Ta' Braxia Cemetery; extra-mural cemetery

This cemetery lies close to Portes des Bombes in Floriana, and was opened in 1857 when the group of cemeteries close to the bastions in Floriana, and the Msida Gardne of Rest, were full. Pieta is the name of a village and a creek at the head of Marsamuscetto Harbour, near the base of the peninsular on which Valletta stands.

Desinged by Emanuele Luigi Galizia between 1855-77, it follows the influence of the Msida Bastion cemetery. This cemetery was the first major government project to be entrusted to ~Galizia at the age of 25. It was truly a baptism of fire for the young architect, as it was his first major work. The project was soon embroiled in an intense politico-religious controversy as the local Catholic church was then strongly opposed to the proposal for a mixed-rite interment and still contrary to the concept of an extra-mural cemetery. the appointment of a committee predominantly composed of protestant ministers and the allocation of funds to be directed towards the contribution of the cemetery, infuriated the Catholic authorities even further. The cemetery is adorned by beautiful examples of funerary symbolism but bombing during World War II damaged several of the larger ornamental monuments at Ta’ Braxia, and the blasts flattened several of the vertical headstones.

There is also a funerary chapel in the cemetery designed by the British architect John Loughborough Pearson. The chapel has a central plan chapel and a bulbous dome. Pearson was an established Neo-Gothic architect, who designed great cathedral such as Rochester and Peterborough, Lincoln. The emergence of funerary art in nineteenth century Malta represents the change in sensibility that led to a new consciousness towards death, depicted not only in the new design of the urban cemetery, its architecture and landscape, but also in the ephemera related to death, dying and the funerary monuments. Ta’ Braxia brought many innovations to the island which represent a break from its past.