🏛️ Government-Owned Cemeteries (Active)
These municipal, multi-faith public burial grounds are state property managed under regional health and civic authorities. They feature a combination of private family vaults and public common graves.
- Santa Marija Addolorata Cemetery (Paola): Consecrated in 1869, this is Malta's largest and primary multi-faith cemetery, featuring renowned Neo-Gothic architecture.
- Ta’ Braxia Cemetery (Pieta): An active municipal cemetery handling burials for the central region.
- Divine Mercy Cemetery / Ċimiterju tal-Ħniena Divina (St. Paul’s Bay): A modern, active public burial space serving the northern district.
- Duramblat Cemetery (Mosta): An active municipal cemetery handling burials for the central region.
- St. Andrew’s Cemetery (Żebbuġ): Active civic municipal cemetery.
- St. Margaret’s Cemetery (Rabat): Active civic cemetery serving the western district.
- Omm il-Ħniena Cemetery (Mellieħa): Modern civic cemetery layout.
- Our Lady of Victories Cemetery (Mellieħa): Historical but active village plot.
- Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery (Mġarr): Active civic cemetery for the north-western community.
⛪ Church / Parish-Owned Cemeteries (Active)
Owned by the Archdiocese of Malta and administered directly by local parish churches, these graveyards historically developed on the immediate outskirts of the traditional village cores (casals).
| Locality | Cemetery Name / Dedicated Profile |
|---|---|
| Attard | Ħal Attard Parish Cemetery |
| Balzan | Ċimiterju ta' Ħal Balzan (Parish Cemetery serving the local village core) |
| Birgu | St Lawrence Cemetery |
| Dingli | Ħal Dingli Parish Cemetery (Serving the high western cliffs community) |
| Għargħur | Għargħur Parish Cemetery (Serving the hilltop northern parish) |
| Għaxaq | Għaxaq Parish Cemetery |
| Gudja | Gudja Parish Cemetery |
| Kirkop | Kirkop Cemetery (Encloses the historic 17th-century Baroque Chapel of St. Nicholas) |
| Lija | Ħal Lija Parish Cemetery |
| Luqa | Luqa Parish Cemetery |
| Mqabba | Mqabba Parish Cemetery |
| Naxxar | Naxxar Parish Cemetery |
| Qormi | Qormi Cemetery Active parish burial ground |
| Qrendi | Qrendi Parish Cemetery |
| Safi | Safi Parish Cemetery |
| Siġġiewi | Siġġiewi Parish Cemetery |
| Tarxien | Tarxien Parish Cemetery |
| Żabbar | Żabbar Parish Cemetery |
| Żebbuġ | Qalb ta' Ġesù Cemetery |
| Żejtun | St. Gregory’s & St. Catherine’s Cemetery complex |
| Żejtun | San Rokku Parish Cemetery (Notable for older historic layouts adjacent to St. Gregory's Church) |
| Żurrieq | Żurrieq Parish Cemetery / St. Leo's Cemetery (Encloses the ancient medieval Chapel of St. Leo / San Iljun) |
🎖️ International, Military & War Cemeteries (Restricted / Active)
Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) or foreign heritage legacies, these serve as operational grounds for military service burials, family descendants, or perpetual global commemoration.
- Pietà Military Cemetery (Pietà): Established in 1866; contains extensive World War I Commonwealth graves from when Malta functioned as the "Nurse of the Mediterranean."
- Pembroke Military Cemetery (Pembroke): Serves the historic British garrison legacy and multi-era wartime casualties.
- Imtarfa Military Cemetery (Mtarfa): Located adjacent to the old British military hospital complex, protecting service personnel and dependents.
- Capuccini Naval Cemetery / Kalkara Naval Cemetery (Kalkara): Operational since 1901. Divided into distinct Catholic and Protestant sections, hosting a famous Japanese Naval Monument from WWI.
- Rinella Military Cemetery (Kalkara): Now a public garden but the burials were relocated to the Kalkara Naval Cemetery
🦠 Historic Epidemic, Plague & Cholera Cemeteries (No Longer in Active Use)
These protected, highly sensitive historical sites were established as emergency, extra-mural burial zones during severe epidemic outbreaks to enforce strict quarantine and prevent contagions from reaching village centers.
- The Floriana Bastion Plague Cemeteries (Floriana): A network of trench and vault burial zones built directly into the deep defensive ditches of the fortifications during the devastating 1813 plague epidemic.
- Lazzaretto Cemetery (Manoel Island, Gżira): Built outside the structural isolation wings of the historic Lazzaretto hospital to inter patients who succumbed while in active maritime quarantine.
- Żebbuġ Plague Cemetery / Ċimiterju tal-Baqqari (Żebbuġ): Emergency burial ground consecrated outside the core village specifically for the regional victims of the 1813 plague.
- Qormi Plague Cemeteries (Qormi): Includes the historical *Ċimiterju ta' San Sebastjan* perimeter plots, organized rapidly to manage casualties from the 1675–1676 and 1813 crises.
- Safi Cholera Cemetery (Safi): A closed, restricted historic trench area established on the village periphery to isolate burials during the nineteenth-century cholera epidemics.
🍂 Closed Historic, Non-Catholic & Heritage Sites (No Longer in Active Use)
Protected National Monuments closed to everyday contemporary interments. These are heavily preserved as landmarks of historical, religious diversity, and artistic masonry value.
- Msida Bastion Cemetery and Historic Garden (Floriana): A Protestant burial ground active between 1806 and 1856, set on the bastions overlooking Marsamxett Harbour; preserved by Din l-Art Ħelwa.
- Ars Cemetery (Qrendi): When contagious illnesses threatened the community, the remote location of Tal-Ars provided an essential sanitary barrier. Victims were transported along back country lanes straight to this secure enclosure, ensuring that pathogenic diseases were safely contained outside the main village centers of Qrendi and Mqabba.
- Ta’ Braxia Jewish Cemetery (Pietà / Floriana Border): Around 1830, the colonial government allocated a distinct rectangular strip of land on the high ground of Pietà specifically for Jewish interments. Now intergrated as part of the Ta Braxia Cemetery
- The Turkish Military Cemetery (Marsa): Commissioned by Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz in 1873 and engineered by Galizia. A masterwork of Orientalist architecture, currently closed to new interments.
- Kalkara Jewish Cemetery / Kalkara Slave Cemetery (Kalkara): Consecrated in 1784 by the Livorno (Leghorn) fund for redeeming enslaved Jews. It marks Malta's oldest surviving post-medieval Jewish burial footprint.
- Medieval Jewish Cemetery (1372) at Għariexem (Mtarfa): Granted via royal land decree by King Frederick III of Sicily to the medieval Rabat community. Completely lacks surface markers today but is verified through archeological survey data.
- Ta' Ċieda Tower Burial Environs (San Ġwann): Roman and early medieval context archaeological burial clearings; completely inactive.