All about Balzan … and other writings

Carmel Bezzina: Ħal Balzan u l-Lunzjata u Kitbiet Oħra, self-published, 2011, 493 pp.

In the past 50 years or so, Balzan has experienced the sad fate of all other Maltese villages. A once idyllic little village (one of the three in the centre of the island) with its rustic charms and citrus gardens, came face to face with ‘progress’.

Bezzina’s book is a sort of history of Balzan which places great importance on its demographic, social, artistic and religious aspect- Louis Scerri

Although it has managed to keep (more or less… not without a struggle) its village core, urban development has made it sprawl over its former neat borders with an assorted insensitive mishmash of detached and semi-detached villas, maisonettes and flats, not in general distinguished for particular architectural merits.

The pity, of course, is that progress does not have to mean wholesale destruction and sacrifices on the altar of Mammon… but the lure of the quick buck remains so hard to resist.

Now in his 61st year, Balzan-born and -bred Carmel Bezzina is old to enough to remember the picturesque village he grew in and which he has loved with a strong genuine fervour that has remained undimmed. It is a fervour born out of a reasoned appreciation he has cherished since his youth and which he continues to nourish with his constant research, which has been going since his early 20s.

This book is the result of 40 years of publications, mostly in local magazines, which very often contain contributions of notable quality and which deserve a wider currency, but so often suffer the cruel fate of ephemeral productions. Bezzina’s wise decision to bring his writings together in an extremely elegant publication, handsomely produced by Midsea Books (with the significant contribution of some excellent photography by Joe Borg) and printed at Guttenberg.

Bezzina’s book is therefore a sort of history of Balzan which places great importance on its demographic, social, artistic and religious aspect, and is a welcome complement and supplement to Mgr John Dimech’s Ħal Balzan Ġrajjietu sa l-1999 (2004) of which it fills a few gaps. Moreover, the author writes in an impeccable and easy linguistic style that makes reading the book a constant pleasure. For Balzanin then, the book is a must-have.

Bezzina divides his contributions into five sections, together with appendixes showing the demographic growth of Balzan, the se-quence of its parish priests and the superiors of the MUSEUM centre, and the dates of the feast of the Annunciation from 1868 to 2010.

Thirteen well-researched contributions deal with the historic aspect of the village as well as a couple of its famous sons. One paper gives an all-round look at the village and its peripheries on the eve of it being declared a separate parish in the mid-17th century, while another traces its demographic growth from its 100 or so souls of 1419-20, arrived at from the Militia List, to the 3,709 of two years ago (having peaked at 3,869 in 2005).

Bezzina discusses the village’s street names, while in another he gives a brief account of the history of Villa Macedonia (today the residence of the Spanish ambassador) while giving an insight on the role the villa used to play in the social and religious life of the village, especially during the life of Count Bernardo Manduca (1871-1971).

Bezzina also writes a personal account of a couple of Balzan’s famous sons, including the ceramicist Gabriel Caruana, the late philatelist and educator Anthony Fenech, as well as the more humble figure of Valent is-Sagristan.

Balzan had its fair share of tragedies, the major undoubtedly being the fireworks explosion that took place in the local band club on October 22, 1903, and which claimed six lives, including that of the parish priest’s sister who lived with her brother next door.

Ten papers in the second section are dedicated to the parish church built between 1669 and 1695, its building and its architecture, its history, its artistic heritage (especially the paintings by such artists as Rocco Buhagiar, Francesco Zahra, Giuseppe Calì, Emvin Cremona, and others), its liturgical feasts, and its various devotions.

Another complementary section is dedicated to the Annunciation, the patron of the village, and the celebration of its feast.

Giuseppe Calleja painted the titular altarpiece in 1857, which Gives the author the opportunity to discuss the artist, his life, and his oeuvre, while a sister paper discusses the processional statue made in 1869 (at a cost of £50) by the famous statuary Salvu Dimech, known as is-Sartx, and places it in the context of the artist’s works.

The actual feast day of the Annunciation is, of course, March 25, nine months before Christmas, but over the years it has been celebrated on various dates, the story behind which forms yet another interesting contribution. Since 1974, the feast has been duly celebrated on the second Sunday in July.

Another paper, based on a 1895 publication by Dun Xand Cortis, one of Malta’s pioneering folklore writers, gives a very detailed account of how the feast was celebrated in the village at the time.

Three papers deal with the links between the village and the MUSEUM. Bezzina is himself a senior figure in the society founded by San Ġorġ Preca, and therefore writes with an added interest on these aspects, including a study of the Annunciation in the writings of the founder and his personal links with the village.

The final section describes churches dedicated to the Annunciation in Malta, the old church in Wied il-Lunzjata in Gozo, and the church dedicated to Our Lady of the Abandoned Souls in Wardija (a juspatronatus of Count Manduca of Villa Macedonia), together with a study of archaic words in Dun Xand Cortis (thus recalling Bezzina’s professional career as a senior lecturer of Maltese at the University of Malta Junior College).

Bezzina’s book is yet another excellent addition to the already generous number of publications about the various towns and villages of Malta that are greatly contributing to a fuller understanding of our social history. While some may have something lacking in quality, many of these have attained a high level of scholarship. Bezzina’s book is there with the very best.