One of our jewels

Yesterday Evening, the Prime Minister inaugurated the Mdina paving project. Malta's ancient city, in part medieval and in part Baroque, looks the prouder for it. My colleague, Minister Ninu Zammit, deserves a well-earned pat on the back for completing, through the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure, another project that enhances the overall quality of product Malta.

It is really fascinating that when we talk of product Malta, we don't have to do any journeying into the realms of the imagination. The product is there and what a paving project such as the one carried out at Mdina proves is that what is necessary is that we dedicate more resources, human and financial, to bringing out and polishing what is already there.

Over the past years Government has been doing just that. Still, it is part of human nature to keep focusing on any details that remain pending. To give an obvious and predicted example, it did not take too long after inaugurating the rehabilitated Italian Chapel at St John's Co-Cathedral to practically forget about the works carried out and start emphasising the need to rehabilitate the other chapels!

This cannot be seen as our greatest problem but in real terms this is our greatest opportunity. I remember a slogan used to attract tourists to Sicily which used to read: "Give us a week of your time, and we will give you 2,500 years of history." In our case, we can easily use the same strap line, except that our national offer to visitors stands at 7,000 years.

The Mdina paving project has been the most ambitious task carried out by the Mdina Rehabilitation Committee within the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure. While a substantial part of the work has been carried out by contractors, the importance of the input by Government's own employees through a dedicated Works Division deserves to be highlighted.

The Mdina Rehabilitation Committee was set up in 1998 after similar committees were established to deal with Valletta as well as Cottonera. The very first that took off was the Valletta one. That was done when Michael Falzon was Minister responsible for Works. When I took over that responsibility, I had seen to setting up a similar structure for Cottonera, and then for Mdina. Eventually the remit of the Valletta committee was also extended to cover Floriana.

The concept was that our historic centres deserve to have a rehabilitation project that would offer a holistic approach and seek gradua-lly to restore some of our finest jewels. With regard to all three projects, I consider myself fortunate to have found through my old friend, Ray Bondin, an indefatigable and energetic executive co-ordinator who becomes more enthusiastic and determined, the harder the challenge that lies ahead of him.

Asking him to co-ordinate not only the Valletta project for which he had a natural vocation - I still remember a publication he had produced about the needs of our capital city as part of his own election campaign in the Eighties - but also to handle Cottonera and Mdina through one office, meant that we were asking Ray to handle a very tall order. He dedicated his energies and skills to the job and in the process earned the respect of mayors representing different political opinions, of the advisory committees set up to assist him, as well as of the people in general.

In the meantime, Ray carried on with his own studies up to doctorate level in conservation and for some years now, has been acknowledged as a UNESCO expert who is often asked to render his assessment and advice on projects and initiatives in other countries.

It is no coincidence that while the Prime Minister yesterday inaugurated the Mdina paving project, on Saturday, the President of Malta will inaugurate the Mdina Master Plan, another initiative that we had taken up together to ensure that our historic city receives all the attention that it deserves. The Master Plan has been prepared by a well-known Italian professor, Tatiana Kirova.

When we had set about the Mdina paving project, the first and most important hurdle that had to be overcome was to ensure that this city would not only be silent but also have no more wiring. That target has been achieved and there is no trace of wiring left - even with regard to street lighting.

In the early days of the project, I had to chair a few difficult meetings with the highest Enemalta officials to ensure that we manage to source pillar boxes which - unlike what happens in the rest of the country - can be fitted underground. I can still remember a few arguments that had been used to try to dissuade us from carrying on. What about safety? Will they be waterproof? How can they be maintained? Is there a reliable supplier for that sort of product? Will it cost a bomb?

Through perseverance we were able to find a solution for every problem that came up. There are enough persons who even if unintentionally - sometimes quite deliberately - manage to do it the other way round - find a problem for every solution!

Having to trench up all of Mdina presented other challenges. We knew from Day One that a system of underground channels to place all services underground would, in a city that has many layers of history, lead to considerable archaeological finds. What was done in this respect was to engage from the outset an archaeological team, led by Katya Stroud, to take proper care of any discovery of this nature.

As a result, enough material has been collected that sheds light on what Mdina must have looked like before the arrival of the Knights of St John. The finds have included Roman columns, monuments, Byzantine and medieval remains of different sorts - well in excess of what was originally envisaged and in any case remarkably demonstrating that we can graphically draw up a representation of Mdina's history as seen through the different archaeological layers that lie beneath the city as we know it nowadays. The different discoveries will need to be examined and studied further.

The paving project has totally transformed the city of Mdina. Gone are the ugly asphalt patches all over the place. The chosen material, a whitish hard stone that is very similar to our own, was meant not to compete or clash with the architecture of the city. The simplicity of both the material chosen as well as of the design blends in perfectly with Mdina's medieval and baroque characteristics that stand out more clearly.

Praise is due to Architect Emanuel Buttigieg who produced the designs and, as evidenced by other major embellishment projects for which he was responsible, always rises amiably to the occasion.

That in turn has meant that the unique experience that Mdina represents to Maltese and foreign visitors alike has been enhanced through another excellent project representing an investment of around Lm500,000 that Government embarked upon to see to product Malta.

The paving was the not the only project that we have worked upon through the Mdina Rehabilitation Project. Another important achievement was the total rehabilitation of the courtyard of Vilhena Palace that was carried out with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Portugal. In that case the entire courtyard was repaved, and culverts to carry runoff water were placed below the paving. Moreover, the new overall design as well as lighting systems gave this courtyard the prestige that it deserves.

Maltese hard stone blended with Portuguese marble was used and the descendants of Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena donated to us 250-year-old olive trees to adorn this courtyard even further.

Works Division employees together with Kalaxlokk workers had made that project come through. Since that project was carried out, countless cultural events have taken place there and the courtyard has become part of the pleasant experience that is enjoyed by all those attending, I consider Vilhena Palace as a symbol of the renaissance of Mdina and I am now looking forward to a project that Heritage Malta within my ministry is working on for the better enjoyment and presentation of that palace.

Other projects have included restoring the Torre dello Standardo and the Greeks' Gate, in the latter case in collaboration with the Malta Tourism Authority.

If I had to be asked to give a future appointment of a significant project to enhance Mdina and product Malta, I would ask one and all to look out for early 2007. That is when we should be inaugurating a majestically rehabilitated Palazzo Falson, popularly known as the Norman House, parts of which date back to the 13th century. This project is being carried out by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti within the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.

An even earlier appointment will be coming over to see the transformed Howard Gardens outside Mdina. Moreover, come October, Mdina will again form part of the Historic Cities Festival where re-enactments bring home the fact that our job is ultimately about celebrating what has actually happened and bringing to life a few of our national treasures.

Mdina is one of our jewels. Following yesterday's inauguration of a wonderful paving project, we should all be that much more aware and proud of it all. That is what product Malta is about.

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