A Sliema shrine wall will be rebuilt as part of the same renovations that knocked it down, according to the site’s manager.

Once the shrine, believed to be over a century old, was removed, it was taken into the care of St Joseph School, until it can be displayed once again after the new wall is constructed.

However, neither the residents nor the local council were informed of the renovations, leading to confusion.

The Sliema council took to Facebook on Tuesday to call for the “wall and its shrine [to be] replaced as soon as possible” after the mayor was made aware of the situation.

“You can’t touch these things… this is history,” Sliema deputy mayor Anton Debono told Times of Malta.

The shrine was prominent during pre-war celebrations to mark the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows and, for the past several years, many used to stop at the site to say a prayer while tourists stopped to take pictures, Debono explained.

The shrine’s unofficial caretaker, Franz Saccasan, was shocked when he found out workers took the holy picture and its wooden container off before destroying the wall.

“Nobody told me they were going to remove the shrine,” Saccasan said.

For the past six years, the 79-year-old has taken care of the shrine, including cleaning the casing every two weeks, arranging flowers, replacing candles every other day and even supplying power to lights from his own house next to the shrine.

“They removed it slowly and cared for it,” he said, “but they told us nothing.”

While workers did “assure” the small Tower Lane community that they will be returning the shrine, they did not give them a timeline nor inform them of its whereabouts. It was handed to the community at St Joseph School, which is being renovated.

Around 50 years ago, the same wall was going to be knocked down to make space for the school’s new entrance, resident Natalie Abela said.

“They wanted to pull down the wall so the schoolchildren will leave from this road and back then we petitioned.”

Today, as the community shrinks, they feel powerless as decisions are made and actions are carried out without being informed of the works.

“Many come to the site to say a prayer and some even bring candles,” Abela said.

In 2019, the Sliema council started a process to restore a series of shrines, statues and niches throughout the locality, which includes the Tower Lane shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows, Debono said.

Currently, the council is renovating 15 of these sites as part of the project’s first phase and, having seen the laborious process it had to go through to acquire permits and permissions, has cast doubt on the validity of the wall’s removal.