Vigilo - Din l-Art Ħelwa Issue 55 • MAY 2021
MALTA’S
Secret Gardens
By Vincienne Bezzina
All photographs taken by the author in 2018, unless indicated otherwise.
‘...beautiful gardens, public or private, for which Malta is famed – hidden jealously away, many of them in mean, narro w streets behind high, shabby walls’ Elizabeth Schermerhorn, 1929
Left: Central Passageway of iI-Ġnien tal-Kmand in Qrendi. Right: Entrance of iI-Ġnien tal-Kmand, Qrendi.
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The Casal gardens are a chain of gardens situated in various villages around Malta. They were commissioned by Sir Alexander Ball between 1804 and 1805, as part of his plan to introduce an improved system of cultivation in Malta. The plants and trees cultivated in Floriana’s Maglio were distributed around the island and made available to the villagers through the Casal gardens. Ball entrusted Michele Cachia with the design and supervision of their construction.
