Bernard A. Vassallo, Swieqi
Francesco Laparelli's city gate breached
"Quod non fecerunt Barbari, fecerunt Barberini". In other words, what the Turks failed to do to the city of Valletta, newly built on the orders of Grand Master Jean de la Valette and his council, in 1566, one year after the Great Siege of 1565, now Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Italian architect Renzo Piano and Minister Austin Gatt are achieving in 2010, regardless of popular sentiment and objections. A breach in Valletta's city walls is anathema, an idea not even to be thought of, let alone put into practice with such arrogance. Where has our democracy gone, Prime Minister? And why was there no call for tenders?
Why the silence about details? How was the lump sum of €80 million reached? There are many questions to be answered, and more. Why this fixation with Renzo Piano? His international achievements are controversial, not publicly acclaimed. Other Maltese architects - and I could name one in particular - show greater capability and sensitivity regarding Valletta.
A breach will ruin Valletta's walls. Francesco Laparelli of 1566 never intended it for his new city. How does Mr Piano now come up with such a ploy? Why this diving into modernity, and into Egyptian and Babylonian architecture? Valletta is a Mannerist and Baroque city, period. Let no one have the brazen audacity to change this. Modern architecture does not blend with Valletta. It is an aberration.
A Parliament building inside City Gate is a mistake; it's in the wrong place. Why the hurry to move out of the Presidential and Grand Masters' Palace? Is Dr Gonzi a man in a hurry? We know how kittens turn out when their mother is so.
As for the Opera House, "Chi va Piano, va sano e va lontano... se non perde il treno". Mr Piano is absolutely wrong to present us with a roofless theatre. We are going to need coats, raincoats and earplugs in such a dismal creation.
Barry's pre-war Theatre Royal can be restored, if we are bold enough to believe in it, its beauty, splendour, majesty, wonderful performances and unrivalled prestige for Valletta, our capital city.
If anyone were to have bombed the Auberge de Castille instead, would we have built a monstrosity in its place, or restored it as it was, and is, please God?
Prime Minister Gonzi cannot ride roughshod over his people with impunity. Carrying on regardless because of his unstated agenda is a step we shall suffer, and he will regret. This is a great pity, since his other great achievements are undoubted.
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R. Caruana
Apr 7th 2010, 18:26
I've never come across such historical inaccuracies in one go. Thank goodness comments below have already highlighted the major mistakes.
The 1979 breach of the fortifications below the Lower Barakka to provide an access to the Med Conference Centre was unecessary since access to that area through Victoria Gate existed already. But nobody dared complain about it then... it wasn't a time when one could protest and get away with it.
Barry's opera house design was completely alien to Valletta's architecture, period (sic)! And the site of 'Freedom' square was never an open area, It housed for years the Valletta railway station and the side stairs led to residential units above it (my mother was born there).
Wouldn't it be nice if people who put pen to paper do some research first and avoid so much misinformation and confusion.
Gerard Cassar
Apr 7th 2010, 15:30
@D.Vella and others :the reference to Laparelli is a reference to the Valletta Bastions not just City Gate.
The Valletta fortifications have been twice breached, one when constructing the Harper area to give Valletta a modern entrance the second to make an entrance to the Conference Centre Both are hardly noticed as being a breach in the fortifications. Both suit the modern times. The Fascist style entrance to the main entrance preserved history but the style ruined it. The incumbency falls now on architect Piano to deliver a project suitable to a fortified city and not just open a hiatus in the fortifications.. Dr. Gonzi and Dr. Gatt, what is needed is a monumental entrance to the City that combines well with the fortifications.
The least qualified engineer could have provided an interesting hiatus to the Valletta fortification, no need to engage an old architect who lives through his reputation.
j n ebejer
Apr 7th 2010, 14:36
'Valletta is a Mannerist and Baroque city, period. Let no one have the brazen audacity to change this. Modern architecture does not blend with Valletta' - does it not sound that this is applicaple to Barry's design? Wasn't his dissonant to Mannerist and Baroque? Was the British decision to demolish the original, sound, Mannerist and Baroque building there even more obscene, then? Shouldn't one choose the word rebuild anew in a seperceeded style rather than restore what is destroyed and cannot be restored? Irrespective of whether Piano's design is the best one or not, Is it nostalgia for a preferred epoque, Empire or mentality which has one see the things this way?
michael john turner
Apr 7th 2010, 14:22
It's not an argument about history it's an argument based on the fact that a controversial architect who desecrated the centre of Paris with his appallingly ugly Pompidou Centre is instructed. He then desecrated the City of London with his new Stock Exchange building and is now about to desecrate one of the most beautiful cities in the world with a weird construction which has no relationship with the baroque surrroundings.
This is about the work of an architect whose ego surpasses all taste and heritage and imposes his weird design concepts willy nilly.
J Martinelli
Apr 7th 2010, 13:53
@ Marvin Mizzi
Ilna sebghin sena nistennew il-qattusa ghaggelija biex fl-ahhar twelled!
@ Bernard A. Vassallo
You seem to object to ' a breach in Valletta's city walls. I am just curious, but any opening, of any shape in a wall, I consider a breach. After all, a breach is an 'interruption' of a continuous wall, is it not? Any gate, whether a Knight's invention, a British imposition, or a Maltese government's folly is a breach especially since the last one had no gate which, once closed, would deprive the 'enemy' from entering Valletta. What enemy? Surely a City gate would not be placed to prevent the Maltese from entering their own city, would it?
