First Floor Hallway

1st floor hall way

The bright first floor hallway can be reached from the stone external stair in the garden or the internal spiral stair located in the kitchen area. Here we have doors serving all three bedrooms, one bathroom, with the spiral stair ascending to the washroom and roof terrace. Lighting is provided by wall mounted stone up-lighters.

Length - 9.30 Meters
Width - 1.50 Meters

Kitchen / Dining

Kitchen / Dining

The large kitchen / dining with large arched picture window faces south overlooking the pool area. Comes fitted with farmhouse style cupboards and high quality granite worktops, dishwasher, cooker, fridge and natural stone-floor.

As in the lounge area the characterful stone supporting arches are repeated here.

We have 2 staircases the original external stair from the garden area, and for convenience the kitchen has a locally produced spiral stair that we have added.

Width 3.9 meters
Length 7.0 meters

Lounge Area

Lounge

The large lounge area has been beautifully restored to a high standard bringing out the natural brightness of the original limestone. The stone arches are features of this room with one doorway leading to the kitchen and a second to the entrance hall. The high ceiling and ceiling fan help to keep the room cool in the heat of the summer. Dimensions for this room are 4.6 meters wide and 6.6 meters in length.

Entrance Hall

Entrance Hall

Behind the period facade the old front door opens into the entrance hall, you are greeted by a large L shaped entrance hall area with traditional stone floor. The hall is 1.9 meters wide and 8.5 long, at the end widens to 3.3meters. Hallway lighting is provided by 2 Moroccan coloured glass lantern lights. The hall way then widens into a bright sunlit area looking out over the pool terrace. This wider area has supporting stone arches and contains a wet room with toilet, shower and wash basin with original restored doors into the kitchen / dinning area and the large lounge. A set of large double doors open onto the pool terrace and garden area.
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The Location.

Gozo

The sunny Island of Gozo is situated 5 kilometers to the Northwest of Malta. It is about 80 kilometres away from the Island of Sicily and about 190 kilometres from the North African coast. Roughly circular in shape, Gozo has an area of 14 kilometres by 7 kilometres. Our village is Munxar pronounced (munshar), one of the smaller villages of Gozo, it lies to the south of the island between Xlendi valley and the village of Ta' Sannat. Its name is derived from a distinguished feature of the area.

The name Munxar is Maltese for "bucksaw", a saw set in an adjustable H-shaped frame, used for sawing firewood on a buck. The imagery is suggested by the promontory that runs from behind the village church sawing into two the surrounding area creating the Wied tal-Ghancija, "Ghancija valley", on the Munxar side and Wied ix-Xlendi, "Xlendi Valley", on the Fontana side.

An academic and celebrity of Munxar was the late Professor Joseph Aquilina - a name synonymous to  the Maltese language. Born in Munxar on April 7, 1911, Professor Aquilina read between 1937 and 1940 "Comparative Semitic Philology" at the University of London where he obtained a doctorate. Among the prominent posts which Profs. Aquilina held were; a full time professor at the University of Malta, and that of Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Author of numerous works, including novels, critical studies, drama, linguistic papers and religious books, Professor Aquilina has also published his monumental 'Maltese-English Dictionary'. Indeed an achievement that honours his birthplace.

This farmhouse was previously owned by Professor Aqualina we bought the property from his family in 2003 and was badly in need of restoration, but more about that later.

Munxar is just 5 minutes from the beautiful seaside village of Xlendi and also 5 minutes from the islands historic capital of Victoria.

The Front

The Front

The front of the house is east facing and benefits from the morning sunrise, the street is tranquil as is the Village of Munxar. The front of the house is 10 meters wide with 3 bedrooms, 2 to the front, the larger bedroom has an old original balcony looking over the valley down to Fontana below.

When we bought the old farmhouse back in 2003 it was in one hell of a state, the restoration of the old house took the best part of two years to complete. One of the questions we were keen to ask is how old is the place, we were told it was built around 1795 - 1800 so I think we can assume it has stood the test of time. The house is made of traditional local limestone.

