Fleur-de-Lys Fleur-de-Lis | |
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Coordinates: 35°53′29″N14°28′19″E / 35.89139°N 14.47194°E | |
Country | ![]() |
Region | Central Region |
District | Northern Harbour District |
Local council | ![]() |
Borders | Birkirkara, Santa Venera, Qormi |
Government | |
• Chairperson | Ronald Briffa (PN) |
Demonym | Furdulisjani |
Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
Postal code | BKR |
Dialing code | 356 |
Patron saint | Our Lady of Mount Carmel |
Day of festa | 5 July |
Website | fleurdelys.org.mt (archived) |
Fleur-de-Lys is a suburb that forms part of Birkirkara, and it is also considered a suburb of Santa Venera and Qormi. It lies approximately 5 kilometers away from Malta's capital, Valletta. The population of Fleur-de-Lys is about 2200 people and the area is very small.
Fleur-de-Lys' origins date back to the early 17th century. In 1610, Grandmaster Alof de Wignacourt financed the building of the Wignacourt Aqueduct to transport water from springs in Rabat and Dingli to the capital Valletta. The Aqueduct was finished in 1615, and an ornamental gateway known as the Wignacourt Arch (or Fleur-de-Lys Gate) was built where it crossed the road. This had three sculpted fleurs-de-lis on top, as they were the heraldic symbols of Wignacourt. The suburb was later named after these heraldic symbols on the arch. [1]
During the Second World War, the archway was severely damaged when it was hit by an RAF lorry in 1943 and a truck in 1944. The ruined archway was demolished and the stones were stored and numbered at the Public Works Department. A roundabout was later built in its place. Plans for reconstructing the arch were made a number of times, before being finally approved in 2012. [2] The local councils of Santa Venera and Birkirkara, as well as the Fleur-de-Lys Administrative Committee disagreed on what the arch's name should be, and eventually agreed in 2014 that it should be called "The Wignacourt Arch Known As The Fleur-de-Lys Gate". [3] The arch was rebuilt between 2014 and 2015, and it was inaugurated on 28 April 2016. [4]
After the building of the aqueduct, a number of farmers settled in the area. For years the only buildings were a few farmhouses surrounded by fields.
Fleur-de-Lys began to develop in the Second World War. Many refugees from the Grand Harbour area fled to rural areas, including Fleur-de-Lys, after the Harbour area was devastated by bombs. By 1941 the British had built Fleur de Lys Battery in the area armed with anti-aircraft artillery. Various government offices were transferred to Fleur-de-Lys in the 1940s. After the war the area grew into a small hamlet.
In 1946, the church dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel was inaugurated. It became autonomous from Santa Venera in 1949 and became a parish in 1975. Other chapels were later built in Fleur-de-Lys, including those in the Sisters of the Sacred Heart Convent and one in St Monica School. [5]
Nowadays the suburb contains several small shops, a parish church and a BOV and an HSBC bank. The main road, Fleur-de-Lys Road, is now a major artery to Malta's local traffic system. [6]
The Fleur-de-Lys Administrative Committee was created in December 1999 by an amendment to the Local Councils Act of 1993.
Birkirkara is a city in the central region of Malta. It is the second most populous on the island, with 24,356 inhabitants as of 2020. The town consists of five autonomous parishes: Saint Helen, Saint Joseph the Worker, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Saint Mary and San Gorg Preca. The city's motto is In hoc signo vinces, and its coat of arms is a plain red cross, surmounted by a crown.
Fra Alof de Wignacourt was a French nobleman who was the 54th Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from 10 February 1601 to his death in 1622. Unlike a number of the other Grand Masters, he was popular with the Maltese people. Wignacourt is mostly remembered for the construction of the Wignacourt Aqueduct as well as a series of coastal towers which also bear his name.
Santa Venera is a town in the Central Region of Malta, with a population of 8,834 (2021). It is located between the towns of Birkirkara and Ħamrun, and it also borders Qormi and Msida.
Msida is a harbour town in the Central Region of Malta with a population of 7, 623 (2021).
Malta is for non-local government purposes divided into districts as opposed to the local government localities. The three main types of such districts – statistical, electoral at national level, and policing – have no mainstream administrative effect as the local councils form the first-tier – moreover only administrative tier – divisions of the country.
