The parish church of St Bartholomew, Għargħur : history, architecture and works of art

Abstract

The great majority of the Maltese parish churches have not been studied in a thoroughly academic manner. Most of the past art historians have preferred to concentrate their attention on the very best churches, disregarding almost completely the other churches, which might be secondary, but still contain precious works of art. It is very unjust that churches like the one of St. Bartholomew at Għargħur, have been treated only in popular writings. This gave rise to a number of inexactitudes and fanciful legends which do not permit us to have a clear view of the real development of Maltese art history. The Church, together with the Order, was one of the most generous patron of the arts. Besides, money was on the continuous supply from the parishioners who sought to embellish their church in a more befitting manner than that of the neighbouring village. This long essay tries to reconstruct the history of the parish church of St Bartholomew vis-a-vis the works of art. An attempt has been made to put everything in its proper historical and artistic context. One of the aims of this essay is to check and assess the validity or otherwise of the various popular traditions, which might be true in some cases, but which might be completely off target in others. This obviously depends on the evidence which is supplied by the primary sources, and in some cases the questions remain unanswered simply because the evidence has not survived.