  BURIALS [ CAP. 17.  1
CHAPTER 17
BURIALS ORDINANCE *
To prohibit the burial of corpses in certain places and to make other
provisions in connection therewith.
(10th May, 1869) †
Enacted by ORDINANCE II of 1869, as amended by Ordinance V of
1873; Act IV of 1955; Legal Notice 4 of l963; Acts: III of 1974, XXII and
XXXVI of 1975, XI of 1977, IX of 1982, and XIII of 1983.
Short title.
Santa Maria 
Addolorata 
Cemetery.  
Amended by: 
XXXVI.1975.2. 
2. (1) The cemetery constructed upon the hill situate within
the limits of Tarxien, to the right of the slope called  Tal-Palma ,
shall be the main burial place in Malta and every Maltese citizen
shall be entitled to be buried in the said cemetery in accordance
with the provisions of this Ordinance and of any other relevant law.
(2) Such cemetery shall be called "The Santa Maria Addolorata
Cemetery".
Demands for 
grants of sites.  
Amended by: 
IV.1955.3; 
L.N. 4 of 1963; 
XXII.1975.2; 
XI.1977.2; 
IX.1982.2; 
XIII.1983.5. 
3. (1) It shall be lawful for any person to apply, in writing, to
the Superintendent of Public Health for the grant of a site, of the
extent of two and one-half metres in length and one metre and five
centimetres in width, in such part of any cemetery belonging to the
Government, as, according to a plan made by the Superintendent of
Public Health, is appointed for the construction of private graves,
for the purpose of constructing thereon, at his expense, a grave,
upon payment in respect of such site of the sum of twenty-five liri.
(2) The said dimensions shall include such parts of the site as
have already, according to the provisions of sections 7 and 8, been
occupied by dividing walls constructed by others.
(3) From time to time the Superintendent of Public Health may
cause to be constructed private graves on unappropriated sites for
disposal to applicants therefor. On an application for the
acquisition of a constructed grave, and if such a constructed grave
is available, the Superintendent of Public Health shall require the
applicant to pay a sum of twenty-eight liri and twenty-five cents ‡
that shall be inclusive of the consideration for the site.
(4) No such application shall be considered unless it is
accompanied by a deposit of the appropriate sum in the office of
the Superintendent of Public Health and by a declaration signed by
the applicant to the effect that neither he nor any member of his
family is the owner of any grave or site for a grave in any
Government cemetery:
* See  also the Addolorata Cemetery Ordinance (Chapter 18) and Part VI   of the Code of
Police Laws (Chapter 10).
† See  Proclamation No. 1 of the 10th May, 1869.
‡But  see  Legal Notice 93 of 1997 re: Ta’ Braxia Cemetery.
    2               CAP. 17. ]  BURIALS 
Provided that the said Superintendent may, where he is satisfied
of the real needs of the applicant, grant exemption from the
production of the said declaration.
For the purpose of this subsection, "family" means the father, the
mother, the husband or wife, any brother, sister, son or daughter of
the applicant.
(5) The amounts of money expressed in subsections (1) and (3)
of this section may be varied from time to time by the Minister
responsible for public health by means of a notice in the
Government Gazette referable to a period commencing not earlier
than four weeks from the date of the notice.
Transfer of graves 
or sites.  
Added by: 
XXII.1975.3.
4. (1) No person may transfer to any other person any grave
or site for a grave in any Government cemetery without the prior
approval of the Superintendent of Public Health.
(2) The said Superintendent may subject his approval to the
production of a declaration similar to that referred to in subsection
(4) of section 3 of this Ordinance, unless he is satisfied of the real
needs of the applicant.
Grant of areas.  
Substituted by: 
IX.1982.2.
5. The Superintendent of Public Health may, upon an
application to this effect, and upon the payment of such fee as may
be fixed by the said Superintendent, grant, together with a site, an
area, not exceeding twenty-six metres in surface, contiguous to the
said site, for the construction of additional graves or for the
erection of a chapel.
Construction of 
tombs in crypt.   
Amended by: 
L.N. 4 of 1963; 
XI.1977.2; 
IX.1982.2.
6. Any grave in any part of a cemetery must be entirely
constructed underground, and covered with stones to the level of
the nearest pathway; any side of every such grave, which is not at
least sixty centimetres distant from the nearest point of the ground
granted to the person to whom the said grave belongs, although it
has been excavated in the rock, must be constructed with a wall of
not less than thirty centimetres in thickness; and the grave itself
must be at least one metre and eighty-three centimetres deep:
Provided that even such graves may, with the permission of the
Minister responsible for public health, be of a less depth, width, or
length, or be constructed on the surface of the ground.
Dividing wall. 7. Any person constructing a grave contiguous to ground
granted or destined to be granted to others, may construct the
dividing wall, to a thickness of fifteen centimetres, on such ground:
and in such case, the Superintendent of Public Health, or the person
to whom the said ground shall have been granted, may, for one of
the sides of another grave, avail himself of the wall thus
constructed, on paying to the possessor of the former grave, half
the value of the said wall, to be considered as a wall of thirty
centimetres in thickness.
Consent of other 
possessors 
necessary in 
certain cases for 
raising wall.
8. (1) The possessor of a grave of which one or more walls,
shall have been partly constructed beyond his own ground, or the
person who in the construction of a grave shall have rendered
common a wall of another grave, cannot, without the consent of the
  BURIALS [ CAP. 17.  3
possessor of the latter grave, raise such wall above the level of the
surface of the pathway nearest to the said grave.