This page list topics related to Malta.
Post codes in Malta are seven-character strings that form part of a postal address in Malta. Post codes were first introduced in 1991 by the mail operator MaltaPost. Like those in the United Kingdom and Canada, they are alphanumeric.
In Malta most of the main roads are in the outskirts of the localities to connect one urban area with another urban area. The most important roads are those that connect the south of the island with the northern part, like Tal-Barrani Road, Aldo Moro Street in Marsa and Birkirkara Bypass.
Aqueducts are bridges constructed to convey watercourses across gaps such as valleys or ravines. The term aqueduct may also be used to refer to the entire watercourse, as well as the bridge. Large navigable aqueducts are used as transport links for boats or ships. Aqueducts must span a crossing at the same level as the watercourses on each end. The word is derived from the Latin aqua ("water") and ducere, therefore meaning "to lead water". A modern version of an aqueduct is a pipeline bridge. They may take the form of tunnels, networks of surface channels and canals, covered clay pipes or monumental bridges.
Hospitaller Malta, officially the Monastic State of the Order of Malta, and known within Maltese history as the Knights' Period, was a polity which existed between 1530 and 1798 when the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo were ruled by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. It was formally a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily, and it came into being when Emperor Charles V granted the islands as well as the city of Tripoli in modern Libya to the Order, following the latter's loss of Rhodes in 1522. Hospitaller Tripoli was lost to the Ottoman Empire in 1551, but an Ottoman attempt to take Malta in 1565 failed.
The Wignacourt Aqueduct is a 17th-century aqueduct in Malta, which was built by the Order of Saint John to carry water from springs in Dingli and Rabat to the newly built capital city Valletta. The aqueduct carried water through underground pipes and over arched viaducts across depressions in the ground.
The Central Region is one of five regions of Malta. The region includes the central part of the main island of Malta. The region borders the Northern, Southern and South Eastern Regions.
The Parliament House is the meeting place of the Parliament of Malta located in Valletta, Malta. The building was constructed between 2011 and 2015 to designs by Renzo Piano as part of the City Gate Project, which also included building a new City Gate and converting the ruins of the Royal Opera House into an open-air theatre. Construction of the Parliament House generated considerable controversy, mainly due to the modern design of the building and the cost of construction, which amounted to around €90 million.
The Wignacourt Arch known as the Fleur-De-Lys Gate is an ornamental arch located on the boundary between Fleur-de-Lys and Santa Venera, Malta. The arch was originally built in 1615 as part of the Wignacourt Aqueduct, but it was destroyed between 1943 and 1944. A replica of the arch was constructed in 2015 and inaugurated on 28 April 2016.
Casa Leoni or Casa Leone, also known as Palazzo Manoel or the Vilhena Palace, is a palace in Santa Venera, Malta, which was built as a summer residence for Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena in 1730. It was subsequently used for a number of purposes, including as an insurgent command base, an official residence, a museum depository and a school. It currently houses the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects (MTIP).
Ġnien is-Sultan, also known as the Giardino della Marina, the Grand Master's Garden or Lascaris Garden, was a garden in Valletta, Malta. It was established in the 17th century by Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, and it included a summer residence for the Grand Master. The garden included several Baroque elements designed by Francesco Buonamici.
Maltese Baroque architecture is the form of Baroque architecture that developed in Malta during the 17th and 18th centuries, when the islands were under the rule of the Order of St. John. The Baroque style was introduced in Malta in the early 17th century, possibly by the Bolognese engineer Bontadino de Bontadini during the construction of the Wignacourt Aqueduct. The style became popular in the mid to late 17th century, and it reached its peak during the 18th century, when monumental Baroque structures such as Auberge de Castille were constructed.
The Malta Tramways Ltd. company operated electric tramways in Malta from 23 February 1905 till 1929. A legal trailer was founded in 1903 by the Society. It was handled by a meter-wide track. Drive along the Bilevel rail car, the side and on top of the Oberdeck open.
The Parish Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a Roman Catholic parish church in Fleur-de-Lys, a suburb of Birkirkara, Malta. It was built by the Carmelites between 1945 and 1946 and it became a parish church in 1975.