From Dr J. Sammut Tagliaferro

Your Leader (“Piano” piano, TMIS, 21 December) has much in it to be recommended. However, it contains a glaring error of fact that needs rectification. It says “There is much to be said for going back to the kind of City Gates Valletta had before the British… pulled them down. There are enough baroque gates, such as the one known as the Victoria Gate… to serve as models.”

On this site once stood the original 16th century Knights’ gate named after Grand Master Pietro del Monte (1568-1572). It was precisely the British who demolished this Knights’ gate (just as they did on the City Gate site) and replaced it with the present gate named after the Queen of the time.

The Victoria Gate is a piece of Victoriana not to be used as a model with which to replace the present City Gate. The appropriate model is the definitive 1630 s Knights’ Porta San Giorgio designed by our illustrious compatriot Tumas Dingli that once stood proud on this site.

Turning to Manny Parnis (“The gate”, TMIS, 21 December) he is quite right in what he says about the Sydney Opera House.

I also agree with him that “Piano has a track record” but cannot concur with what follows those four words “so give him space and the means to produce a gate that will attract and inspire…”. Piano has already been given the space and the means to inspire on this site. His track record of 20 years ago is that of an uninspiring, inappropriate solution.

John Samut-Tagliaferro

ZEBBUG, GOZO