We were keen to keep as many of the original features as possible, and those that were beyond restoration we had made new, but to the old specification where possible. The windows and the main front door was about all we could salvage from the front of the house, the back of the house was completely beyond help in the way of doors and windows. 

 To put things into perspective these are a few snapshots from history at around the time this house was being built.

• 1795 The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.

• 1801 Tsar Paul I of Russia demands the return of Malta to the Knights.

• 1803 England declares war on France, (again).

• 1805 Lord Nelson defeats the Spanish and the French at the Battle of Trafalgar.

I am sure Admiral Horatio Nelson would approve, if he were here to see the door for himself.

Interested? email me.

Roof Terrace View.

Roof terrace views

The large roof area of the house has a washroom / utility room contains washing machine and some storage. We also have very efficient solar water heating providing us with all the hot water that we need all year round. There is something very satisfying about knowing that you are not paying a cent for the cost of heating your water. We also have a roof terrace offering views of the village of Fontana in the valley below and Victoria on the hill in the distance.

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Third bedroom.

Third Bedroom

The third bedroom is the smallest of the 3, it has a high ceiling with fan a single wooden support beam and whilst is to narrow for a double bed, the room  is quite long and can accommodate a single bed or bunk beds.
A fitted wardrobe is also included. The original window has been restored and has been completed with a fly screen.

Length - 5.0 Meters

Width - 2.1 Meters

Swimming Pool & Sun Terrace

Swimming Pool and terrace.

The garden and pool area are considered to be of medium size for Malta and Gozo, but considered a small garden in the UK for example. The south facing wall is a dry stone wall locally known as a rubble wall. raised beds are situated on to boundaries that are easy to maintain and planted with mature local Mediterranean plant varieties. There is the original stone external staircase to the 1st floor hallway. 

The fresh water swimming pool has a reservoir attached to top up as necessary. The pool has been recently refurbished with high quality Italian mosaic tiles giving a luxury look and feel. The garden and pool are all fitted with ample lighting to make the most of those outdoor evening gatherings. The climate here means that bbq's can be enjoyed for 9 months of the year, it is not unusual to have bbq's in December.

Garden - 7.0 meters wide x 17 meters long.
Pool - 3.1meters wide x 6 meters long.

Three Shower rooms.

En-suite shower room.

Ground Floor.
On the ground  floor we have a small wet room containing toilet, hand basin and shower.
Width -1.4 Meters
Length - 2.0 Meters

1st Floor.
The master bedroom has en suite facilities, a new shower has recently been installed the room includes wash basin and toilet. All water is fed throughout the house via pressure pump, with hot water coming via a very efficient solar water heater.

Width - 1.4 Meters
Length - 3.10 Meters

The main bathroom is also on the 1st floor and is huge, so huge that if you wished with minor alterations it could be divided into 2 providing en suite facilities for the second bedroom. It contains a toilet, wash basin and shower.

Width - 2.4 Meters
Length - 4.6 Meters

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom.

A very bright room and has an en-suite shower room and large balcony overlooking the pool area. The bed in the picture is a super king size bed which demonstrates the size of this bedroom. Solid Wood beams support the ceiling, the floor traditional stone and stone up lighters are wall mounted. 

The room has a modern efficient air conditioning unit. A set of double doors with fly screen lead on to the large balcony. 

I will add the en-suite shower room details in the next post.

Width - 4.0 Meters
Length - 4.0 Meters

Second Bedroom

Bedroom 2

We have 3 bedrooms, so why have I started with the second bedroom? The second bedroom is the largest bedroom but not the master bedroom, reasons for this will become clear later. A large bedroom with original traditional old floor tiles, these were lifted during restoration of the house and carefully re-layed.

This room also has a balcony entered through a set of double doors with original ornate carvings and faces east enabling you to benefit from the morning sunrise behind the village of Fontana in the valley below. The bed shown in the picture is a super king-size bed, gives you an idea of the size of the room. A fitted wardrobe and air conditioning are included. This bright room has ample storage space.

Width. - 4.5 Meters

Length. -  4.6 Meters