The Church of St Alphonse Liguori () is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

Birkirkara Birkirkara (abbreviated as B'Kara or BKR) is a city in the Eastern Region, Malta, Eastern Region of Malta. It is the second most populous on the Malta (island), island, with 24,356 inhabitants as of 2020. The town consists of five autonomous pari ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. It was operated by the

Discalced Carmelites The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel () or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (; abbreviation, abbrev.: OCD; sometimes called in earlier times, ), is a Catho ...

, and was dedicated to Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori. The church is currently used as a meeting hall known as Our Lady of Mount Carmel Hall ().

History

The church and the nearby convent were built between 1893 and 1895 to designs of the architect

Emanuele Luigi Galizia Emanuele Luigi Galizia (7 November 1830 – 6 May 1907) was a Crown Colony of Malta, Maltese architect and civil engineer, who designed many public buildings and several churches. He is regarded as "the principal Maltese architect throughout the ...

. They were sponsored by Alphonse Maria Micallef, and was dedicated to Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori in his honour. It was the second monastery opened in Malta by the

; their first was opened in

Cospicua Cospicua (Italian language, Italian) or Bormla (Maltese language, Maltese, ), occasionally also known by the Latin language, Latin name Cottonera, is a double-fortified harbour city in the Port Region, Malta, Port Region of Malta. It served as th ...

in 1625. The first public function was held at the new premises by the friars on Saturday, 14 November 1896, with the chanting of the Salve Regina. Mass was first celebrated the next day, on November 15, by Fr Carmel of the Child Jesus, the first Vicar Provincial of the Semi-Province, who then proceeded to bless the new premises. An adjacent grotto, depicting the events of Our Lady of Lourdes, was sponsored by the Marquise Anna Bugeja, with statues of the Holy Virgin and Bernadette ordered from Paris. An ever growing population in the area and surrounding villages led to the church being enlarged twice, in 1904 and in 1909. The church suffered extensive damage during a storm in 1959. The bell tower of the church, struck by lightning during the same storm, was eventually removed. A growing number of attendees to the church services eventually led to the building of a new church dedicated to Saint

Thérèse of Lisieux Thérèse of Lisieux (born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin; 2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), religious name, in religion Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, was a French Discalced Carmelites, Discalced Carmelite who is widely v ...

adjacent to the Church of St. Alphonse. The new church is a large, modernist rotunda of reinforced concrete and a corrugated roof, built to designs of the architect Giorgio Pacini. Construction of the modern church began in 1965 and was completed in 1982. The Church of St. Alphonse is currently used as a meeting hall, and the building is listed on the

National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands The National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands (NICPMI) is a heritage register listing the cultural property of Malta. The inventory includes properties such as archaeological sites, fortifications, religious buildings, mon ...

Architecture

The church has an ornate façade divided into three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

, with Doric and Ionic columns. It also had a belfry but this has been demolished.

References

External links

{{commons category inline, Church of St. Alphonse, Birkirkara Birkirkara Roman Catholic churches completed in 1895 Limestone churches in Malta National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands Discalced Carmelite Order 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Malta