The realisation of the Rotunda of Mosta, Malta : Grognet, Fergusson and the episcopal objection

Abstract

The Rotunda of Mosta is the parish church of the town of Mosta in mainland Malta. It was designed in the early nineteenth century in Neoclassical idiom by the Maltese architect-engineer of French decent Giorgio Grognet de Vasse. It was modelled on the Pantheon in Rome. Objections against its construction were levelled, the main opponent of the design proposal being the bishop Francesco Saverio Caruana. Following its completion the leading Scottish architectural historian James Fergusson had included a very negative review in his seminal publication History of the Modern Styles of Architecture. This paper concludes that the episcopal objection was a feeble excuse rather than a reason whilst the opinion of Fergusson was not based on an informed, possibly even biased, judgement of the professional abilities and uprightness of Grognet.