It was a beautiful sunny day but with a strong wind and rather than chill out for the day I ‘hopped aboard’ – forgive the pun - a bus and took the North Island Tour. The first stop was Mosta a town situated in the middle of the island and to the northwest of Valletta. The Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, commonly known as the Rotunda of Mosta or sometimes shortened to The Mosta Dome, is a Roman Catholic church and has the third largest unsupported dome in Europe and the ninth largest in the world.
Built in the 19th century on the site of a previous church, it was designed by the Maltese architect Giorgio Grognet de Vassé who based his plans on the Pantheon in Rome. Its dome has an internal diameter of 37.2 metres (122 ft) and the rotunda walls are nearly 9.1 metres (30 ft) thick.
The original church was left in place whilst the Rotunda was built around it, allowing the local people to have a place of worship while the new church was being built. Begun in May 1833 the church was completed in the 1860s and officially consecrated in October 1871. Mosta residents, at that time totalled no more than 1500, which probably explains why It took 27 years to complete.
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