Ray Bondin
The hole that never was
We have been told that the Valletta Rehabilitation Project has made a tremendous new find: a tunnel beneath St George's Square! This has been declared as if it were the find of the century. This tunnel was known to everyone. Its entrance has for many years been used as a store. The basic truth is that the project planned for the area has been embarked upon without the necessary research and documentation such a project deserves.
I have already written on the subject. I am not in favour of another big hole in the middle of Valletta but I have already expressed the view in The Times that if the government insists on implementing this project it must first carry out the necessary research and then plan so that the excavated space is used for more activity than just a one-level car park for members of Parliament, including the possibility of an extension to the St John's Co-Cathedral museum which is, after all, only a few metres away.
But it is typical of the manner in which projects are being handled in this World Heritage city, Even before any proper investigations were made, an application was filed with the planning authority on the basis of a few shallow exploratory holes that proved nothing. It was the Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee and the Integrated Heritage Management Unit of the planning authority that told the applicant, that is, the government, that first they had to conduct serious investigations. They were asked to look for shelters we know exist.
They were requested to look for the piping system that brought water to the central fountain, which was the symbol of the extension of the water system to Valletta by the Knights. They were told to look for the base of the pillar that existed at the end of the square. They were told to protect the small area of the original concrete parade ground in front of the Main Guard.
Furthermore, they were told to check whether any of the road paving still existed. (I can assure you that the original lava paving is still there beneath the tarmac.) They were told to present new plans to treat the area as a square and to leave the part of the road "readable" as a street so that lower Republic Street (already cut off from central Republic Street as if a wall existed in front of the Palace) would not be visibly cut off for ever by forming a square that goes right up to the Palace. That means that the Republic Street paving should continue in front of the Palace and on to the lower part.
What has been done about all this?
Two trial archaeological excavation pits were dug confirming what we already knew. Furthermore, after the application was filed, showing that a small door in Archbishop Street will be widened as an entrance to the car park, they finally went to this area and found the tunnel that has so ceremoniously been proclaimed!
How different were projects done in the past! In other areas of Valletta, which were paved, research and investigations were conducted before the design was made and underground systems were restored before the project was implemented. Suffice to remember what was done in Republic Square, Great Siege Square and St John Square or in Mdina, where extensive archaeological investigations were done before the paving project was started.
It is no wonder that citizens, witnessing what is going on, doubt whether this subterranean heritage will be protected when these projects are taken in hand.
Dr Bondin was curator of Valletta for 20 years
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Ray Bondin
Mar 5th 2009, 19:04
Astrid Vella is very unfair in giving the impression that I wanted a deeper hole: I stated that I am against digging in Valletta and only if Government insists on digging should they consider digging more.
For years I campaigned for the protection of our underground heritage and hardly anyone backed me in this except for Miriam Cremona who as a Member of the Valletta Rehabilitation Committee was always against this and other projects. We were against the Connections project of ten years ago for instance. No Astrid Vella spoke then.
No one backed us up when for years we insisted on funding to restore our underground heritage, especially the drainage tunnels. Miriam and I were simply ignored.
When I insisted on allowing some of the underground finds in Mdina to remain visible no one backed me up when the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage agreed with then Minister Ninu Zammit and ordered me to cover everything up.
Who stood by me publicly when in defending the heritage of Valletta I HAD to in August 2007 resign my job as Curator of Valletta?
I admire what Astrid does but some of us have been around for many years.
Astrid Vella
Mar 5th 2009, 05:08
Dr. Bondin, it would be bad enough if the situation were as described by you, but the more worrying aspect is that the studies prescribed were carried out and concluded that there was "Absolutely nothing beneath the Square" It was FAA, and not the Ministry employees who pointed out the existence of the passage under the Square. One can only be appreciative of the fact that the Ministry acted on our tip-off immediately and did not try to suppress the information as has sometimes happened in the past.
It is pertinent to point out that these studies which failed to show up the passages just three feet under the street, are the same studies that we were assured would expose cracks four floors down below the Cathedral.
As for the proposal of deeper excavation beneath the Square, please spare us from any further damaging projects. The passage has now been proven to be part of a network leading towards the Palace, would it not be more worthwhile to work towards opening a safe stretch of these passages to the public, giving tourists and Maltese alike an insight into our unique heritage under Valletta.
joe felice pace
Mar 4th 2009, 14:15
The Head of the Demolition and Clearance Department during World War II and in the following years used to describe to me the many tunnels that run under every Valletta street. Because of its work the Department often resorted to those plans when it came to clear bombed areas and dig for any injured people.
Anthony Schembri Adami
Mar 4th 2009, 12:49
My late father used to say that as a boy kids used to pass from the Marsamxetto side of Valletta to the Grand Habour through passages and that the water for the fountain that stood instead of the Great Siege monument passed though these tunnels. From my histroy I know that the fountains including the one in front of the Palace were supplied with water coming from Rabat and passing through passages underneath Valleta
Joseph Sammut
Mar 4th 2009, 11:47
Call me ignorant if you like, but I don't see why an abondoned tunnel, probably from the British period, should hold an important development to our beloved city especially if the development is sub-terranian and the square would be embellished as against a sea of metal as it is now.
e.cortis
Mar 4th 2009, 11:21
I can still remember one of my best ever teachers, Dr. Godfrey Wettinger, way back forty years ago, teaching us about the passages running under the whole of Valletta . Who is the wise guy who found (!!) these passages in 2009 ?. Come on, give us a break !!.
albert leone ganado
Mar 4th 2009, 10:28
It is a pity that persons with the knowledge and experience of our capital such as is Ray Bondin seem to no longer enjoy the ears of the powers that are.
It is typical of Malta that with every sweep of a new broom we forget the sterling work of those who came before and rather than learn lessons from past experiences end up covering the same ground and repeating past mistakes.
Jimmy Magro
Mar 4th 2009, 10:22
That Valletta has an underground tunnel system has been known for many years. It is shameful for the new kids on the block to come out and state that they have discovered something - as if they had discovered the Egyptian Pyramids.
This new urge to dig big holes in Valletta must have originated from someone who either likes holes or has a hole in his mind.
Valletta deserves better governance. It seems that when these projects are left to the so called professionals, they create more dust than gold. Shameful !!
Leo Said
Mar 4th 2009, 09:59
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