Author: wirtilkalkara

The Bighi Cot Lift was built in a Victorian architectural style in 1903 and was used to transfer injured sailors from naval ships to the wards of the Royal Naval Hospital Bighi. Situated 25 metres above sea level, it was the second electrical lift to be installed on the Maltese Islands. Damaged during the Second […]

Cholera swept around Malta from 9th June to 9th October 1837, plundering the once Elderly Hospice in Floriana. The health authorities decided to evacuate all the hospitalized elderly into Fort Ricasoli in order to reduce the spread of this epidemic. Devastation occured, and a total of about 855 elderly were infected and succumbed to the […]

On 23rd August 1884 Fortunato Gulia donated a plot of land for the building of a new Church in Kalkara. With request approval, Can. Rev. Joseph Azzopardi, together with a committee, was delegated to accomplish this project. Architect Guglielmo Attard designed the Church in the shape of a Latin cross. The first stone was blessed […]

When the Ottomans invaded the Maltese islands in 1565, they found refuge on the hill of Our Saviour in Kalkara from where they attacked the Knights and Maltese in Vittoriosa. This battle is known as the Great Siege of Malta. Grand Master Jean Parisot de La Valette ordered the demolition of the old Church of […]

Villa Bighi was designed by Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafà. It was built in 1675 by Fra Giovanni Bichi, the grandson of Pope Alexander VII. A year later, the unfinished palace was inherited by his nephew Fra Mario Bichi, due to his sudden death. The Villa was abandoned during the French blockade. In 1827 King George […]