The Maltese public has voted for the item from Europeana - Europe’s digital museum, library, gallery and archive - that it feels captures Malta’s European cultural heritage.

The winning item is an ancient map of the island of Malta showing the location of St. Paul’s shipwreck, and is made available through Europeana by The National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta. It was nominated by Josephine Spiteri from the millions of European cultural treasures including books and manuscripts, photos and paintings, television and film, sculpture and crafts, diaries and maps that can be found on Europeana.eu.

Europeana, together with its Maltese partner AcrossLimits, launched the nation-wide cultural competition via its ‘Malta in Europe – Europeana’ Facebook page to give the people of the island the opportunity to express what their European Cultural Heritage means to them.

Participants were invited to explore Europeana on their pc, tablets and mobiles and then visit the Facebook page, to nominate or vote for the image on Europeana that they felt summed up what it means to be from Malta in Europe today and to say why.

Josephine Spiteri chose the map because to her it represented: “Malta, an island so small, yet with a great European cultural heritage obtained throughout the years. One which makes us unique.”

Welcoming the winning item, the Executive Director of Europeana, Jill Cousins said:

“Europeana is about making Europe’s cultural heritage alive and available for everyone. Malta is a small island but from its rich history to its role as a trading centre it has made an important contribution to Europe and the winning item tells so much of that story. Maps have always been able to show peoples' knowledge of the world at a point in time and the digital world of Europeana opens up even greater ways to share the knowledge and joint heritage of the small country with the large.”

Josephine Spiteri, together with Diane Chircop who has been selected randomly from the hundreds of people who voted for their favourite item, will each receive a Nexus tablet at the National Book Fest.

You can see the winning image and all of the nominated items at www.facebook.com/EuropeanaMalta

The winning image will also be exhibited at Europeana’s interactive stand during the National Book Fest from November 12-16, which everyone is invited to visit.  Visitors will be able to interact with the image and learn more about Europeana.eu.