A once sacred place could soon start serving spirits of an entirely different kind, as a planning application proposes to turn Cospicua’s Ursuline sisters’ former convent into a restaurant and a guesthouse.

Plans submitted to the Planning Authority in October indicate the former convent’s chapel, once dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima, will be converted into a lounge area, with a bar replacing the altar, and tables, sofas and armchairs replacing the pews.

The nuns' chapel at the convent

The project, spearheaded by holiday home rental company Short Lets Malta and its CEO Franco Grech, is proposing converting the convent into a restaurant at basement level and a guesthouse with 17 rooms from the ground floor upwards.

The plans indicate most of the rooms, which were formerly used by the nuns as classrooms and halls, would be converted into guest rooms, and the former chapel on the ground floor would become a lounge bar.

The former Ursuline sisters’ convent, once used as a kindergarten, is situated in Wiġi Rosato Street in Cospicua.

Built in 1952, the nuns started their mission with children inside it two years later. The chapel was blessed and opened in 1956. The last nuns vacated the building some years ago.

Existing ground floor plan

Proposed ground floor plan

The submitted plans indicate the convent will be conserved almost entirely in its original structure. The plan is to restore it, with no additional floors built and only minor alterations carried out on the inside.

There will also be new openings, extensions to the first and third floor levels and a pool on the roof.

The project is still awaiting recommendation.

The trend to turn former religious homes is not uncommon in Europe. As Christianity’s popularity declines and the Church increasingly finds fewer priests, nuns and funds to run its properties and institutions, some of the most majestic religious buildings are often converted to serve secular purposes.

Another view of the convent in Cospicua.

A 100-year-old church dedicated to Santa Barbra in Spain became a skate park in 2015, a former parish church in Glasgow, Scotland, was turned into a nightclub a few years back and several churches and chapels in the US, the UK and Europe were converted into everything from bars, restaurants, bookstores and even into private homes. Malta could soon follow.

Last year, the Franciscan friars sold their Madliena retreat house – popularly known as Porziuncola – and the building has since been demolished and rebuilt as a private care home.