During the past 10 years I visited your island more than 20 times. In these 10 years I noticed a number of changes all over the island and especially in Valletta. Streets have been paved, a parking system has been installed, the new inviting San Ġorġ Square in front of the Grandmaster’s Palace erased the endless area of parked cars, facades of public buildings have been cleaned. I also noticed that old town houses are being restored, with their facades being kept in the old architectural styles. All these works and improvements in this old and beautiful city of Valletta are being done with respect for the city’s flair and with respect to Valletta being a world Heritage City.

In all of my countless visits to Valletta I felt happy and I enjoyed the old city because its characteristics are in many ways different from other cities in Europe.

Now I have to admit that when, during my recent visit to Valletta, I saw the construction site for the new parliament building on Freedom Square, I found myself in a state of shock and huge disappointment! How could it be that a massive modern building is allowed to be built inside the walls of Valletta, right after one enters the (future) city gate?

I talked to a number of my Maltese friends of different ages, and I have been in contact with foreigners: they all had the same questions I had. In addition, no one could rationalise how the government and Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) could have approved this building, so close to historic buildings like Our Lady of Victories Church (the first church built in Valletta), St Catherine’s Church, St James Cavalier, just to mention the closest monumental building.

I was told that during the period of consultation of this project, there were quite a number of open protests by people who were fiercely against this modern building and also against the “open air” theatre, based on the ruins of the old Opera House.

This area of the “open air” theatre is absolutely wasted. The ruins are ruins and nothing else; they should have been removed if they were not going to be preserved.

As a German national I am not at ease knowing that the Opera House was destroyed by a German bomb. I met with people who told me that the German government had offered to help rebuild the Opera House. What kind of help? Why has this help been refused? I could not get any conclusive answer.

The situation has to be called grotesque: on the one hand historic and monumental buildings close to Freedom Square have been restored or are still under restoration. On the other hand there exists that strange ambition to place a modern building amidst historic buildings, which are part of “Valletta World Heritage”.

I tend to call this a mutilation of the city of Valletta, which in 1980 was granted Unesco title “Valletta World Heritage City”.

In 2012, the government intends to put Valletta forward as a candidate for the “European Capital City of Culture 2018”. A pre-selection by experts will take place in 2013. One could assume that with the new Parliament building inside the Valletta bastions, both titles could be questioned and taken away.

With the construction of the Parliament building and the useless “open air theatre”, Valletta and its Freedom Square cannot be considered part of the basic idea of keeping Valletta World Heritage City alive.

I know very well that as a foreigner I am not entitled to criticize internal matters in Malta. But as a European I felt free to criticize this unpleasant transformation of Freedom Square. A large number of Maltese and a large number of tourists certainly agree with me.

■ Siegfried Dohse

Germany