SAINT JOSEPH'S BIOGRAPHY ...

This eighteenth century building was probably raised concurrently with Citta` Vilhena overlooking Mgarr, the harbour that links Gozo to Malta and the world.  The city on Ras it-Tafal, as the area was known, was designed by Louis Francois D’Aubigne` De Tigne` as early as 1723, but work did not commence until after 1749, when a rich knight, bailiff Jacques Chambray, offered to finance the construction.  The house, still bearing the name Casa Di San Giuseppe, rises exactly on the perimeter of the glacis and commanded access to the fort.  Initially it may have housed Francesco Marandon, the military engineer who was in charge of the building of the city that never was.  Eventually the bailiff in charge of Fort Chambray, as the place has been called since, may have lived there.  In fact the building is known to the people of the vicinity as the bailiff’s house.  Reminiscent of this knight is also a dead-end lane just behind it, known to date as Bailiff Lane.  During the British rule (1800-1964), whenever regiments were stationed in the fort, the house served as the officers’ mess.  It became vacant at the end of the First World War.  At this point in time, all parish priests of Gozo were looking around the island to find an adequate place where to start a childrens’ home for orphan boys or otherwise coming from needy families.  Eventually, Prime Minister Francesco Buhagiar did not take long to convince the Governor, Sir Walter Congreve, to hand over the building to the missionary society of Saint Paul which, under the leadership of its founder, Monsignor De Piro, was confided with the launching and running of this noble project on May 1925.  The Bishop’s orphanage, as was commonly referred to for seventy years to come, helped many a growing child to foster confidence and independence through a sound and spiritual upbringing, thanks to their carers and benefactors.  Since the early nineties, the home became a multi-purpose vanue, hosting categories from all walks of life.  Hence the coining of homstel to mark the shift from home to hostel.

(With the courtesy of Rev. Dr. Joseph Bezzina)