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Project of the Enlargement of the Church  |
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The Church remained
with one belfry
for a long time.
After 150 years,
in 1879 the old
belfry was taken
away and two new
belfries were built.
The little columns
known in Maltese
as balavostri
were
included in the
new belfries. One
of the belfries
was built by Giusepp
Vella and the other
one was built by
Frangisk Dimech.
Both of them hailed
from Zebbug.
In 1911 the general feeling was that the church had to be enlarged. The population of the parish was getting bigger and so it was decided that the church had to be enlarged. The façade of the church was brought forward and on the main door of the church an inscription in Latin was put in place entitled Deipara Virgo Coronata Triumphat meaning “The Ever-Virgin Mother of God Victoriously Crowned”. High up above the main door, a statue of Our Lady was placed to be seen by all. In 1937, the Church consisted still of an aisle. In was at this time that the side chapels began to be built. Dun Frangisk Saliba offered the sum of LM2600 for the project. Dun Frangisk hailed from Zebbug but lived in Tunisia where he was a missionary priest and a parish priest at Golette. What was left to be paid was donated by the parishioners. The plan was designed by the Maltese architect Emmanuel Borg. Vitor Vella of Zebbug was to supervise the work; he had just finished working of the building of the new Basilica of Ta’ Pinu. The difficulties during the execution of the building were many. First of all, in 1939 the First World War began and this interrupted some of the work while created financial difficulties in the Maltese islands. Thankfully Zebbug was not struck heavily struck during the war and the church was not hit. The present edifice is the product of so many personal sacrifices that the people of Zebbug had to undergone in order to see their parish church changed from a simple aisle to a beautiful and majestic temple with the present side chapels and the dome which now dominates the skyline of the north-western part of Gozo. |
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