CPD personnel inspect historic cisterns in Valletta

Members of the Civil Protection Department were yesterday given the unusual assignment of inspecting two historic cisterns beneath St John's Square, Valletta, ahead of paving works planned in front of St John's Co-Cathedral and Merchant Street.

Using their expertise and equipment, CPD personnel descended into the barrel-vaulted cisterns to film and inspect the wells that date back to when the church - designed by Gerolamo Cassar and initially sponsored by Grand Master La Cassiere - was built at the turn of the 17th century.

Ray Bondin, executive co-ordinator of the Valletta Rehabilitation Project, told The Times yesterday there was very little research on the cisterns and their water-catchment systems.

One of the cisterns was found to be already dry while the other still needs to be emptied. Both are full of ficus trees roots that have pierced the vaults.

VRP is inspecting all the cisterns and underground space around the co-cathedral. Inspections, under the direction of Dr Bondin and engineer Oliver Debono, are being carried out in the light of humidity problems inside St John's Co-Cathedral, which was also due to the water caught in the cisterns.

Dr Bondin explained that the cisterns in front of St John's form part of a system of wells around Valletta. When the capital was being built, rock was extracted from small quarries dug adjacent to the building sites. Upon completion, the holes were transformed into cisterns given the water availability problem on the island.