MIDI plc’s restoration works on the chapel of St Anthony of Padua in Fort Manoel are well under way. This Baroque gem, damaged first by a bomb during the Second World War, and then by decades of neglect, is slowly but surely taking on the aspect of a complete building, under the watchful eyes of Alex Torpiano and Konrad Buhagiar, of aoM partnership, and the architects in their team, Svetlana Sammut and Edward Said.

’To start off with, we had a long internal debate about whether the chapel should be restored or replaced by a modern structure’ said Edward Said. ’What remained of the structure was badly degraded, with few records of what it actually looked like.’ With the involvement of the different stakeholders, including experts in the field and MIDI plc, the restoration option carried the day. This was the beginning of a long and difficult journey, a much more complex job that the restoration of the rest of the Fort.

It was one which started with hours poring over documents in libraries, searching for any information that would help with the reconstruction. Surprisingly, for a chapel reputed to have been among the most beautiful on the island, there was very little. Said attributes this to its location within a closed military complex. But there was enough available to begin works.
The Fort and its chapel were designed by de Mondion, but some people have suggested that Carapecchia may have had a hand in it as well, Svetlana Sammut explained. ’This is unlikely’ de Mondion requested burial in the chapel in his will. That seems to tie it closely to him!

But for the restorers, the link was useful: working at the same times as de Mondion, Carapecchia’s work did provide a useful guide to some of the elements. More valuable was a detailed plan of the Chapel, found ironically among the documents relating to Fort Ricasoli, built some 40 years earlier.
More valuable still was the material found on site. When we cleared the area to begin the restoration of the other buildings in Fort Manoel, we found a lot of loose stones from the Chapel buried in the debris, Said added. ’The stones were recovered, numbered and put into storage until they would be needed’ Sammut continued. ’Putting the fragments back together again was the most complex jigsaw puzzle imaginable’

To complicate matters, the fragments are unevenly weathered: parts are almost completely worn away while others are pristine, preserving every detail down to the fine chisel marks left by the 18th Century craftsmen. ’Generally speaking, it can be said that where the stones were exposed, they weathered, whereas where they were buried or protected by thick plant growth, the detail survived’ continued Said
This material proved invaluable. The philosophy of restoration being applied was that of conserving the original fabric, and re-integrating it within the structure whilst restoring the volumetric and tactile qualities of the structure as a whole without blatantly recreating a copy of areas which are not well documented; this led to the reconstruction of the Chapel.

Like many Baroque churches, the fabric of the Chapel of St Anthony of Padua was originally highly decorated, intricately carved and finished. This is now an unfortunately dying art, but the contractor entrusted with the work has been able to deploy skilled craftsmen, fully able to work the stone as required. This is not easy work: it takes its time and, while much of it can be done on the ground, the final finishing takes are done with the stones in place.

The final effect is at first a little strange. Across the walls, the new mingles with the old and worn. An intricately decorated surface suddenly becomes smooth and unworked and protrudes beyond the older stonework.

’Where we do not know what the decoration was, we are leaving the stone plain’ anything else would be fiction, not restoration’ Said explained. ’We have left the plain stone surface standing proud of the rest, almost giving the impression that the rest of the carving still has to be done.’

The problems go rather deeper than this. The blocks of stone being used are larger that the standard used in modern buildings. ’For their smaller structures, the Knights used blocks 280mm high. This is only 25mm larger than the current standard of 260mm, but it does mean that the stone had to be specially ordered, at an added cost.’
For larger buildings, the Knights used massive blocks in the region of 400mm high, further complicating the task. These masses of stone are heavier, and more difficult to handle than the stone blocks we are used to working with today.

At the moment, the Chapel vault is being reconstructed. Here again, the combination of tradition and modern technique is clear. The vault is to be of stone, but it is being supported by a strong, reinforced concrete element which ties together the reconstructed walls to the original walls, and acts as a confining tie to the vault. There was an element of anachronism in the sight of skilled stonemasons handling their material as their forebears did hundreds of years ago, against a backdrop of an enormous, two tonne steel reinforcing mesh being lowered into place in anticipation of the concrete.

Once completed, the chapel will be the highest building in Fort Manoel, with an unparalleled view of Valetta over the courtyard and Marsamxett Harbour. This intensely detailed project is as close as anyone can get to constructing  a Baroque church today.