ST. JOSEPH CHURCH IN MANIKATA
The hillside church of The Manikata Parish Church, Church of St. Joseph, built between 1962 and 1974 is the first work of renowned architect Richard England and is maybe the best example of Maltese post-war modern architecture.
Manikata is a small village about 40 minutes by bus from Valletta, the capital of Malta.
Manikata church, dedicated to St Joseph, is considered an iconic landmark in Maltese architecture because it pre-empted concepts raised during the Vatican Council held between 1962 and 1965.
Manikata church was the first building Prof. England designed. “I had just returned to Malta from studying at the studio of the Italian architect-designer Gio Ponti in Milan. My father had given the project to me as a present, so naturally it has a sentimental and emotional feeling attached to it.” Although Prof. England began working on the design of the church in 1962 the building of the new church faced numerous problems and was finished and blessed just in 1974.
The church, with its curved walls resembling a girna – a structure characteristic of the Maltese countryside that is used by farmers as a shelter and store – is widely recognised as a unique building in Malta.
Colors of the interior and exterior walls are inspired by the nuances of the maltese land and help the building to perfectly integrate in the surrounding landscape.
Symbols of worship such as the altar, lectern and presidential chair, were highlighted, while all other devotional objects were rendered inconspicuous, in contrast with earlier churches, which tended to be somewhat overcrowded, with several chapels, all containing an altar.
Architect Richard England himself had to set out the plan of the building, and was closely involved in choosing many of the stones used in its construction; in particular the stone needed to erect the screen wall behind the altar, which was brought from the local fields and quarries west of Mġarr.
The project received not only local but also international acclaim from architecture periodicals and reviews, and various publishers dedicated whole books to it.
Fr Peter Serracino Inglott, who had advised Prof. England throughout the building process, referred to two golden ages in religious architecture in Malta: the Neolithic temples being the first, and the second beginning with the building of Manikata Church.
According to a book by Chris Abel entitled Manikata Church, at the time of its consecration the church symbolised the new spirit of Catholicism as defined by the 1963 Vatican Council. The study highlights the way in which these new directives in architecture were introduced. The new spirit of the Church was revealed in the way greater emphasis was placed on the building as the “house of the community”, reflecting the local character and culture rather than the “house of God”.
Another author, the architecture correspondent of the Financial Times Edwin Heathcote, described Prof. England’s church as a seminal work and an indicator of a new era.
Another publication by Wiley Academy in the UK said that Manikata Church “Represented a pivotal point in the evolution of what has come to be known as ‘critical regionalism’, an important concept in architecture”.
