The Restoration Directorate, which falls within the Ministry for Justice, Culture and Local Government, will undergo the restoration of St Joseph’s Church’s façade and belfry in Santa Venera, thanks to the Restoration Works Scheme for Local Councils, which is now in its 4th year.

During his visit on site, Minister for Justice, Culture and Local Government Owen Bonnici lauded the importance of supporting our local heritage, through preservation and restoration. “The Restoration Directorate is fulfilling our government’s strategy into making this sector more accessible to all, by ensuring that through its work and dedication, it makes local historic monuments and buildings available for generations to come through restoration. We are also working to further enhance our local cultural product, as we steadily are becoming an all-around cultural destination which captures the eye of many visitors,” said Owen Bonnici.

The church has a number of factors which are responsible for certain decay mechanisms observed as well as other detrimental and visually undesirable interventions. Apart from superficial deposits, the projecting cornices and pediment of the façade are greatly affected by black crust, especially in sheltered mouldings. Softening, powdering, and back-weathering have led to a loss of sculptural detail in some cases. The lower part of the church has peeling paint, and localised loss of pointing mortar can also be noted.

The belfry has minimal but visible areas of the missing stone fabric, which are concentrated on the upper part of the belfry and several stone blocks and the parapet balusters exhibit advanced deterioration, in fact, a number of balusters have been completely lost. The overall loss of pointing mortar is evident in this area.

The planned interventions for St Joseph’s Church include cleaning from biological soiling and scraping using surgical blades, structural consolidation, stone replacement, plastic repair and extensive repointing. Redundant metal inserts will be removed, in order to bring back this historic monument to its aesthetic and visual integrity.

This two-tiered façade adopts the classical style – the lower tier is built in the Ionic order, whilst the upper tier adopts the Corinthian one. Further to decorative elements found on its façade, three statues, one of St Joseph and two of guardian angels are present in the upper tier.