Ta’ Braxia Cemetery in Pietà.

Today’s talk by architect Chris Grech entitled Vanishing Views at Din l-Art Ħelwa premises has been replaced by a talk by architect Conrad Thake and Janica Buhagiar who will be presenting their book on Ta’ Braxia Cemetery.

The Ta’ Braxia Cemetery at Pietà was designed and planned by Maltese architect Emanuele Luigi Galizia (1830-1907). It was for the first extra-mural cemetery to be established in Malta.

This book narrates the challenging religio-political context that prevailed during the mid-19th century and the steadfast determination of the British colonial government, then headed by Governor Sir William Reid, to implement this project for the “formation of a cemetery at Ta’ Braxia for all denominations without distinction of creed”, even when faced by opposition from conservative Catholic quarters.

It traces the foundation of the cemetery from its establishment in 1855-57  to its physical expansion around 1880. It also considers the distinctive qualities and characteristics of a garden-cemetery and the diverse typology and rich iconographical symbolism of the various funerary monuments at Ta’ Braxia.

The last section deals with the origins and history of the Lady Rachel Hamilton Gordon chapel (1893-94) which is the main architectural icon of the cemetery.

Besides the main analytical text, the book includes several transcripts of original archival documents and contemporary newspaper reports, a comprehensive photographic documentation of the cemetery complex in its present state and a specially-commissioned selection of architectural drawings comprising a general plan of the cemetery, and elevations and sections of the memorial chapel.

As the writer James Morris wrote in a special issue of The Architectural Review dedicated to Malta, (July 1969), “in Ta’ Braxia Cemetery, the British presence still seems alive and touches us more closely than any plume or gonfalon of dead grandee, aloof upon the floor of the Co-Cathedral”.

The talk is being held at Din l-Art Ħelwa, 133, Melita Street, Valletta, today at 6.30 pm.