The Annunciation Chapel at Hal Millieri in Zurrieq

Apart from rock-cut catacombs, the earliest evidence of Christian worship in the Maltese islands is provided by the remains of a basilica in Tas-Silg near Marsaxlokk, dating to approximately the 4th century AD. Another stood outside the Tad-Dejr Catacombs at Rabat. In AD 870, Malta was conquered by the Muslim Arabs and it is thought that Christianity was lost or suppressed among the circa 5,000 inhabitants of the time. In 1090, the Normans under Count Roger conquered Malta from the Arabs, who continued to live in the islands, and it is believed that the population remained essentially Muslim until the 13th century.

In 1268, the Maltese islands were governed by the Angevins and, in 1283, by the Aragonese. Between 1370 and 1495, the Maltese islands saw the establishment of religious orders among which were the Franciscans, the Carmelites, the Benedictines, the Augustinians, and the Dominicans. It was probably during this re-Christianization of the islands that a large number of chapels started to appear. A number of them were rock-cut and others, like that in Hal Millieri, were of the simple box-shaped type. By 1570, the apostolic delegate Mgr Pietro Dusina recorded 430 churches, many of which were late medieval. The Annunciation Chapel at Hal Millieri is the best surviving example of these, especially because of its unique set of frescoes.

A pathway between two high rubble walls leads to the chapel. This passage was already present in the early 17th century, since the visitation of 1636 spoke of an introytus longus or long entrance.

The Annunciation Chapel at Hal Millieri consists of a rectangular room. Three steps lead down into the chapel which is below ground level. The internal space consisting of a single nave is divided into bays by four pointed arches made of neatly cut stones which rise from wall pilasters. As was the practice with many medieval chapels, the inner walls, which were intended to be plastered, were constructed with irregular or even rubble masonry, while the outer wall was built of neatly cut squared stones. This is especially true for the west wall where the stones of the outer layer fit together perfectly. Roofing slabs (xorok) are laid horizontally along the top of the rough stonework built above the arches. Between the arches there are low stone benches called dikkiena. At the east-end of the chapel is an apse which was separated from the rest of the church by a wooden screen (iconostasis) attached to the easternmost pilasters and arch during the beginning of the seventeenth century. The holes in which the screen was fitted can still be seen in this arch.

The low main doorway is situated in the western side of the chapel. It was once lower and arched, as is evidenced by the voussoirs still present above the doorway. Another doorway is present in the North wall and this led to the Visitation chapel, which was obviously built after that of the Annunciation but deconsecrated in 1667 and afterwards demolished. In the south wall is another doorway which leads to the cemetery. This doorway was probably opened in the early 1600s when the cemetery was added to the chapel. No burials were recorded in the cemetery after 1840.

The floor is paved with irregularly sized flagstones and contains at least four tombs. Three of these tombs are found in front of the apse and are covered with large ledger-stones, while another is found just inside the entrance of the south wall and is covered with five plain slabs. The three graves in front of the altar were excavated in 1977, revealing a number of bones of different people aged between 25 and 50, but including also that of an infant.

Excavations carried out inside the church in 1977 revealed the foundation of an earlier church probably built in the thirteenth century. In this earlier church a single grave was dug in front of the altar and contained a young woman aged about 16 lying above a child of about two and a half and separated by a thin layer of soil. The burials were oriented in the normal Christian manner with their heads to the west and laid with arms lying across the chest, the right hand nearer the head than the left.

Apart from the tombs inside the chapel, there are two burial grounds around the chapel. One is in front of the main doorway (zuntier) and contains at least five tombstones, one of which is engraved with a small Greek cross, and one was added later at the south end.

The bell-cot on the West wall is possibly a late addition, as on the cross there is incised the date 1852.

The colourful paintings in the Annunciation Chapel are a typical example of fifteenth-century Maltese art and were presumably executed in the second half of this century when the chapel was rebuilt on the foundations of the previous one. The artist depicts the whole body of the saints and the drapery is elaborate, voluminous, and stylized. The inscriptions of the names of the saints are in angular Gothic letters typical of the late Medieval era.

However, there are also variations to the Sicilian style of the late fifteenth century. The saints are not depicted facing the viewer and there is no gold-bordered drapery, which was so common with Sicilian artists of the time. There is no representation of Christ, the Virgin, or the Old Testament and there is no scene of the Last Judgement, which was often depicted on the western wall. Instead, two St Georges are depicted on this wall. It is plausible to think that one of the St Georges was intended to represent St Demetrius, who was another soldier saint often depicted with St George, and that the artist wrongly copied a previous set of saints.

The iconography is also atypical of the late Middle ages. The saints represented were more popularly represented at an earlier age. The two saints who occupy the place of honour behind the iconostasis, namely St Nicholas and St Leonard, were most popular during the early Middle ages and not the late Middle ages. The saints do not have symbols with which they were depicted during the fifteenth century; St Blaise does not have the iron comb, St Nicholas does not have the three golden balls or purses, St Lawrence does not have the gridiron, and St Andrew has the T-shaped cross and not the X-shaped cross which was typically depicted at the time the painting was executed. The most plausible reason for this is that the painter deliberately copied or was ordered to copy the saints possibly depicted in the earlier chapel, on which the fifteenth century one was built. During excavations of the Annunciation Church in 1977 fragments of painted wall plaster were found in the lower church. These probably also represented saints, as one of these plaster fragments shows an outline of a haloed head.

