The chapel of St Martha situated in an area known as tal-Għonq, on the outskirts of Victoria, has temporarily closed its doors for a much needed restoration project.

The chapel, surrounded by new buildings, needed urgent work on its structural building, including its foundations, according to chapel  rector Mgr Giovanni Bosco Cremona.

Gozitan historian Fr Joseph Bezzina said the chapel was built as an ex-voto as well as a memorial to the 253 cholera victims

It was in 1865 that a very malignant form of cholera swept through the islands killing 1,873, of whom 253 were Gozitans.

Felice Attard, a merchant from Rabat and his wife Rosina vowed that if their family was spared they would raise a chapel in thanksgiving to the Lord.

Once the worst of the epidemic had passed and the couple had safely survived, they kept their word. In 1866, they built a chapel in front of Tal-Infetti cemetery at tal-Għonq, where the health authorities reserved the place for the burial of the cholera victims. The chapel was dedicated to St Martha and blessed on November 11, 1866.

A statue of the Virgin Mary of Graces was raised on a plinth to the left of the chapel in 1868.

In 1893, the statue was removed to the nearby St Peter and St Paul conservatory, but the plinth, decorated with a bas-relief of the souls in purgatory, is today found inside the cemetery.

The façade of the chapel is articulated by Doric pilasters having a base and a capital which carry a boldly projecting cornice crowned with a cross-topped pediment, as the triangular part.

Its hexagonal dome has a cross-topped lantern which is flanked on its right by a delicately ornate bell-cot.

The altarpiece was painted by Pawlu Cuschieri in 1867. It shows St Martha interceding with the Virgin Mary on behalf of the souls in purgatory pictured in the lower centre of the picture.

Opposite St Martha, an angel is seemingly keeping record of the petitions of the faithful.