We noted with interest Cultural Heritage Superintendent Anthony Pace's letter of September 1 about the fate of the wartime shelter in Hamrun. What is at risk though is not just the single wartime shelter mentioned but a whole underground network that up to 2003 had been left intact. This was amply highlighted in the article WWII Shelter Risks Demolition (August 9). Over the years and up to just a few weeks ago, this has been highlighted to Dr Pace's agency and other heritage groups as well as the Malta Planning and Environment Authority and the Hamrun council via snail and e-mail.
Our documentation shows that the shelter lies partly under our property where it connects to our own wartime shelter and then to the public shelters running under the pavements and right across High Street at least as far back as Vincenzo Bugeja Street. What Dr Pace failed to mention, in what we hope is an oversight, is that it is not just wartime heritage which is at risk but more.
Hamrun was originally known as San Giuseppe up to the late 1880s when it was renamed Hamrun "mil culur u il 'quantita tal hamria" (because of its colour and the quantity of its soil), it being agricultural land. This is according to Castagna's Storia Ta Malta.
Copies of old maps dating back to the 1600s show San Giuseppe as lying between the settlements in Casal Curmi (Qormi) and La Marza (Marsa). Since prosperity of any agricultural community depended upon the availability of good quality water supplies, tanks were excavated and used to store rainwater. One can see such tanks all over the island. These date back to mediaeval, Roman, Punic and even to Neolithic times. Underneath the yard and sometimes even under part of the dwelling itself one would find the well or an underground cistern. Both these two water reservoirs used to be dug out manually in the rocks. The well was always bell-shaped with its mouth in the top narrow part. The water cistern was usually bigger although it was also manually dug out in the rocks. Adjacent reservoirs could be connected to each other by tunnels in the rock itself.
The Wignacourt Aqueduct, whose construction started in 1610, helped transport water all the way to the new city of Valletta from natural springs and sources in the hilly region behind Mdina. This consisted of a number of stone conduits, carried on a series of arches, all the way from Balzan to Hamrun. At a short distance outside Hamrun (the then San Giuseppe) the line of arches turned at right angles across the highway to proceed onto the other side of the street (present day High Street, Sta Venera and Hamrun). From here the water again proceeded through underground channels down to Floriana and Valletta. Maps of the period and later ones do not dispute this. The area of Hamrun where the excavation occurred is on the same side of the road where according to old maps as far back as the 1600s, the underground acqueduct passes, and is well known by locals young and especially old, to be full of underground water reservoirs and cisterns. In fact, only some years back excavation in a neighbouring block on a higher ground unearthed an underground water reservoir with serious consequences for the immediate vicinity.
A Mepa case officer report on this development, that can be downloaded by any member of the public from the Mepa site, mentions the following as one of a number of reasons recommending refusal (and here we quote): "Proposal would likely affect archaeological features present on site. These consist of a bell-shaped cistern, linked to an extensive labyrinth of wartime shelter galleries. Structure Plan policy ARC 3 seeks to protect sites/areas of archaeological importance and sites which have potential archaeological remains."
What now springs to mind is the recent publicity of the Roman remains in Marsa site. That the area is potentially rich in historical remains has long been known by the authorities. According to the Museum Annual Reports, five Roman tombs were found in 1947 "in the field opposite the Civil Abattoir at Marsa". That is, within 20 metres to the east of the Roman remains in question. Mepa's spokesman continued that: "This implies that the area was one of intense activity." It also included burial sites and most probably a settlement, the location of which is still unknown. The remains that were recently re-discovered near the Marsa Canal had already been discovered on January 24, 1956.
In my old copies of much earlier Annual Museum Reports (1930/1931) there is mention of a rock tomb uncovered at Hamrun in "Via Casal Curmi" where fragments of human bones, amphorae and an unguentarium were found. In the 1936/37 report, extensive detail is given of the discovery of three rock tombs dating to the late Roman period while widening the road leading from Hamrun to Qormi in the area known as tal Bajjada or l' Erba Qaddisin. Detailed description is found in these reports.
We sincerely hope that the above well-documented information will help encourage Dr Pace to intervene decisively to protect and ensure the preservation of wartime heritage and other "potential archaeological remains" in our locality.