St Mary, Birkirkara

The old parish church of St Mary Birkirkara was begun in the early 1600's by Vittorio Cassar and completed in 1617 by Tommaso Dingli. The tower and the interior are designed by Cassar and the facade by Dingli.

St Mary  has some of the finest carved stone decoration in Malta, on the facade and especially in the interior. There is a tradition that the craftsman was a Sicilian criminal who had sought refuge in the church. this is unlikely as the carving at Tommaso Dingli's earlier church at Attard seems to have been by the same hand. The beautiful church fell into disrepair and is now undergoing restoration.

.

St Philip, Zebbug (Citta Rohan)

The original parish church of Zebbug dedicated to St Philip of Agira was built in 1380. It was replaced in the late 17th century by the present church designed by Tommaso Dingli. Under the Knights of St John, Zebbug was one of the principal towns on the island and in 1777 was bestowed with the title Citta Rohan, by Grand Master Emmanuel Rohan-Polduc. The magnificence of the church is due in large part to the number of leading corsairs who lived in the parish and endowed St Phillip in gratitude for their good fortune.

The magnificent titular painting is by Luca Garnier. There are also two murals by Fransceco Zahra, an 18th Maltese painter of the school of  Favray and a Guido Reni. During the French Revolutionary regime (1798-1800) the Maltese churches were plundered to finance Napoleon's campaign, however the people of Zabbar when they heard that the French were coming opened the church doors and hid all the church gold and silver. When the French saw that the church doors were open they passed by, leaving St Philip with its treasure intact.

Assumption of Our Lady, Birkirkara

The Church of the Assumption of Our Lady is the old parish church of Birkirkara. The church was designed by Vittorio Cassar around 1600 and in plan is laid out on the Latin Cross. The carved interior is one of the richest on the island.

The finest part of the building though is the facade which was designed by the young Tommasso Dingli and begun in 1617. The facade is based on a classical temple front and is said to have been the first use of giant Corinthian capitals in Malta. The exquisite carving of the interior is repeated on the facade to wonderful effect. The delicacy and detail of the ornamentation that would never be equaled in Malta again.. A probably apocryphal story is that the carving was the work of a Sicilian criminal who had sought sanctuary in the church.

In 1753 the Church of St.Helen was built and this replaced the Assumption of the Virgin as the parish church of Birkirkara.  The unused church was allowed to deteriorate, until during  the earthquake of 1856 the dome and the roof collapsed.