Terrance Duggan, Cospicua
Stitching up the Knights’ sail-makers’ hall
The Knights of St John, following their departure from Palestine-Syria at the end of the 13th century, became a maritime rather than a land-based force, with their headquarters successively on the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes and finally Malta.
Little remains of the Knights’ maritime heritage in Cyprus or Rhodes today, with the destruction of the Grand Masters’ Palace and the conventual church of St John in Rhodes City in the 1856 earthquake and the destruction of the De Naillac harbour tower by an earthquake in 1863.
With much of the Knights’ maritime heritage in Rhodes lost due to earthquakes and the subsequent destruction caused by the imaginative restorations carried out by the Italians, who occupied Rhodes after World War I, it is evident that the finest examples of the Knights’ remaining maritime heritage are in Malta, concentrated in the Three Cities area and Kalkara.
These include the superb Macina in Senglea with its sheer legs for seating masts into ships and the adjacent long maritime magazines with the names of some of the Knights’ capital ships inscribed on the lintels of the ground floor doors. The third floor was a later addition to these magazines and was used for rope-making and sail-making, hence both its different fenestration – wide windows to admit light to the rope and sail makers – and its fine solid wooden floor.
Today the area on the opposite side of the docks to the Knights magazines in Cospicua is undergoing much needed embellishment, partly financed by the EU, with re-paving and new canalisation, entailing regrettably the recent loss of half the row of characteristic (but not protected as they are not native) ficus trees. At the same time, the ground floor of the magazines opposite, a major surviving element of the Knights’ maritime heritage and which are not any official part of this embellishment project, are being used as garages for the project’s vehicles, and their interior is being ripped out to leave just the façade.
It seems the developers are making ‘facts on the ground’, as in the occupied West Bank of Palestine, without a permit from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority for the destruction of the interior fixtures, fittings and upper floor of the Knights’ magazines ahead of the forthcoming ‘development’ of this heritage building, whether Mepa gives its go-ahead for this ‘development’ or not.
Heritage destroyed without a permit being issued for this destruction.
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Caroline Said
May 2nd 2011, 21:21
My main question is: how come the Dock One warehouses are being used by the developers when according to the MEPA plans, the boundary line of this project ends in front of the warehouses? Why are the developers digging trenches a short distance into the entrances of the warehouses when the warehouses are not included in this project? Is there another project in the pipeline which the public are not being informed of? Perhaps the original plan (which supposedly has been dumped) to convert the warehouses into apartments? I have no objection to such a development as long as the invaluable heritage of the site, which Mr. Duggan lucidly highlights, is respected and preserved. Trees have been brought down, totally unecessarily (just to make a bend in the road straight); the regatta club with its beautiful arched facade is being demolished to make way for a glass and steel edifice totally out of keeping with tits surroundings...this leads one to suspect that the project developers dont give a toss about maintaining the integrity of this historical site and hence raises concern about the presevation of the warehouses.
Mr Joe Xuereb
May 1st 2011, 23:37
The problem in Malta is that many historical buildings are used commercially as shops, stores and other utilities. In time, and often the loss of their original function lost from the collective memory - most people are not particularly interested or bothered, thinking if it's old it cannot be much good and new is better - these old buildings become anonymous. A case in point is the building in the photograph. It has been used and abused over decades if not centuries. The lower floor, it is obvious, has had a few knock and then some. Who has seen the inside? Who cares? Who will know the difference if further desecration is visited upon it?
Other examples abound among which I recall Il-Baviera (a Langue Building used as a school), Fort St.Elmo, the wanton destruction of parts of the City Walls to make way for new roads and so on. Such buildings are too numerous to house art galleries but temporary exhibitions would be suitable. Anything is better than buildings being used as outlets with traffic literally going in and out chipping away at the fabric and employees to whom it is just the place where they work.
Mr Carmelo Micallef
May 1st 2011, 11:22
Mr Duggan, can you please detail who the developers are and what "destructive" activity is occuring on this site: with or without MEPA permits.
Victor Pulis
May 1st 2011, 11:06
Just what I feared. It has long ceased to surprise me that whenever some historical place is being 'restored' it ends up butchered. The same thing I suspect is happening in fort St. Angelo. Who knows what sort of 'development' is going on behind those walls? Will we be regaled with some monstrosity after the damage has been done? The pity is that this sort of state sponsored vandalism does not stir up any reaction from the general public except for a few letters to the press which fall on deaf ears.