“I was born in 1925, a good year for grapes, and a bad year for bachelors”. So says the fourth Marquis Jose Juan Scicluna, the Baron of Ta’ Brija, in a TV interview from the late 80’s. But who exactly was the Marquis Scicluna?
The Scicluna Family
In an article on the Times of Malta from 2008, John Manduca compares the Scicluna family to the ‘Medicis’ of renaissance Florence. He says that ‘like them they had their ups and downs’. The resemblance is also due to the fact that both families worked in finance. They both as well had a strong influence in the country where they lived. The strength of this family’s financial venture culminated when they established their own bank in 1830. In addition to this, they were presumably in the good books of both the people and the Empire. That is because beyond their prosperous ambitions, they were known to have a great sense of philanthropy.
Marquis Joseph J Scicluna
Joseph Scicluna was the son of the Marquis John Scicluna, famously known as ‘iċ-Ċisk’. It would be fair to call the Marquis a bit of an eccentric. It would be even fairer to say that he would probably have loved that. To sum it up, he was a descendent of the family who served in the war, studied painting in Italy, was clearly into surrealism, traveled in South America and lived in Venezuela for a while, and eventually settled in Malta. There, he resided in the Palazzo Parisio in Naxxar, which was owned by his grandfathers. He lived the life of an aristocrat. He died in 1995 in Rome and his wish to be buried in the Mystique was unfortunately not granted. Instead he was buried at Addolorata.
Scicluna’s Mystique
Mystique is a big house in Swieqi, close to Tal-Ibraġ, designed and built by the Marquis himself. It is a strange building overlooking a valley very much removed from its nearby surroundings; especially today. The Marquis claims that the building is built from remains of ‘blitzkrieg buildings’ (war-shattered buildings). This means he used stones, arches and ornaments that remained somewhat intact after the war.
He also described the building as a phoenix, risen from the ashes, taking the shape of this quirky but still awe-inspiring structure. Funnily enough on one of the balconies overlooking Sliema and St.Julians, there is a huge mosaic figure resembling the phoenix.
His intention of creating a hub for artists never totally came to fruition in the way he might have imagined. Still, it is said that in a time when Jazz had really no place in Malta, Mystique was a gathering spot for the local jazz musicians to meet up and jam. Supposedly this was a weekly occurrence every Sunday morning.
As one can see when simply passing near the building, it was never finalized. In fact Scicluna liked to call it his ‘unfinished symphony’. Nonetheless the building is impressive, especially when you consider the guy had no formal training in architecture! The ‘Bats in the Belfry’ reputation of the place is potentially well-suited with all its negative and positive connotations. It is a unique location and there is really nothing like it on the islands. However, its structure was built by someone who again had no formal training in the field. So, one cannot be so sure with regards to the level of safety of the place.
