When Christine emigrated to the United States (the rest of the world calls us America) in 1961, one of the troubling aspects of that for her was leaving her grandmother Rosina. With the Tyrrell emigration, that meant that the last of Rosina’s 6 children had left Malta. Christine was very troubled by the thought of Rosina being alone. During our time here in Malta, Christine has talked with her cousin Carol a lot about all the family connections. As you might recall, Christine’s and Carol’s grandmothers were sisters, so Rosina’s sister was Carmela. In talking with Carol, we learned that there is a family chapel in a cemetery where many of the family are buried, including her beloved grandmother Rosina. It was important to Christine to visit the cemetery, so that was our outing for today.
Addolorata Cemetary, the official name is Santa Maria Addolorata (Our Lady of Sorrows), is a famous cemetery widely known as one of the world’s great cemeteries. The cemetery dates back to 1869 and contains several buildings built by the Maltese architect Emanuel Galizia. One of the features of the cemetery is a very large cemetery chapel, limestone of course, that sits high on a hill overlooking the cemetery and it is quite dramatic due to all the steps leading up to the chapel. Unfortunately, the Franciscan monks have decided they can no longer maintain this huge chapel, so it is now closed to the public. But the cemetery gates, the administrative office buildings, and other buildings are wonderful in all their neo-Gothicism.
We wanted to find the Chetcuti family chapel, which is the grandmothers’ (Christine’s and Carol’s) maiden name. We went in to the office and asked. We weren’t sure of any dates of death, which is mostly how people are identified in the cemetery database, and so Christine called Carol and, as her father’s death and burial in the family chapel occurred in 1990, that was a more recent date that could be searched because Carol knew the exact date of her father’s death. The helpful guys in the office found the information and showed us on a map how to find the Chetcuti chapel. It was quite easy to find and rather near the entrance, plot west A-D-8.
The Chetcuti chapel was built in 1892 and it is a gorgeous little building. The limestone carving all over the chapel is really fantastic. Carol keeps saying that the guy who built the chapel must have been rich because it is one of the most ornate family chapels in the cemetery. We could not enter the family chapel because we didn’t have a key, but we could peer through the window, of the front doors. Unfortunately, the window was quite dirty so it was difficult to see inside. However, after figuring out the lay of the land, so to speak, Christine spotted a plaque that had Rosina’s name and date of death and age. She was 77 at the time of her death, May 9, 1970. We also spotted Carol’s grandmother’s plaque, Carmela, and a couple of their siblings. These family chapels are where family members are buried in sort of a group grave and then memorial plaques are made and installed around the walls of the chapel. And there is a little altar where photos and other mementos are placed.
After visiting the Chetcuti Chapel, we walked around a great deal of the cemetery. What an interesting place. There are numerous shady lanes, and like most large cemeteries, the lanes create a grid for each of the sections. There are thousands of people buried at Addolorata, including a section of Commonweath War Graves from WWI.
The family chapels and mausoleums were quite beautiful, each very ornately carved.
Apparently, one of the customs in Malta is to have photos of the dead on memorial plaques. Since people are buried in family graves, meaning shared graves, there are no tombstones for each person. Rather, on top of the common grave are small memorial plaques, and most have photos. It was somewhat strange walking along have all these pictures looking at you, but it was fun reading the names and seeing what the people looked like.
Some of the statuary in the cemetery was interesting, and there was a lot of it.
We eventually made our way back towards the entrance. I noticed some gargoyles around the administrative buildings. I took a couple of photos of them for my brother Grant. He likes these things, and he’s gotten me hooked on looking around for all the various kinds of carvings there are like these.
Also near the entrance is a very nice curved, arched portico. We’re nuts for anything with arches.
We’re glad we made our visit to Addolorata Cemetery. It really was an interesting place to walk around and I find it fascinating to learn a little about the cultural and religious aspects of death and how families deal with all that. Funerals are a big celebratory activity here in Malta and lots of effort goes in to honoring the departed. It was clear from all the fresh flowers all over the cemetery that families continue to honor their dear departed loved ones.
Addolorata is really a lovely cemetery and I thought, gee, this would have been a great place to be buried if we had died from our contaminated water. I’m still creeped out from that ordeal!
After we got back to the flat, had lunch, and rested a bit, we then headed out to go swimming. The sea has warmed up to 72 degrees and is very swimmable now. We walked around Exile Point to where we would find shade, near where we were with Eve the other day. We went into the sea via a nice ramp and ladder. The water was so lovely! But, we had to be cautious because the current was quite strong and carried us both out to sea and down the rocks very quickly. We had to pay attention and stay close to the ramp so we weren’t carried off. There were lots of snorkelers around and I wished we hadn’t lost our gear because the rocks were colorful and Christine said there were lots of fish to be seen. She had her swimming goggles on and could see some of the wonderful stuff below the surface.
After a while we got out and dried off in the sun. We then walked back around Exile Point to “our” place on the rocks. We went swimming again, but surprisingly, the water wasn’t as clear as usual and there was lots of sea grass floating about. We didn’t stay in the water long, but we enjoyed sitting and watching all the people on the rocks and in the water.
We eventually returned home and each had a nice hot shower (with relatively clean water!). We made a big salad and enjoyed some leftover pizza for dinner. A nice two-masted sailing vessel anchored in the bay, the Kairos from Amsterdam. I have really enjoyed keeping track of all the comings and goings in the bay. I’m happy to have binoculars to aid in seeing what’s going on.
So, another wonderful day in Malta! Sadly, our days are numbered in Malta because we depart next Thursday.