About this festa

Attard is one of Malta's celebrated Three Villages alongside Balzan and Lija, set around the grounds of San Anton Palace, the official presidential residence. Its parish church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary was built between 1613 and 1624 to designs by Tommaso Dingli and is widely regarded as the finest Renaissance church in Malta. The Santa Marija festa on 15 August is one of seven celebrated simultaneously across Malta on this national public holiday, offering a more intimate and unhurried atmosphere compared to the larger neighbouring villages. The feast celebrates the Assumption of Our Lady, the belief that the Virgin Mary was taken body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly life. This mystery, formally defined as Catholic dogma by Pope Pius XII in 1950, is one of the oldest and most universally celebrated Marian feasts in the Christian calendar, observed on 15 August since the earliest centuries of Christianity.