The Church of St Barbara (, , ) 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 situated in

Valletta Valletta ( ; , ) is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 Local councils of Malta, council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital ...

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 ...

. The church was built to service the spiritual needs of the knights of

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

History

The original church was built in 1573 for the Provence Langue of the Order, it was the church of the bombardiers. It was restored in 1601 and completely rebuilt in 1739. The exterior of the new Church of St Barbara was designed by the Italian architect

Romano Carapecchia Romano Fortunato Carapecchia (1666–1738) was an Italians, Italian Baroque architect who was active in Rome, Malta and Sicily. His designs helped transform Malta's capital Valletta into a Baroque city in the first few decades of the 18th century ...

. The interior was designed by the Maltese architect

Giuseppe Bonici Giuseppe Bonici (1707–1779) was a Maltese people, Maltese architect and military engineer. He held the post of ''Capomastro delle Opere della Religione'' and was the principal architect of the Knights Hospitaller, Order of St. John from 1761 ...

as Carapecchia died before the church was completed. The church 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 was built in the baroque style. In the centre of the façade, just above the door, one can see a large gilded statue of the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Mariology, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not def ...

. It was erected in 1904 to commemorate the jubilee of the Immaculate Conception. Internally, the church is centrally planned, having an oval dome typical of the baroque period and which is a very rare feature in local churches.

Present day

Today the church serves as the parish church for the English, French and German speaking communities. It is the only church in

that has services celebrated in the German and French language respectively. Also a mass in

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...

is celebrated every Sunday."Church dedicated to St Barbara"
''Archdiocese of Malta''. Retrieved on 04 November 2014.

References

{{Valletta 1570 establishments in Malta Roman Catholic churches in Malta Buildings and structures in Valletta National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands Church buildings of the Knights Hospitaller

History

Architecture

Present day

See also

References