Letters to the editor – December 12, 2023

The Mosta obelisk

Plans are afoot to at last erect Grognet’s obelisk opposite the Mosta Rotunda. But having it placed so close to a wall and practically blocking an emergency exit from a street is a misplacement.

An obelisk is a tapering stone pillar, typically a square or rectangular cross section, set up as a monument or landmark. 

This type of obelisk is largely known as Is-Salib tad-Dejma (Dejma Cross). Id-Dejma was a garrisont and formed an integral part of many of Malta’s and Gozo’s towns and villages and played an important role in the islands’ defence. The official residence of the Mosta Id-Dejma chief at the time is located at the upper end of Independence Avenue. The Latin rubrics to Grognet’s plans at the Rotunda’s sacrisrty refer to “Senatus” (see illustration). Whether that is a reference to Id-Dejma or to some local council is open to research.

The Rotunda replaced the old Mosta parish church. Its architect was Tommaso Dingli (1591-1666), the architect of several churches, including the Żebbuġ parish church. The latter, too, has a Dejma Cross memorial. It lies midway church and square. Mosta’s obelisk did not, possibly because Mosta had no square.

Rubrics translation: Tomography or section that runs half the length of the temple and of the foundations that the Senate and the people of Mosta decreed to erect to the Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God - 1833.

And, thereby, hangs a tale. Grognet’s parvis was too big for the area. Originally, the plan was to have the obelisk in the middle, riding akimbo parvis and proposed square, with the latter straddling Curate Feliċ Calleja Street and Eucharistic Congress Road. That meant pulling down a number of dwellings. It was not to be.

Grognet’s obelisk was not erected and the walled parvis was reduced to about a third of its original footprint by a wall-free one drawn by Grognet himself. It stayed that way for 68 years (1860-1928), when a boundary wall was added to it. The wall’s relevance remains unclear. 

The narrative is based on hearsay. What is certain is that the wall spoils a full view of the magnificent colonnade unless one is standing on the parvis. Perspective from a longer distance is lost. The wall separates parvis from the centre and the latter is the poorer for it.

History is now repeating itself with another blunder. First, it was the wall out of the blue; now it is the obelisk out of the way. It is remote and secluded. One of the effigies of the four founders of the Rotunda, gracing the base of the obelisk, will inevitably be facing a wall – as in doing penanace!

The obelisk is to be erected opposite the Rotunda, as projected, but at the centre. That was not featured in the original plans for the embellishment of the Mosta centre. 

It shows because there is no space for the obelisk between the traffic lanes. Placing it instead of “The Mosta Lion” is, aestethically and architecturally, not on.

The irony is that the unplanned smaller parvis wall stands while the obelisk as planned cannot.

Victor Zammit – Mosta