On May 29, 1592 Archbishop Tumas Gargallo declared the old Annunciation church as a parish church and Tarxien was thus separated from the Bir Miftuħ ‘Matrici’. In 1610, the Tarxien parish priest, Dun Gio Pawl Agius, together with three procurators, had sent a request to the archbishop to rebuild the old Annunciation parish church in the middle of the village square. Neither the date when the construction of the church had started, nor the architect who prepared the plans are known with certainty. It is believed that construction may have started in 1610 and completed by 1627.
The church subsequently underwent a number of changes over the years and this was confirmed by the pastoral visit of the archbishop Alpheran de Bussan in October 1745 whereby he stated that “throughout the past 50 years, this church seems to have been re-built from the beginning.”
The current west façade is divided into three bays. The main bay develops over the nave and the lateral on the aisles surmounted by belfries with steep pyramidal spires. The central bay projects beyond the lateral bays giving the façade a break front movement typical of the baroque style.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority scheduled the parish church as a Grade 1 monument on March 26, 1996 as per Government Notice 199.