Heritage issues have now become mainstream and it is quite normal to get involved in discussions about this or that aspect of heritage conservation or degradation.
Heritage Malta, in conjunction with Bournemouth University and the University of Malta, organised a students’ conference last Monday on heritage sites and their management at the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa.
After the ritual introductions by the minister and HM’s CEO, Prof. Timothy Darvill from Bournemouth University made the keynote speech, after which it was time for some of the students to make their presentations. In the case of many of them, this was the first time they had ever spoken in public to such an audience.
Sean Pollacco (also on behalf of Jevon Vella) spoke about what could be done to improve the urban landscape in Victory Square, Vittoriosa.
The landscape around the important town centre has changed throughout the centuries but mostly in World War II and especially on 27 April 1942 when the historic clock tower was destroyed.
Port-war efforts to restore the space as a civic centre meant allowing even more traffic access and even aimed at pulling down historic buildings where these proved to be incompatible with the new design. Fortunately, this was not done.
Vittoriosa residents, asked in a questionnaire, said they wanted to preserve the historic aspect of the square and were mostly in favour of re-erecting the clock tower, but Mr Pollacco questioned the priority and suggested going about things in quite a different way.
Re-erecting the clock tower poses quite difficult issues. It is true that St Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry was built (as a modern building) next to the ruins of the old bombed cathedral, and that the Campanile of St Mark’s in Venice, which collapsed in an earthquake in 1902, was re-erected “com’era dov’era” (as it was, where it was) but Victory Square has changed so much that a rebuilt clock tower would make no sense today.
The buildings around the square were rebuilt either on British/Italian modern models or in a nondescript way. No importance, till lately, has been given to timber restoration around the square. The roofscape has sprouted washrooms, stairwells, lift shafts creating eyesores all around.
Priority, in his eyes, should be thus given to the protection of architectural features, the restoration of balconies and the mitigation of unsightly features, the pedestrianisation of the square to give it back its human dimension and only then could one consider whether or not to rebuild the clock tower.
Joe Sullivan, from the University of Bournemouth compared the way British heritage sites are treated to the way in which the Maltese ones are being treated.
He zoomed in on the dolmen inside the Bugibba hotel that has been cut off, he said, from its relevance. Blocks from Mnajdra have been used to shore up hunting dives and the Tarxien temples too are out of context as they are now in totally urban surroundings. Moreover, in the 1950s, some of the pillars there were “strengthened” with concrete.
In the afternoon session, Joanne Hili Micallef spoke about the desalination of paintings in the Jesuits College in Valletta. The paintings, in a small room near the entrance, were in a very bad state due to the porosity of the globigerina limestone, the rising damp (also caused by bitumen), rain infiltrations and neglect over the years.
Roberta de Angelis spoke about the restoration of a Cali oil painting on stone in the side cupola of the Cospicua parish church. This was painted in 1903, was extensively restored in 1963 but has deteriorated since then. Parts of the painting are detached from the masonry and hang suspended. The stone itself, a salty globigerina type, is flaking and powdery, due to prolonged and recurrent exposure to rainwater. Another reason for the deterioration was the proximity to the dockyards and the use of coal with the resultant sulphur-rich smoke.