The annual celebration in honour of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary at the medieval chapel of Hal Millieri (Zurrieq) will this year be held on Sunday 30 March.

For the occasion the chapel will be open to the public from 9am to 6pm. Holy Mass will be celebrated at 10am, followed by the blessing of the burials inside the chapel and the adjoining churchyards. Din l-Art Helwa, the volunteer heritage organisation that holds the chapel in trust, will be offering two guided tours of the site by volunteer historians Dr Stanley Farrugia Randon at 11am and Salvator Mousù at 3pm.

The chapel of the Annunciation at Hal Millieri is the most important historical monument from Malta’s medieval past. The present edifice dates to around 1450, and excavations have shown it to be built over the site of an earlier, possibly 13th century chapel, and a much older late-Roman rural complex. The Hal Millieri chapel is best known for its medieval architectural elements, and more so for the unique set of frescoes which adorn its side walls between the springing of the arches.

The anachronistic cycle of effigies of saints, which is believed to have been copied from the earlier primitive chapel, have been expertly restored through the efforts of Din l-Art Helwa, as Malta’s best example of medieval vernacular religious art.

The Hal Millieri chapel is best reached either via Zurrieq by taking the first right hand turn after leaving the Blue Grotto Avenue fountain roundabout; or down Diamond Jubilee Square on the Imqabba bypass.