Church of Our Lady of Pilar in Valletta fully restored

The 17th-century Church of Our Lady of Pilar in Valletta has been fully restored by the restoration division of AX Construction, in just seven months. 

The works included the restoration of main façade, all the external facades as well as the internal part of the main nave. The most interesting part of the work included restoration of the internal part of the dome as well as the original ‘deffun’ on the external side of the dome. 

Deffun is a traditional material made out of lime and powdered pottery. “That’s the reason why the dome has a reddish color. If you look around Malta there that are many domes that have this particular color as it was the customary method of waterproofing at the time,” Fabio Billi, restoration manager at AX Construction explained. 

“Following the work we did in Birgu, the whole revitalisation project of Valletta Waterfront and the restoration of St Paul’s Catacombs to name a few this is another project that I am very proud of,”  

Denise Micallef Xuereb, AX Construction director said. “Actually today restoration work amounts to 40% of our business with new projects starting in January.”