(2) The possessor or person aforesaid may, nevertheless, cover
over his own grave with a cover or a monument rising above the
said level, and avail himself of the common wall for the support of
such work, provided he does not thereby hinder, or render difficult
the opening of the adjoining grave, and saving always the
provisions contained in section 10.
Structures on 
graves.  
Amended by: 
III.1974.2; 
XI.1977.2.
9. (1) Saving the provisions contained in the foregoing
sections, it shall be lawful for any person having a grave, in the
said cemetery, outside the crypt of the chapel, to enclose such
grave together with any other area granted to him, with walls or
otherwise; to erect on his own ground any monument or other
structure to which access may be had from the common pathway,
without passing over sites granted or destined to be granted to
others; and to make thereon any inscription he pleases; provided
the design of any such work and the draft of the inscription be
approved by the Board referred to in subsection (3) hereof.
(2) It shall also be lawful for any person having a tomb in the
crypt of the chapel, to make thereon any inscription approved by
the said Board; but he may not construct any work without the
permission of the Minister responsible for public health, besides
the approval of the said Board.
(3) For the purposes of this section, there shall be a board, to be
known as the Burials Board which shall be composed of a chairman
and two members appointed annually by the Minister responsible
for public health.
Structure of more 
than sixty 
centimetres in 
height.
10. It shall not be lawful for any person to erect any structure
or monument of more than sixty centimetres in height, if between
such structure or monument and the nearest structure or monument,
there shall not be at least a distance of one metre and twenty
centimetres.
Marks of 
boundaries of site.   
Amended by: 
IV.1955.4; 
IX.1982.2.
11. (1) Any person obtaining a site with the addition of
another area the limits of which, in the opinion of the Superin-
tendent of Public Health, cannot be exactly fixed by reference to
the plan mentioned in section 3, shall, within ten days of a notice
which will be given to him by the said Superintendent of Public
Health, make visible and permanent marks of the boundaries of the
site with the said area, to the satisfaction of the Superintendent of
Public Health or of another person appointed by him.
(2) In default of such marks being made by the grantee within
the said time, they shall be made by the Superintendent of Public
Health, who, in such case, shall exact from the grantee a sum not
larger than the expense incurred.
Charnel house and 
place of deposit.   
Amended by: 
V.1873.1.
12. (1) The possessor of a private grave in the said cemetery,
shall be gratuitously allowed, on the occasion of the burial of any
corpse in that grave, if there shall not be therein sufficient space for
such burial, to cause the remains of corpses, previously buried
therein to be, at his expense, removed to the general charnel house
    4               CAP. 17. ]  BURIALS 
to be for such purpose constructed at the expense of the
Government.
(2) If the said grave cannot be used on account of a recent
burial, the possessor shall, without payment of any fee, be
permitted to cause the corpse which is to be buried therein, to be
placed in deposit in another grave, in a place within the cemetery to
be for that purpose constructed by the Government, until the said
grave may be used according to law.
(3) In the place of deposit mentioned in subsection (2) of this
section, no corpse of a member of any congregation shall be
permitted to be placed, so long as there are therein four other
corpses of members of the said congregation.
Effects of 
prohibition.  
Cap. 10.
13. The prohibition made in virtue of the last preceding section
shall, to all intents and purposes, have the same effect as a
prohibition made in virtue of section 144 of the Code of Police
Laws.
Conveyance of 
corpses to 
churches.   
Amended by: 
IX.1982.2.
14. (1) The said prohibition shall not have the effect of
preventing the conveyance of any corpse from the place in which
the deceased has died, to any church or chapel for any religious
service or other purposes, to be thereafter conveyed from such
church or chapel for burial in a place authorised according to law.
(2) Moreover, nothing in this Ordinance contained shall affect
the existing laws respecting funeral emoluments due to any
ecclesiastic or religious body corporate, in connection with the
right of sepulture, which the deceased, before the said prohibition,
may have had in any church or chapel.
(3) Finally, except the right of burying corpses in graves situate
within the limits of any of the said places, any other right over such
graves, which the possessors thereof have according to law, shall
remain unaffected.
Penalty for false 
declaration. 
Added by: 
XXII.1975.4.
Amended by: 
XIII.1983.5.
15. Any person who makes a false declaration for the purposes
of section 3 or of section 4 of this Ordinance shall be guilty of an
offence and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine  (multa)  of not
less than twenty-five liri but not exceeding one hundred liri.
  BURIALS [ CAP. 17.  5
Amended by: 
XIII.1983.4.
FORM
[S E C T I O N  3]
Application for the non-gratuitous grant of a site for a grave, with 
or without additional area.
To the Superintendent of Public Health
Date................
The undersigned........ (besides the name and surname, the place
of birth, the profession, trade, or other state, and the name of the
father, must be stated)  and residing at................................( name of
the city or suburb),  No......................................................( address)
requests the grant of the site for a grave, marked No .......................
in the ............................................... ( East or West, as the case
may be)  Division, Section ..............................................................
( to be indicated by the letter),  Compartment ...................................
(to be indicated by the letter),  on the plan of the Santa Maria
Addolorata Cemetery existing in the office of the Superintendent of
Public Health.
 If, besides a site for a grave, the grant of another contiguous
area is required, the following is to be added-
He further requests the grant of an area of ......................... square
meters, contiguous to the said site.
 And the undersigned hereby pays in the said office, the sum of
Lm ............. namely for the site for a grave, and Lm ................. for
the contigous area on the basis of ........................ per square metre.
                                                                    Signature
