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This blog is dedicated to Malta - my island home. My aim is not to bore you with history but to share my thoughts and a few facts together with a photo or two. For a more in -depth background of the island please go here. The purpose of this blog is not to point out the short-comings of the island. There are plenty that do that already. My wish is to show you the beauty of an island at the cross roads of the Mediterranean, a melting pot of history; a place where fact and fiction are sometimes fused to create unique myths and legends; a country that has been conquered so many times that our culture is a mish mesh of the lands that surround us and of lands far away. I confess that my greatest desire is to make you fall in love with this tiny enchanting island.

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Monday 9 May 2016

Wayside Chapels: St Michael 'is-Sancier'

Is-Sancir & Migra Ferha (8)-001

The chapel of St Michael  nicknamed 'is-Sancier' (the sincere) is located on the outskirts of the town of  Rabat. It is one of the oldest chapels still standing in its original form. Low and squat, it is partly built of rough-hewn stones, blending in with the rural landscape that surrounds it. The chapel of St Michael is located in a zone that has yielded many shreds of Punic, Roman and medieval pottery.

Is-Sancir & Migra Ferha (9)

Is-Sancir & Migra Ferha (11)

St Michael's was probably constructed during the middle of the fifteenth century. In 1678 it was deconsecrated and the titular painting of St Michael was transferred to the parish church of St Paul, in Rabat. For many years the chapel was used by farmers as a store for tools and as a cow-shed.

Is-Sancir & Migra Ferha (12)

Is-Sancir & Migra Ferha (14)

In 1981 the chapel was cleaned and restored by a group of volunteers but, since that time, it has fallen into disrepair, with all sorts of weeds and other types of small plants growing on the façade, together with an insidious type of wild ivy, whose roots and tendrils are wreaking havoc on the crumbling, centuries-old stone-work. The side-entrance is almost completely obstructed by bamboo and the interior of the chapel is ravaged by rising damp.

Is-Sancir & Migra Ferha (10)-001

Is-Sancir & Migra Ferha (18)-001

Is-Sancir & Migra Ferha (17)-001

It is a pity that one of the few surviving structures from the medieval period in Malta is rotting away with no foreseeable plans in the near future to carry out the professional restoration that it so badly deserves.

Further reading:

The Azure Window: the end of an icon

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