©Villa Bologna
Villa Bologna
Malta
Villa Bologna was built by Fabrizio Grech as a gift for his daughter, Maria Teresa, on the occasion of her marriage to Nicola Perdicomati Bologna in 1745. The main entrance opens onto a large courtyard facing the imposing facade of the house. The lawns to the left lead to the old citrus grove with contemporaneous Baroque statuary. The triumphal gateway was inspired by Michaelangelo’s Campidoglio with Anthony and Cleopatra presided over by the gods of the Tiber and the Nile. The Nymphaeum is dominated by a majestic fountain decorated with busts depicting the four seasons.
In the 1920’s Lady Strickland called on her friend, Giuseppe Teuma Castelletti to help with the landscaping of an Edwardian garden in the fields behind the villa. He designed the spectacular Dolphin Fountain, built with iron girders encased in concrete and set off by barley columns supporting a heavy metal chain to reflect the family title “della Catena”. From here, a short flight of steps is flanked by giant urns leading to a trellised walkway shaded by Jacaranda trees and a sunken pond with decorative stone benches , as well as a pretty dovecot atop a slender column. To the right a Cypress avenue takes the visitor to the Cactus garden and this in turn brings one to the huge vaulted reservoir, able to store litres of water, needed to maintain the garden during the long, hot summers. Attard is renowned for its citrus fruit and the villa’s groves abound with oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and lemons as well as other fruits such as pomegranates, figs, almonds, peaches, plums, nectarines and plantains and many grape varieties climbing over pergolas and trellises.
Villa Bologna
St. Anthony Street
Attard
Malta
