Forget carbon dating – let’s use fashion instead. Yes, things are done differently in Malta.
Although just a fraction of the original church remains, that piece of the Santa Marij ftuħ chapel that is still standing, 600 years after it was built, is a beautiful example of Medieval architecture. If you stand at the back of the church to the right, and look straight ahead, the arches overhead appear to fan outwards to the left. And yet, if you go to the front of the church and look back, it’s the opposite. Most peculiar
At one time, this was the second-biggest church in Malta, built in the shape of a cross in the fifteenth century. It suffered at the hands of the Turks and again during the sieges of 1565 and 1942 (if you have the time, these two documentary videos give interesting accounts of both sieges). During the restoration work in 1973, builders discovered a sixteenth-century fresco on the back wall. Although just parts remain, it is clearly a depiction of the Last Judgement.
Interestingly, though, it was dated because of the type of dress worn. Not exactly the most technologically correct perhaps, but a good guide, nonetheless. In this picture, the woman’s dress is in a style fashionable in the early sixteenth century. The lily she’s holding in her hand might also tell us that she is one of the Bonici family, whose emblem is a lily. Makes you wonder how twenty-first-century photos and art will be dated 600 years from now.
As to what Bir Miftuħ means, it seems that opinion is divided between ‘open well’ and ‘sweet-smelling’ well. Personally, the well I saw, partially covered by moss and growth, smelled sweet – so perhaps ‘open, sweet-smelling’ might be a good compromise.
