[2] It was built in the seventeenth century as a country villa and hunting lodge by Bishop Baldassare Cagliares.

[3] The mansion is set at the edge of Ħajt il-Wied valley, and it houses a chapel, a formal garden with a front court, and a number of unique architectural features.

[3] In 2008, the restoration project of Villa Cagliares was awarded the Prix d'Honneur Conservation and Re-use by Din l-Art Ħelwa.

Its small dome roofing the private chapel and surrounded by balustrades marks the skyline across the valley towards Ħaż-Żabbar.

Villa Cagliares stands at the edge of the town of Żejtun, in an area referred to by locals as ir-raħal t'isfel, or the lower village.

Over time, the villa changed ownership and passed to the Testaferrata family, who oversaw the enlargement of the building.

Two large arched rooms upstairs had partly collapsed, with buckled floors and the baroque chapel still used as a store for hay.

[7] The building had been partly abandoned for many years without being repaired: most of the walls were buckling outwards, timber beams were rotten and stone ceiling slabs (xorok) had either fallen or cracked through.

[8] As the fundamental guiding principle of the restoration project was to retain the original character of the building, only one new aperture was added at ground floor level.