Visitors go back in time

Scores of Maltese families and tourists visited the Couvre Porte wartime shelter in Vittoriosa at an open day organised by Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna and the local council yesterday.

Along with the refurbished one-and-a-half-kilometre-long wartime shelter and two rooms that used to house a police station when the tunnels were dug in 1940, visitors could enjoy a re-enactment by members of a UK historical contingent who dressed up in period uniforms.

On display were two motorcycles, a truck and a car of the epoch, along with a cannon and rifles that delighted many children present. The organisers held tours to the shelters and explained what life in the shelters was like during World War Two.

Complete with directional arrows to guide visitors and dim bulbs to create an ambience, the FWA is creating an effective means of direction through the labyrinth of tunnels.

The shelter was originally a small tunnel for the policemen on duty at the police station at Couvre Porte, that used to be very close to the building that houses the Vittoriosa local council today. It was eventually extended to cater for more civilians living in the area.

A FWA tour leader explained that nobody could be allowed into the shelter unless they had a particular ticket issued by the government, a form of authorisation allocating people into different shelters of different localities.

"Shelter openings all had a curtain which used to be soaked in a mixture of water and lime since this would help prevent poisonous gases from entering the shelter in case that gas bombs were launched," he said.

Shelters were dug by government rock cutters but even by private contractors. People had a choice to cut their own chamber if they wanted to avoid competing for their share of bedding and "privacy".

But a permit for a room would have cost a family about Lm100 to obtain, needless to say a very hefty amount at the time.

Small recesses for oil lamps were dug long the walls of the labyrinth's corridor. Cooking oil would be poured in the holes and a wick lit to light up the corridors.

Eventually, the shelters became more complex and organised, with chambers being transformed into improvised maternity wards for instance.

Shelters were dug employing a particular technique using a mazza (sledgehammer), a baqqun (pickaxe) and a spnar (a special metal chisel used for cutting rock). Two vertical trenches parallel to each other would be dug with the sledgehammer. The spnar was then hammered into the rock in between the trenches to crack large pieces of stone.

Work to refurbish and reopen the shelters started in September last year. Refurbishment is still underway and an interactive Malta at War Museum should be up and running by the end of the year.

There had been problems of water seepage in the main galleries of the shelters and this was holding FWA's reopening plans, though the problems of seepage have been solved now.

The shelter and the two overlying rooms should become a fully interactive, cultural attraction by the end of the year on completion of the Malta at War Museum.

The first name chosen for the site was Malta Home Front Museum but the FWA felt it was not suitable for the public.