Stop 20 of 25
St Paul’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral
A queen’s gift, on the site of the German knights’ house
Free to hear. You have 3 of three free stops left, on any tours.
Guide to St Paul’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral
The spire on Valletta’s Marsamxett skyline was paid for by Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV, after a visit in 1838 revealed that Britain had governed Malta for nearly forty years without building an Anglican church. The site was the Auberge d’Allemagne, the German knights’ house, pulled down to make way for it.
A dowager queen’s gift
Queen Adelaide wintered in Malta in 1838–39 for her health, found the garrison worshipping in a borrowed room, and paid for a church herself. She laid the foundation stone in March 1839 and the building was consecrated in 1844.
The auberge that was lost
The site was the Auberge d’Allemagne, one of the original auberges of the 1570s, demolished for the new church. It is the only auberge Valletta has lost to something other than bombs, and the demolition says a good deal about how the British regarded the Order forty years after replacing it.
Two architects and a spire
The first architect, Richard Lankesheer, produced a design whose foundations proved inadequate; William Scamp, an engineer from the naval dockyard, took over and rebuilt from the ground. The result is a neoclassical church with a columned portico and a spire of about sixty metres, for a century the tallest structure on this side of the city.
It is a pro-cathedral because it stands in for one: the Anglican Diocese in Europe has its seat in Gibraltar, and this is one of its co-cathedrals. The memorials inside name sailors, soldiers, governors and their families from Nelson’s navy to the convoys of 1942.
What to look at
- The portico of columns — Georgian England on a baroque ridge
- The spire against the Carmelite dome behind it
- Naval memorials inside, if the church is open
Practical
- Opening
- Open to visitors most days; donations welcomed. Services on Sundays.
- Terrain
- Level across Independence Square.
Walk to stop 21 · Auberge d’Aragon
Cross the square to the long single-storey building with the columned porch.
About 1 min · 24 m
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