Heritage Malta has opened an exhibition entitled Fr Emmanuel Magri SJ – Jesuit, Ethnographer and Archaeologist, at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Vittoriosa. It is being held in collaboration with the Maltese Jesuit Province as part of a series of activities to commemorate the centenary of Fr Magri’s death.

Fr Magri (1851-1907) was a man of many facets: professor and rector at the Gozo Seminary, archaeologist, ethnographer and a member of the first Museums Committee.

The exhibition presents a tribute to the contribution Fr Magri made to the development of the archaeological and folklore scene in Malta. On display is a selection of artefacts that he himself excavated that currently form part of Heritage Malta’s reserve collection.

Among them is a copy of the original Cippus that Fr Magri obtained from the Louvre to be exhibited in Malta.

Visitors can also see books that he wrote on the subject, together with letters and documents from his personal life that touch upon his involvement in cultural heritage, especially on the first major project entrusted to him – the excavation of the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum.

The exhibition is open until 29 July at the Inquisitor’s Palace, every day between 9am and 5pm (last admission at 4.30pm).