, namely the successful cohesion of human spirituality within the peacefulness of its natural envionment.

The Manikata parish church dedicated to St Joseph is considered to be one of the most innovative structures on the island and a fine example of Modern architecture. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority scheduled the parish church as a Grade 1 monument on August 26 as per Government Notice 782.