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interesting complex consisting of chapel and cave dedicated to
Our Lady of Good Hope.
It is situated
on the side of Wied il-Ghasel and its building traces its origin
to a famous legend in Maltese folklore. This story relates of a
young Mosta maiden who was one day in the fields of Burmarrad (a
rural area outside Mosta) when Muslim corsairs closed in on her
and she at once began to run for her life to the safety of her
native village. Out of breathe and impaired due to being lame,
the poor twenty–year old took refuge in a cave in Wied il-Ghasel.
The entrance was hidden by the wild-growing maidenhair fern (tursin
il-bir). Another version speaks of a cobweb which concealed this
hiding place as a spider spun its web after the girl entered. The
legend goes on that the corsairs overlooked the cave as they could
not envisage anyone entering the cave without tearing the cobweb,
and so they left. The maiden came out, and convinced of divine
intervention in her escape, decided to build a chapel on top of
this cave. Ta’ l-Isperanza (hope) reflects such an episode.
The
chapel was built between 1760 and 1761 in the Renaissance style
with an octagonal interior. The titular
of Our Lady of
Good Hope is by Rocco Buhagiar (c.1725-1805) while in the sacristy
is found another painting of Our Lady of Good Hope, this time
by Giuseppe Calì (1846-1930). Enlargement of the parvis
took place in 1898 while the underlying cave was cleaned and
renovated in 1913. Ten years later the church and sacristy were
paved with marble. The cave, which is as well kept as the chapel
itself, contains stone statues of the Archangel Michael, a kneeling
maiden praying and the evangelists Luke and John.
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