Born and bred in the quarrying and limestone industry, Manuel Baldacchino of Siggiewi and his family recently launched Limestone Heritage, a unique tourist attraction offering an insight into the ancient trades of quarrying and masonry.

The attraction is situated in an old quarry taking up 0.33 hectares of land.

Manuel said in an interview yesterday that he started thinking about developing a form of quarrying and Maltese stone museum back in 1994.

He said that when he used to work in quarrying, he did not appreciate the value of the Maltese stone because work in quarries was production-based.

He started seeing the beauty of limestone only when he started converting old farmhouses in 1989.

During his family holidays abroad, he saw how foreigners made the best out of the little they had, turning whatever they could into a tourist attraction.

"Limestone is a resource one can take a lifetime showing and explaining about and we had nothing through which we could exploit this resource.

"Limestone Heritage is not just a unique attraction, it has also been a unique way of transforming a neglected quarry into good use.

"It is also a form of tribute to the thousands of people who worked and are still working in the industry.

"After all, what would Malta be without its important stone structures?"

Mr Baldacchino said he had always wanted his project to be based in its natural environment and felt that the quarry in Siggiewi, which belonged to him, was the ideal location.

Siggiewi, he said, was the only locality in Malta which had both types of limestone: the soft tal-franka and the hard tal-qawwi.

Production at the quarry, situated in Mikiel Azzopardi Street, Siggiewi, had stopped in the 1970s and part of the quarry was converted into an orange grove by Manuel and his wife Ann Marie in 1984, who was then his fiancée. The other part was neglected.

An outline application was submitted to the Planning Authority in 1997 and permits were finally issued in 2000 after a lengthy process.

This led to the actual development which cost Lm230,000 but constant encouragement from several entities, including the PA, the National Tourism Organisation of Malta (now the Malta Tourism Authority), the Restoration Unit and the Masonry Unit at the university, kept him going.

Mr Baldacchino said that Limestone Heritage will be sponsoring two Targa Gap School students to work at the museum in summer and on their working days during the school year.

A tour of the quarry starts with a 10-minute, multi-lingual video production providing a vivid and fascinating introduction to the subject.

This is followed by a walk through a collection of authentic exhibits, artifacts, machinery, specially-made dioramas, guided by multi-lingual, audio visual aids, offering an insight into the ancient crafts of quarrying and masonry in Malta.

A large area is reserved for the recreation of ancient building techniques which provide old Maltese buildings with their inimitable character.

Other attractions are fossil remains of ancient seas, with corals, seashells and shark`s teeth embedded in what once was a sandy seabed.

Expert craftsmen work the stone in situ producing souvenirs which are then sold at the museum`s shop next to a cafeteria.

The Limestone Heritage is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and Sundays.

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