The Church of St Bartholomew 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 ...

Parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in the village of

Għargħur Għargħur () is a village in the Eastern Region of Malta. It is situated on a hilltop between two valleys, and has a population of 2,768, as of March 2014. Għargħur Festa In Malta, each village celebrates a different patron saint or two de ...

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 ...

History

The original chapel of St Bartholomew, which stood on the site of the present church, was documented by inquisitor

Pietro Dusina Pietro Dusina was an Italian Roman Catholic priest from Brescia who was the inquisitor and apostolic delegate to Malta between 1574 and 1575. Dusina was nominated inquisitor of Malta by Pope Gregory XIII on 3 July 1574, and he arrived on the isl ...

on his apostolic visit to Malta in 1575. With the growing population of the village, the Bishop of Malta Tomás Gargallo created the new parish of Għargħur. Prior to this the village was part of the parish of

Naxxar Naxxar () is a town and local council in the Northern Region of Malta. The population in March 2014 was 14,891. The Naxxar Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victories. The annual village feast is celebrated on 8 September. It formerly hoste ...

. Consequently, the parish priest of Naxxar refused to recognise this decision due to financial loss for the Naxxar parish and asked for the decision to create a new parish to be withdrawn. The bishop succumbed to the wishes of the parish priest of Naxxar, the elderly Julian Borg who died in 1610, which year the bishop re-established the parish of Għargħur with Reverend John Baptist Chetcuti as the first parish priest. At first the people used the chapel of St John the Baptist as the parish church however as the population increased a new church was needed. The site of the chapel of St Bartholomew was chosen for the new church which commenced in 1610 on plans by Tommaso Dingli. The church has Doric and Baroque styles. The church was consecrated by Archbishop Paul Alphéran de Bussan on April 22, 1736. The facade of the church was built in 1743. It is built in a style different from that of the interior of the church. The old facade made by Dingli was quite different from the present one. It is slighting higher than the church roof and at the back of the frontispiece there are sculptured ornaments probably from the old church.

Works of art

The painting behind the high altar, depicting the martyrdom of St Bartholomew, was painted by Giuseppe Calì in 1902. The painting replaced an older one, dating from the 17th century, by Emmanuel Perren, which was destroyed at the end of the last century. Other paintings in the quire depict the Last supper and the Nativity of Jesus, both the work of Francesco Zahra. Other work by Zahra include two of the side altars paintings.Wettinger, Lin
"Ħal Għargħur Parish Church"
, ''Gharghur Local Council'', Malta. Retrieved on 14 September 2016.

References

{{Parish churches in Malta and Gozo 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Malta Għargħur 1610 establishments in Malta