Parish clockworks in XIX century Għaxaq

Abstract

Time stands still in the small picturesque village of Ghaxaq due to a mechanical problem in its church clock. The belfry which houses it was completed by the latter half of the 1750s, when the construction of the new church to the design of architect Sebastian Saliba (1709 - 1782) was in full swing. The middle years of the eighteenth century bear witness to the construction of two important clocks. The Pinto turret clock at the Grandmaster's Palace was inaugurated earlier in 1745 whilst the still functioning church clock of the Conventual Church of St. John's dates to the late 1760'S. No records revealing the author of the Gliaxaq parish church clock have been traced to date, although technical data points to eighteenth century methodology of construction.