I would like to congratulate my friend Anthony Spiteri for his very interesting write-up about the place known as Il-Mandragg in Victoria, which was published in the Gozitan magazine Il-Hajja f’Ghawdex (Life in Gozo, pp. 46-47) issued by the local church. However, I would like to point out two small errors that should be corrected.

St Mary’s Street (Triq Santa Marija) was not named after the statue of the Assumption, now on the façade of one of the houses in the same street, but after the church of Santa Maria di Savina dedicated to the Nativity of Our Lady.

So the statue referred to above gave its name only to the other street, Assumption Street (Triq l-Assunta), and not to the two streets as stated by Mr Spiteri.

Moreover, the church whose façade was facing St Mary’s Street was not the one that was demolished in 1900, but the original one that existed in the Middle Ages. My friend is asked to refer the booklet of the history of this church published by Mgr Paul Cauchi, a revised edition of the original history written by Mgr Luigi Vella.

I take this opportunity to suggest to the editor to find more writers who can tell us interesting things about the neighbourhood of their childhood.

Finally, I would like to point out another error, this time committed by Silvio Felice Pace writing in the same magazine (p. 43) about St Barbara’s Chapel in the Citadel. Architect Vittorio Cassar is not buried in this chapel, though he prepared his tomb with the intention of being buried there “along with Gozitan paupers” (Christi pauperibus). The original inscription is therefore misleading. Mr Felice Pace should look for and read the history of the Confraternity of the Bombardiers of St Barbara’s Church in Valletta to discover the truth.

Anton F. Attard

VICTORIA