Have we taken leave of our senses? Or perhaps is it the heat of the silly season taking its toll on our reason?

I am referring to the monstrous and scandalous application to build a three-storey museum extension in the courtyard of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

It is an idiotic idea, to say the least, and I will explain why I believe it to be idiotic, from my point of view, that of a layman, but a citizen nevertheless:

First of all, I believe, and I stand to be corrected, that the courtyard in question is the burial-ground of the Knights who served during the Great Siege of 1565. There is a monument in the middle of the courtyard which documents this fact.

Secondly, it is a fact that St John’s isn’t beautiful simply due to its interior or due to the treasures that it holds, but it is primarily beautiful in its original entirety, and any move to alter its original architecture would be akin to a terrorist attack.

Thirdly, from an aesthetic and architectural point of view, this is no simple courtyard – separating this holy ground from the mundane Merchants’ Street, there is no high, impenetrable wall but a few iron-wrought gates – thus, you can look through them and see for yourself that this courtyard, thanks to the way it was designed and built, keeps its particular aura of silence and prayer, in spite of its being in the open air, in spite of the crazy goings-on in the street.

But obviously, this goes undetected by the multitude, and this is the striking balance of two worlds so close to one another – a balance that only a cultured heart, prompted by the spirit, can feel.

If St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation are really in earnest to preserve the cathedral and all that it holds, as they say that they do; if they in fact believe that the cathedral, in its entirety, is a worldwide treasure worth preserving, then what they are proposing certainly does not fulfill their terms of reference.

Let them look elsewhere for an extension of their state-of-the-art museum: let them dig beneath St John’s Square if they really must (I personally do not agree that Valletta should be touched in any way, save for restoration works); let them make use of some other palatial building, preferably but not necessarily close to St John’s, for this extension (the building housing the Health Ministry comes to mind); let them, perhaps, make use of the halls and rooms that are upstairs within the cathedral enclave for such a purpose; or let them try and acquire the building behind St John’s; failing all of which, let them resign to the fact that there is no space for further extension and let the matter rest there.

Honestly, things take place in Malta without so much as the batting of an eyelid; or else, the belief that all will be forgotten; or that all will eventually be accepted. This must not be the case with this proposal, which will have monstrous consequences without the possibility of ever putting things back the way they were.

The onus of stopping this summer madness does not fall on those multitudes who daily trudge past those black iron-wrought gates without so much as letting their consciousness stop for one wild second at the peaceful atmosphere emanating from this courtyard; it behoves to that part of the population that has at heart the cultural heritage which has been left to us to hand over to future generations. My appeal is not only to the authorities but to the more enlightened of us – those who have at heart what is really beautiful around us. It is up to us to stand up and be counted and put a stop to this madness!

I am really quite surprised as well as disappointed when I see applications and suggestions of this sort. We are not speaking here of some committee or group of amateurs – this is St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation which has made such a suggestion. The Foundation, I believe, is made up of professional and learned people.

Hence, my initial questions: where is reason? Where is common sense? In whose hands are the treasures of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta?

Franco Farrugia

Pietà