I wish, first of all, to congratulate Noel Grima on the articles he writes about heritage or cultural issues which give us a detailed insight into some of the activities held and which I am not always able to attend. I would certainly have liked to hear Dr Edward Said’s lecture described in the article The mysteries underneath the Palace`.

Dr Said has opened a whole new world to us regarding the underground heritage about which we know very little. I am very proud to have helped Dr Said in his initial days of research by opening up some of the underground spaces for him to visit when I headed the Valletta Rehabilitation Project.

I would like to comment on the penultimate paragraph in the article, which states: “Another discovery made during the square’s restoration showed that there is no cistern underneath the square, so hopes that it could be turned into an underground car park were unfounded.” I have no intention of entering into polemics, but I cannot leave this observation unanswered – because it is a myth that ex-Minister George Pullicino gave to justify what was done in St George`s Square.

There was never any intention of using a cistern for a car park. When the project for an underground car park in St George`s Square was studied and discussed, all the necessary information was gathered and when the square was eventually paved, rightly so, information about what lay beneath it was known already through non-invasive checks, as well as some physical checks. The famous tunnel about which there was so much publicity was well known. We did not know that there was no large cistern underneath the base of the old fountain.

All this misinformation was to justify the paving of the square without any thought of a possible car park underneath it. Valletta is crying out for such a car park: it really was a lost opportunity that would have meant an underground car park without any visible structures in the square itself, with the entrance and exit through Archbishop Street and no disturbing of the tunnels just underneath it. All the plans were prepared by the Works Department and all possible research and checks were carried out.

Ray Bondin

GHAJNSIELEM