The same people seem to complain all the time, although quite a few have thankfully given up and hopefully, when they see the whole project completed, they will be as proud of Piano's product as all those, including the Chamber of Architects, who were in favour of it from the beginning!
Marvin Mizzi
Apr 7th 2010, 13:25
We cannot anymore speak of the city gate but of the city without a Gate......... the breach in the walls in the fortifications............ then a buliding that resembles more the Enterprise in Star trek than a building in a Baroque city........ then the gladiators arena in place of the Opera House...... and for all this mess --- 80m or more less in coffers of the country ...... and the voice of the majority of the Maltese just falling on deaf ears..... and as the Maltese proverb goes qattusa ghagilija friegh ghomja taghmel ...... we need a project that makes us all proud of that is embraced but all Maltese ... not just doing something hastely just for the sake of doing something........
steve cassar
Apr 7th 2010, 13:57
"we need a project that makes us all proud of that is embraced but all Maltese"
is this the new maltamission impossible ????
Joseph Cauchi
Apr 7th 2010, 12:54
@ Bernard A Vassallo,
“…what the Turks failed to do to the city of Valletta”?
Fools rush in…
JC.
Anthony Farrugia
Apr 7th 2010, 12:36
Several times it was said that ' il-POPLU SOVRAN' in simple words what the people say must be honoured, but it seems that these statments are only said after National Elections results. How about Piano's project for City Gate and the new Parlament building, is it so difficult for the authorities to feel what is the public opinion as regards the project. Besides all this, how did the new parlament build project was brought up with the old Opera house remains as part and parcel of one project. No ONE ever spoke about a new parlament building, it is a waste of our tax money parlament can go to the Saint Elmo or to Manoel island. I AM MORE THAN SURE THAT OUR CHILDREN WILL REDICULE US TODAY FOR ACCEPTING SUCH PROJECT. we are proud of the abilty of the Maltese, was it that difficult to find a solution using Maltese brains?
g.c.Forte
Apr 7th 2010, 13:46
I agree with your comment.......What do expect when we have an arrogant and hard headed P.M, that for all cost,he is ignoring what the majority of the citizens wants. On the other hand, being a labourite myself, I must ask, what are the opposition doing on this matter ? nothing...Although we are not governing, still it is the full responsibility of the opposition to do every thing in its power to stop the government, from wasting more than 100 million euros. Now if there is a hidden agenda, so the government will be seen arrogant, so the opposition takes advantage at the next elections, I do not know, but that is how I see it. If I was the leader of the P.L., the first thing I do is challenge the government to go and make a fair and serious REFERENDUM, because it is a large sum of money coming out of the citizen`s pocket. If no agreement about the referendum, I get my guys, and get out of parliament,like they did in the 80`s. I believe that we were more stronger when we had five seats less in parliament, than today, when only one seat difference.
v zammit
Apr 7th 2010, 12:00
@Mr Caruana Carabez: 'what the Turks ...' It's a slip as you know and as Mr Vassallo probably knows, meaning 'barbarian', an uncivilised or cruel person . We, too, were, barbarians at one time, in The Acts, 28,4, but then it was because we were a people not belonging to the Greek, Roman or Christian civilizations. Otherwise we were very kind and hospitable!
DVella
Apr 7th 2010, 11:06
Lapparelli's City Gate MY FOOT!! Learn some history friend!! Lapparelli's design was a small, narrow opening in the bastion wall, probably intended to function as a 'sally port' in the event of an landward attack. Apart from the fact that it was not a city gate at all, it was destroyed more than a century ago. Apart from the current monstrosity which is remiscent of the carnival it was intended to serve, the previous bombastic and ostantatious edifice was erected by the British during the 19th century . . .
Your reference to democracy demonstrates a lack of knowledge of the nature of art and architecture . . . there is no place for democracy in the realm of art and architecture! Words uttered by a greater man than you and I. If this was not the case, most of the world's great architectural works would never have been built . . . from the Pyramids in ancient Egypt to the splendour of Ancient Rome and Greece, our own St. John's Cathedral . . . right up to contemporary masterpieces like the Sydney Opera House, the Guggenheim Museum and countless others!
Charles Caruana Carabez
Apr 7th 2010, 10:15
Valletta was built after the Great Siege. How could the Turks attempt to breach what wasn't there?
steve cassar
Apr 7th 2010, 10:28
well said Charles Caruana Carabez!
What i cant understand is that
1) the main gate of valletta is the Victoria Gate not the one where the project is being done
2) there was already a breach of the old gate years ago to make way for the carnival floats to pass - no one complained?
3) imagine the government engaged a maltese architect - surely there will be same controversy about his project as with the concept of renzo piano.
we always look at the jug half empty rather than half filled!
victor pulis
Apr 7th 2010, 13:48
@ Steve Cassar
Victoria gate was never the main gate of valletta. Before it was built by Granmaster Del Monte, St. George's gate (City gate) was already in existance. besides. there was another gate facing marsamxett harbour. The present gate cannot be considered a breach as it has a span. Breaches are simply entrances through fortifications produced usually by cannon fire, battering rams or mining but sometimes it would seem, by architects! On the contrary, Everyone complained when the present monstrosity was built and the complaints kept resonating down to our times.