The Addolorata Cemetery
photography by Charles Paul Azzopardi, Midsea Books, 2020
The Addolorata Cemetery must be our most visible cemetery. Nobody who drives in the roads that lead to the ‘south’ of the island can fail to see Emmanuele Luigi Galizia’s iconic neo-Gothic church proudly towering over what is for us a rare stretch of mature trees and greenery.
In spite of its sombre atmosphere, the whole enclave is a magnificent architectural achievement, not overlooking the scores of artistic monuments erected within to record the famous and the not so famous.
The Addolorata Cemetery tops the trilogy of books on Malta’s most important 19th-century cemeteries. Architect historian Conrad Thake has already authored the splendid volumes on the Ottoman cemetery at Marsa and Ta’ Braxia; the present book also has very significant contributions from Mario Borg, Mark Sagona and James Licari.