Chapel of San Mikiel Is-Sanċir: A Medieval Chapel in Malta
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Malta
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Sicily
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Chapel
On this page8 sections
History
The Chapel of San Mikiel Is-Sanċir is a medieval Roman Catholic chapel in Rabat, Malta, built in the middle of the fifteenth century and regarded as probably the oldest church in the town. Dedicated to Michael the Archangel, it stands in the area known as Ġnien is-Sultan, or the King’s Garden, and belongs to the Archdiocese of Malta.
Medieval Origins and Early Records
The chapel’s architecture places its construction in the mid-fifteenth century. Its first surviving written mention appears in the report of Bishop Pietro Dusina’s visitation of Malta in 1575. The report described a church of St Michael in the King’s Garden with no doors or windows, a floor, and a single altar, indicating a building already in poor condition.
In 1598, Bishop Gargallo noted that the chapel’s feast was held each year on 29 September, Michael the Archangel’s principal Western feast day. Local farmers attended vespers during the celebration. In 1615, Bishop Baldassare Cagliares described the painting of St Michael as barely recognizable, further illustrating the chapel’s deterioration.
Deconsecration and Agricultural Reuse
Because of the chapel’s neglected state, Bishop Miguel Jerónimo de Molina deconsecrated it in 1678 and ordered the painting of St Michael to be moved to Rabat’s parish church. The building subsequently fell into disrepair and was used by local farmers for more than three centuries as a stable and a store for agricultural produce.
A dividing wall turned the interior into two rooms, each reached through its own entrance. This arrangement remained in place until the restoration began in 1981.
Restoration and Later Protection
Volunteers from the Sanċir Trust, the National Students Travel Foundation, and Friends of Malta cleared and repaired the chapel, removed the dividing wall, and built a stone altar. After seven years of work, it reopened for religious services on 2 October 1988. Monsignor Gwann Azzopardi celebrated the Mass and supported the restoration, while the ceremony was attended by Malta’s interim president Paul Xuereb, education minister and later president Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, and leaders of the National Students Travel Foundation.
Within three decades of the restoration, the chapel had again fallen into disuse and disrepair and was considered at risk of collapse. It was placed on Malta’s list of Grade 1 national monuments on 14 October 2020.
A Possible Earlier Dedication
The name Is-Sanċir may preserve an earlier Byzantine or Greek-Christian dedication. Professor Stanley Fiorini proposed that it could refer to Cyriacus the Anchorite, an early Christian ascetic associated with the Eastern Christian tradition. Under this interpretation, the earlier dedication may have been replaced by the Western dedication to Michael during Malta’s re-Christianization and the shift from Greek-rite dedications to Latin ones. The theory remains undocumented, although Cyriacus’s feast in the old Julian calendar fell on 29 September, the same date as Michael’s Western feast.
Remains
The Chapel Building
The chapel survives as a relatively large, plain rectangular room in a medieval style. It has no apse or significant architectural ornament. The walls are built from roughly laid stone and are supported externally by retaining walls or buttresses. Two exterior doors include rounded-headed openings, while a small window admits limited light. Iron grilles now close the openings but allow the interior to be viewed.
Inside, arches in a Siculo-Norman style, which combines Norman-era Sicilian and Maltese elements with wider Mediterranean influences, support the roof slabs. The interior is largely bare and contains a stone altar. Clearance and restoration work in the early 1980s revealed traces of dikkiena, built stone benches incorporated into the chapel walls. Fragments of the stone-slab floor also survive, with the slabs laid in a partially symmetrical arrangement.
A scratched image of a galley ship appears on the chapel walls. It was probably an ex-voto, an object or image offered in fulfillment of a vow or in thanks for divine assistance.
Former Cemetery
A small cemetery formerly adjoined the chapel. Its area is now covered with concrete.
