Architect
Andrea, the son of Salvatore Vassallo, a stone mason, and Catherine née Sammut was born in Luqa on January 2, 1856. He was the brother of Gianni, the grammarian. Vassallo started his career as a stone-sculptor and the first ten years of his professional life were spent in private practice. By 1887 Vassallo claimed that he had undergone vast training in all branches of the art of construction and supervised many buildings, remodelling of drains, and other sanitary improvements.
Vassallo entered government service in 1903 as a clerk of works. In 1908 he was granted the warrant of land surveyor and architect without having to sit for any examination. Vassallo’s competence was beyond dispute and he had been admitted to the Institute of Civil Engineers of Great Britain in 1892. In 1907 he was recognized as an architect by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Vassallo’s masterpieces are the dome of St Cajetan, Ħamrun, the dome of St Nicholas church, Siġġiewi, the rebuilding of the rococò church of Tal-Ħerba, Birkirkara, the re-construction of the chapel of St Catherine, Rabat, the Zammit Clapp Hospital, 1910, the Nouveau Art Casa Said in Sliema (now demolished), Villa Rosa in St George’s Bay, 1920, the Government Elementary Schools at Mosta, Ħamrun and Sliema, a part of the Old People’s Home, Mgieret, the Blue Sisters’ Hospital, the Home of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Ħamrun, and the restoration of the Ball Monument in the Lower Barrakka, Valletta, 1884.
Andrea Vassallo produced designs for the facade of the church of St Publius church, Floriana in 1883, alterations to the naves and facade of the church of St Andrew, Luqa, 1901 and 1908, and the baldacchino of the Basilica in Senglea in 1921.
In 1913 he designed the tribuna near the Mall in Floriana, on the occasion of the International Eucharistic Congress in 1913.
Other important works by Vassallo include stables and dwellings outside Porta Reale, the iron and glass herbarium at the Argotti Gardens, Floriana in 1910, the conversion of the Ta’ Sawra Hospital into a House for the Elderly, the neo-Gothic town-house in St Paul’s Square, Mdina in 1928, the Domus San Mikiel, Kirkop, the re-contruction of the parish church of St Andrew, Luqa which was destroyed by enemy action in 1942, and the initial planning of St Luke’s Hospital, Gwardamanġa.
His last work, and his masterpiece is the Romanesque Basilica of Ta’ Pinu, Gozo, continued by his son Edwin.
Andrea Vassallo died on January 21, 1928 at Zammit Clapp Hospital, which he had himself designed and built in 1910.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.