Naxxar’s historic chapel to get four-storey neighbour as PA approves controversial block

Four-storey block across from historic chapel in Naxxar approved by PA

Naxxar’s skyline is set to rise another notch after the Planning Authority green-lit a four-storey apartment block directly opposite the 17-century Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, a move that has split the tight-knit community between those hungry for new homes and guardians of the village’s baroque soul.

The PA board voted 7-4 last Thursday to grant the development permit on the triangular plot at the junction of Triq il-Kbira and Triq tal-Knisja, 28 metres across from the chapel’s ornate façade. Architect’s renders show 18 flats, three penthouses and two levels of underground garages sunk into the sloping site, replacing a crumbling two-storey townhouse long abandoned after the 2013 ceiling collapse that killed a stray cat and prompted neighbour complaints.

For Mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami, the decision is “bittersweet”. “We need doors for young families, but not at the expense of our skyline,” she told Hot Malta minutes after the vote. Naxxar, she pointed out, has swelled by 2,300 residents in the past decade, the fastest growth in the Northern Region, yet only 64 new units were completed in five years. “The chapel is on the National Inventory, but the plot is outside the buffer zone. Legally, the PA was boxed in.”

Opponents disagree. “This is death by a thousand cuts,” said Prof. Mario Buhagiar, art historian and founder of the Naxxar Cultural Heritage Society. The chapel, commissioned by parish priest Don Filippo Borg in 1688 and famed for its Lorenz Gafà-inspired altarpiece, already squints through a forest of cranes. “Every floor added steals light from the frescoes. Soon we’ll need binoculars to see the cherubs.”

The chapel isn’t just stone and pigment; it is the emotional compass of the village. On 8 December, children in lace veils gather here before processing to the parish church, scattering rose petals in the Virgin’s path. Elderly men still tug forelocks when the bronze bell tolls noon. “My nonna was married in that chapel during the war,” said 42-year-old baker Claudette Camilleri, who launched a 1,800-signature petition against the project. “Now she’ll watch shadows creep across the altar while someone showers in a glass box.”

Developers Island Properties Group, who bought the site for €2.1 million in 2021, insist the design is “contextual”. Architect Paul Zahra pointed to recessed balconies, quarried globigerina limestone and a cornice line that echoes the chapel’s own. “We shaved off half a storey after the first hearing,” Zahra said. “Shadow studies show the chapel loses 14 minutes of morning sun in winter – less than a coffee break.”

Yet the cultural impact stretches beyond lux levels. The chapel sits on the medieval pilgrim route from Valletta to the sanctuary of Mellieħa; its unobstructed view was guaranteed by a 1937 covenant between the church and the old landowning Testaferrata family. Lawyers for the heritage NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar argue the covenant runs with the land and should have trumped the 2010 local plan that zoned the site for “medium-density”. The PA’s legal section disagreed, ruling the covenant “personal, not proprietary”.

Inside the village core, shopkeepers are already calculating the upside. “Eighteen flats means at least 30 new customers,” smiled Edward Grech, whose 96-year-old grocery faces the construction gate. Others fear a traffic tsunami. Triq tal-Knisja narrows to a single lane beside the chapel; school-run parents already mount pavements to squeeze past parked cars. Transport Malta has demanded a traffic-impact study before excavation begins, but residents note the concession was slipped in as a post-permit condition, not a prerequisite.

The approval lands two weeks after Culture Minister Owen Bonnici floated a “skyline policy” promising height buffers around scheduled monuments. Critics call the timing cynical. “If the policy was serious, it would have frozen this case,” said Labour MP Clayton Bartolo, who broke ranks to vote against his own administration’s board. “Instead we get another toothless consultation.”

For now, scaffolding will go up before summer. The chapel’s 17-century façade will stare at reflective glass until the limestone weathers to a matching honey. Whether future processions will feel the same spiritual lift, or merely dodge reversing SUVs, depends on which Naxxar triumphs: the village that prays, or the town that builds.