The paintings were executed in the fresco technique. The presence of sinopia on the lower layer of plaster and the predominance of mineral pigments would suggest that the technique is largely fresco. However, the scale of the work (typically only one day per bay) and the presence of some colours which would normally require an organic binder, suggest that there were probably significant a seccoa secco additions. This (fresco technique) means that the artist painted on plaster while it was still wet. The colours were thus absorbed by the plaster and were consolidated into it when it dried. Each painting had to be executed during a day before the plaster dried, except for the St Andrew and the two St Georges, which required two days each. Most of the colours were normally derived from earths so that they were soluble and would unite with cheap replica watches the slaked lime. Others were made from stones or fossils, which were not completely soluble and had to be painted onto the dried plaster .

The apse was possibly never painted but the arch which frames the arch contains parts of a painting, possibly of Angel Gabriel.

An altar painting of the Annunciation existed as is documented by visitation reports. The present painting of the Annunciation scene is an early work.

In 1968, three years after it was founded, Din l-Art Helwa—a non-governmental organization founded in 1965 to safeguard the cultural heritage of the Maltese Islands as well as to educate and create an environmental awareness among the inhabitants—started cleaning the chapel which was littered with rubbish. No less than thirteen truck loads of undergrowth, cactus, rubbish, rubble and debris were removed. Pieces of pottery, iron, carved stone, plaster fragments, coins and other items were listed. Whitewash in the chapel covered ex-voto graffiti as well as the paintings. The paintings had been whitewashed many times over the years, covering the precious paintings which were in a bad state. Graffiti include circular geometric patterns, St George fighting the dragon, five-pointed stars, the Star of David, and figures of a fish.

Restoration of the paintings included the removal of all lime, salts, and whitewash. Painted plaster dangerously detached from the walls was consolidated and made firm by means of injections with liquid lime. This process was complicated by the fact that the wall behind the plaster was often found to be hollow or crumbling. Almost all the lower part of the paintings was lost but some traces of sinopia and some graffiti were uncovered. The portions which did not have any paintings were re-plastered and tinted a natural shade to provide a suitable background to the paintings. The missing parts of the paintings were also plastered in natural tones to show the surviving frescoes. One of the panels, which was in a very bad state, had to be detached from the wall and fixed on resin/fibreglass boards.

The external walls were pointed, the blocked door which originally led to the Visitation chapel was plastered and the south door leading to the cemetery was opened, as it was also found blocked with stones.

The altar platform present in 1968 extended beyond the apse and was dismantled. This uncovered the three tombstones which were partly covered with this platform. The section of the platform inside the arch was rebuilt.

The altar consisted of a large plain cube with a hollow interior that served as a storage space. It had a window-like opening on the east side. The altar top (mensa) consisted of a single large stone on which was an altar step. The altar step was simply decorated with a pair of grooved lines, which formed a border round the surface, and was equally carved out of a single piece of stone. A carved, gilt movable wooden retable, with a crucifix and six candlesticks, stood on the altar. This retable was probably brought from the Zurrieq parish church in the seventeenth century. During restoration the altar within the church was dismantled, only the large mensa stone and the altar step being retained. The gilt wooden retable and the badly preserved gilt frame of an alter front were sent to the Zurrieq parish church.

The Hal Millieri village is located in an uninhabited area between Zurrieq, Qrendi, Mqabba, and Kirkop. Late-Roman catacombs and the presence of an olive-crusher show that the area was a Roman farm. Rows of very large stones of ancient appearance may have formed part of this Roman settlement. The Arabs conquered the islands in AD 870 and the fact that the name of the village starts with Hal for Ra's al, which is Arabic for village, indicates that it was inhabited during this time. Hal Millieri is first documented in 1419 with only 14 men liable for militia service.

The word millieri is possibly derived from the surname Camileri and old maps show the village as Milleri. The settlement of Hal Millieri before the coming of the Knights of St John in 1530 was a free community where farmers owned and worked their own land, and this is possibly the reason why a chapel such as that dedicated to the Anunciation survived.

Mgr Pietro Dusina, who visited the village in 1575, reported that there were four chapels in Hal Millieri; the Annunciation and Visitation chapels were built side to side as were those dedicated to St John the Evangelist and St Michael nearby. Excavations revealed that the present chapel, dated around 1480, was built on the foundations of an earlier one built in the thirteenth century. Today, cisterns, wells, a road and field patterns, ancient field names, squared stone bricks found in rubble walls, some field huts and the chapels are the only remnants of a village which started to decline in importance once the nearby villages developed and offered increasing security to the inhabitants. The fields were, however, not abandoned and the chapels continued to serve the religious needs of the farmers. The Annunciation chapel was, however, deconsecrated in 1787, but was reopened in 1809.

The last birth recorded in Hal Millieri was in 1711. The village had no priest, doctor or notary living there and there were no commodities. The village could not provide the sense of security which other neighbouring and growing villages such as Gudja could provide. Today, it is uninhabited but still remains an agricultural haven.

Din l-Art Helwa is presently promoting an integrated approach to the conservation, restoration, rehabilitation, and the management of the Annunciation Chapel at Hal Millieri. The environmental monitoring of the interior and exterior of the chapel of the Annunciation at Hal Millieri; a condition survey of the church interior including a study of the paintings; a condition survey of the chapel exterior architectural survey; chemical analysis of the fresco paintings; and photography are being planned to identify the seriousness and extent of deterioration of the structure and paintings of the chapel. This could then lead to appropriate intervention to prevent further deterioration of this unique set of medieval frescos. Continued environmental monitoring of the chapel will also determine how often the site could be opened to visitors and the number of visitors allowed to enter at a given time. The project would therefore help improve the site’s management policies. The project also includes the restoration of the chapel’s gateway.