The Maltese architect Giorgio Grognet de Vassé was born in Malta in 1774, before enjoying a varied career which culminated in his architectural design of the Rotunda of Mosta. Inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, a city where Grognet had spent some years, this neoclassical domed church is a remarkable feature in the Maltese landscape. Renowned since its construction for its unique appearance and the size of its dome, it achieved further fame during World War II when a German bomb smashed through the roof during mass, although it failed to detonate. However, architecture and engineering were not the only passions of this minor noble who spent much of his life trying to prove his theory about Plato’s Atlantis. Some
