On this upcoming public holiday, the 13 of December, Heritage Malta will be offering the public a rare opportunity to visit the church of Our Lady of the Pillar in Valletta.
Arguably one of the finest of Valletta’s lesser known assets, the church formed part of the adjoining Auberge of the Langue of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre. It was built during the early 1670s, a full century after the construction of the Auberge proper. The foundation stone was laid by Grand Master Nicholas Cotoner and its construction was financed mainly through the generosity of Raimondo de Soler and Felice Inniges de Ayerba, Bailiffs of Majorca and Caspe respectively.
Following his death in 1691, Fra de Ayerba was buried inside the same church. Two years later, a severe earthquake that shook the Maltese Islands in January inflicted significant damage in the church construction, and the Aragonese knights engaged Romano Carapecchia, then resident engineer of the Order, to reconstruct it. Grand Master Ramon Perellos y Roccaful financed the project, which was completed in 1718.