It is well known that our capital city is named after its founder, Grand Master Jean Parisot de Vallete. In 1565, the year of the Great Siege, Mount Sceberras, the hill between the Grand and Marsamxett harbours was bereft of buildings except for two houses and a garden.
The intrepid hero of the victory over the superior invading Turkish armada and invading force thought of building a city on the hill opposite the headquarters of the Order of St John on the other side of Grand Harbour. The Grand Council of the Order concurred with the proposal of their Grand Master. The building was started in 1566 with the construction of the Church of Our Lady of Victories,
The old City Gate
Porta San Giorgio, later Porta Reale (Putirjal, the Maltese version) before being demolished, boasted of two stone full figure statues of Grand Master L'Isle Adam and of Grand Master de Vallete. It is not known, at least to the present writer, what happened to these two stone statues when the gate was demolished to make way for the present 'fascist' monstrosity of an entrance to the City.
Many years back when plans were being drawn for the area of the city entrance, the Association of Lyceum Past Students made a proposal for the erection of a monument to de Vallete in front of the rebuilt opera house. It was officially confirmed that the proposal was being taken on board.
And yet we have remained without both the opera house and the statue of the grand master. The Latin adage si monumentum queris circumspice - if you want to find the monument, look around - is not acceptable as a substitute for the monument or statue. The "city built by gentlemen for gentlemen" really and truly deserves at least a statue just at the entrance to the City.
This is just not a satisfactory answer. The contradiction exists in the fact that there are monuments to the late Prime Ministers who lived and were in office during the past one hundred years. But there is no acknowledgement of the obligation we owe to the leaders of the past who were responsible for the construction of the city, churches and palaces.
Pope Pius V
The bust of Pope Pius V, who donated money and sent his engineer to help plan the city, used to be affixed to the back of Putirjal. This did not meet the same fate of the disappearance of the statues of L'Isle Adam and de Vallete. Luckily it has been conserved.
It can now be admired on the façade of the church of Our Lady of Port Salvo, popularly known as St Dominic parish church. The only reason of its present placing is that the pope was a Dominican friar. Strictly speaking, the bust should be placed near the entrance to the city as it had been rightly placed in the past. This and the proposal of having a statue if not a monument to Grand Master Jean Parisot de Vallete should be taken actively by the Valletta local council.
Every capital city of Europe has monuments to persons connected with the history of the city or nation. It sounds rather silly to be satisfied with the Latin adage mentioned earlier as a substitute for the monument.
The founder of the city which bears his name is an honoured name in our history. And this not only for the city that he built but also for his great share in shaping the history of Malta and indeed of Europe.
When he led the Knights and Maltese soldiery in their great victory over the invading Ottoman force, Malta and the rest of Europe were saved from the dominion of Islam.
It is a sad fact that the entrance to our City is still marred by the ruins of the bombed Royal Opera House.
The reconstruction of the area has been on and off a nauseating number of times now. It is indeed a misfortune that there is very little hope of seeing this dream of a statue for de Vallete being realised in the foreseeable future.