Mosta is famously known for the Rotunda with its fourth largest unsupported dome in the world. The church was wholly built of limestone, which glows pink in the sun. It is a national monument.

The first stone of the Rotunda was laid in 1833 and completed in 1860. Its architect was Giorgio Grongnet de Vassé (1774-1862) (alias Grognet). He was French, born and resided in Malta. 

Grongnet won the commission to build the Rotunda because it was modelled on the Roman Pantheon (25-27BC), being the first neoclassical building where the interior outshines the exterior. Neoclassical buildings are famous for the style and ornamentation of their columns, pediment and entablature and for their symmetry and proportions. The Pantheon was a pagan temple dedicated to all the gods. It was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Emperor Augustus (27BC-AD14). Pope Boniface consecrated it as a Catholic church in 609.

Scottish architectural historian James Fergusson (1808-1886) was critical of Grongnet’s design. Bishop Francesco Saverio Caruana (1759-1847) opposed the project. He did not attend the laying of the first stone. 

Grongnet had first eyed what is now Curate Feliċ Calleja Street, right opposite the Rotunda, to be Mosta’s main street. But it is narrow and curvy. So, he picked a straight, wide passageway, flanked mostly by fields and some houses. It was laid out as a road in 1853 and named Via Nuova Valletta and later renamed Eucharistic Congress Road after the Eucharistic Congress of 1913, sessions of which were held in Mosta.  

Eucharistic Congress Road lies at an angle to the Rotunda. Brilliantly so.

Eucharistic Congress Road lies at an angle to the Rotunda. Brilliantly so

Going down its length (0.7 km), with a gradient of 2.7 metres, is a journey of discovery. It rouses one’s expectations. The church opens up progressively for one to savour its grandeur. Unlike St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, where tourists at times hold their breath on first looking into its high baroque interior. Or as the Mdina Cathedral flashes out to full view in sepia the moment one turns Villegaignon Street. 

Some famous buildings have roads directly facing them: Rome’s Via della Conciliazione, London’s The Mall and Bucharest’s Boulevard Unirii.

In his Storja tal-Mosta (1930, p. 157), E. B. Vella writes: “In 1928, that parvis was renewed according to Grongnet’s design but since they could not build it according to the measurements set down by that architect, they had to adjust it as it stands today... having three flights of steps... but otherwise it is surrounded by a high stone wall.” 

The opposite of original is not copy but alteration. Grongnet drew two designs for the parvis, one with steps completely skirting it and the other as Vella describes it. The parvis extended beyond the Domus Curialis to double up as a square. Upfront was an obelisk which was not erected.

In 1860, the parvis was not renewed but adjusted. It was first reducted; not by Grongnet. Secondly, its inner stepped elevation was eliminated. This inner elevation seems to match the area of the parvis as it stands today. However, it could have merged with the outer elevation to form one larger, levelled area. Had this inner elevation been retained, going up the outer elevation and this inner elevation and onto the portico and the main entrance would have created a four-tiered triumphal, solemn entry into the Rotunda.

Grognet’s wall-free parvis

The wall-free parvis was the first to be built according to the model befitting that type of parvis. It withstood the test of time for 68 years. 

In 1928, the parvis was not adjusted but renewed by the addition of Grongnet’s wall.

The narrative is apocryphal. Was it to keep sheep off the parvis? Was there more funding? Was it protection from traffic? Was it to keep people from sitting on the steps? 

That narrative is without rhyme or reason. It strengthens the popular belief that whoever decreed to build the wall did so clandestinely and unilaterally. 

Vella describes the wall as “high”, implying that it obstructs the façade. The façade’s magnificent Corinthian columns taper so that they look smaller and the building bigger − like, inter alia, the neoclassical church of Gran Madre di Dio, Turin or St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

The wall on Mosta’s parvis does exactly the opposite: it closes in the façade and makes it look smaller. That alone militates for the removal of the wall. This is not a matter of taste but of architectural propriety.

There are world-famous churches with a wall-free parvis: the Sacre Coeur in Paris, St Peter’s Basilica, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and, locally, Mdina Cathedral, St John’s Co-Cathedral and the Gozo Cathedral

There are world-famous churches with a wall-free parvis: the Sacre Coeur in Paris, St Peter’s Basilica, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and, locally, Mdina Cathedral, St John’s Co-Cathedral and the Gozo Cathedral. Adding a boundary wall would ruin the façade of the Duomo in Milan. Like were one to dabble with Caravaggio’s signature in The Beheading of St John the Baptist.  

A small or medium-sized parvis need not have a wall. Like Birkirkara’s. Such walls dent focus and deflect attention. They are built for protection. The profuse parvis at Ta’ Pinu is typical: the low-lying fields and surrounding drop pose danger. Inversely, the Rotunda’s wall created a drop that required fencing off. It is Catch-22.

The wall restricts performance. At times, the parvis cannot function as an elevation. Performers act on the front steps and pavement, with the audience spilling onto the road. The parvis is deserted. In 2010, the wall was restored. Initially, many thought it was going to be scrapped. Upon asking, the reply was: “Tiftaħlix kotba” – let sleeping dogs lie. Whoever it was, manifestly had wanted to open the books but was disgusted not to be allowed to.

As one veteran Mosti candidly put it, possibly reflecting the view of many: “The Rotunda is better off without the wall.” So patently self-evident.

Without the return of the first, wall-free parvis and, possibly, the obelisk, Mosta centre will not be fully embellished. Ungild the lily.