St. Paul's statue

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Statue of the Apostle Paul on Saint Paul's Island

The St. Paulus Statue , English St Paul's Statue , stands on the double island of Saint Paul's Islands , an island rock off the coast of the main Maltese island of Malta . It is located near the place where the legend locates the shipwreck of the Apostle Paul off Malta ( Acts 27 : 27–44  EU ) in the year 59 AD.

description

The entire monument is about 12 m high, of which the actual statue accounts for 4 m and the square base 8.3 m. The statue depicts Paul with a book, his right hand held high. At his feet lies a snake which, according to the description in the Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 28 : 3  EU ), had bitten Paul without being harmed. The base is made of travertine , has four pilasters at the corners and is surrounded by a cornice at the first landing. Above it stands a second plinth, recessed on all four sides, on which the actual statue is located. At the foot of the monument there is a marble plaque commemorating the erection.

history

The monument was erected between 1844 and 1845 and inaugurated on September 21, 1845. It is the work of the Maltese sculptor Sigismondo Dimech (1769-1853) and his student Salvatore Dimech (1804-1886). The base was created by Francesco Spiteri .

The total cost was 1150 scudi , of which 171 scudi were material costs for five stone blocks, while the fee for the sculptors was 333 scudi. The fundraising for this began in 1843, when work began in September 1844, only half of the necessary sum had been raised and it took another year for the monument to be fully financed.

The statue was placed in the care of Dín l-Art Ħelwa in 1996 . In the same year, the first securing work was carried out on the monument. Further repairs were carried out in 2007, 2014 and 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eugene F. Montanaro: Sigismondo Dimech (1769-1853) L-iskultur tal-Vara ta 'Ġesù Marija. In: Tal-festa ta 'San Ġorg program. Victoria 1985 (Maltese).
  2. ↑ St Paul statue to be restored again. The Times of Malta , August 18, 2014, accessed December 19, 2019 .
  3. ↑ St Paul's statue under repair after new weather damage. The Times of Malta, May 30, 2015, accessed December 19, 2019 .

Coordinates: 35 ° 57 ′ 55 ″  N , 14 ° 24 ′ 2 ″  E