Having seen the photographs published by FAA of boxes filled with bones that were found beneath Valletta’s Casa Lanfreducci, I find this very worrying. The article points out that these bones were forensically tested and found to date from the time of the Great Siege so, given the location, I think we are right to assume that they are the remains of Knights.

Some years ago I was staying in Kercem Gozo. The house I was renting was at the side of the local church and during my stay, work was being carried out at the rear of the church in connection with the building of an extension. Then all work stopped and all sorts of important-looking people began to appear on a daily basis. When I enquired what was going on, I was told that an old tomb had been discovered and that all work had stopped until such time as the remains and the tomb had been studied and recorded.

This was probably an old burial of no real significance in history as such, but still it was treated with the respect it deserved. Bearing that in mind, and going back to the remains photographed beneath Casa Lanfreducci, can someone from the government explain exactly what respect was shown to these remains? Is it considered respectful in Malta to shovel the remains of the city’s founding fathers into cardboard boxes marked ‘assorted pastries’? More to the point, can someone tell us where these remains are now?

The Maltese authorities are forever talking about attracting more tourists to its shores, and yet they seem to be hell bent on destroying the very things that tourists would be willing to pay good money to see. Like thousands of others, I do not come to Malta to see an ultra-modern Parliament at the entrance to a beautiful old baroque city. I certainly don’t come to see a roofless theatre. But I would pay good money to be allowed to visit a building associated with Our Lady of Victories Church and view the remains of Knights. Please remember the importance of this site. Valletta is named after the Grand Master of the Order, Jean Parisot de la Valette, who laid the foundation stone for the city on 28 March 1566 – and he laid it in Our Lady of Victories Church.

It appears that these remains were sitting in their cardboard boxes for quite some time until they suddenly disappeared. Why? It looks to me as if someone decided that they could cause a bit of a problem from the developers’ point of view and decided to spirit them away so that a certain Minister could issue his statement belittling the FAA’s claim that the basement had been a burial-site. Is this what in fact happened? If so, on whose authority did it happen? And, once again, where are the remains now?

James A. Tyrrell

LARNE, COUNTY ANTRIM

N. IRELAND

Editorial note:

The ministry in question has since stated that: “These cardboard boxes containing what appear to be human remains have not been touched pending investigations ordered by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage… the remains bundled and abandoned on the site will be appropriately investigated and after that given a proper burial.”