On the occasion of Europe Day, the Minister for Tourism, the En­vironment and Culture focused on Valletta’s candidature as European Capital for Culture in 2018.

This annual event, initiated on the initiative of the former Greek Minister for Culture, the late Melina Mercouri in 1985, culturally unites all European countries.

It is considered by no less a personality than the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso as one of the most successful functions of the EU underlining the importance of the concept that culture is essential to city life, particularly to bolster the regeneration process, tourism, education and social inclusion.

ECOC has a success story to tell. Initially reserved exclusively for a single capital city starting with Athens (1985), Paris (1989), Madrid (1992) and other well-known cities, it has now widened its scope to include minor cities with a rich historical, architectural, artistic and cultural heritage such as Bruges (Belgium) and Salamanca (Spain) in 2002; Graz (Austria ) in 2003; Turku (Finland) and Tallin (Estonia) in 2011.

This year, the honour of hosting this auspicious event fell jointly on Guimaraes (Portugal) and Maribor (Slovenia).

It appears from the cultural events for this year that the organising committee in Maribor, an old University town in Slovenia, has a wide peripheral vision because it has included in their cultural programmes small historical cities in the periphery like Bolfenk, famous for its baroque church. Furthermore, the wider region around the river Drava, which passes through Maribor, appears in many manifestations like drama, concerts, folklore song and dance.

In the light of the above, it is important that the local organising committee should shed any insular mentality of forgetting the cornucopia of rich heritage that surrounds them. At this juncture, it is pertinent to point out that the historical city of Vittoriosa and its Castrum Maris (Fort St Angelo) have all the necessary credentials to be included in the European City of Culture for 2018, with Valletta as the focal point. Apart from other considerations, no­body needs reminding that the proud city of Valletta owes its very existence to the valiant combatants of Vittoriosa in the siege of 1565.

Many of the Valletta palaces, fortifications, auberges and other majestic buildings exactly re­plicate those in the mediaeval city Vittoriosa, which has the added interest of the still surviving Auberge d’Angleterre and Auberge de France.

The Collachio is a gem of mediaeval architecture enhanced by the street layout vibrant with the locals’ daily life.

Vittoriosa’s massive fortifications, stately palaces, baroque churches, famous paintings by Palma Vecchio, Filippo Paladini, Stefano Erardi, Mattia Preti’s largest canvas of the Martrydom of St Lawrence and his masterpiece at the convent of the cloistered nuns, which previously housed the first hospital of the Order built in 1565, are enough credetials to further enhance Malta’s cultural activities for ECOC 2018.

For centuries, Vittoriosa’s craftsmen have been outstanding as evidenced by their exquisite works at the parish of St Lawrence, erstwhile the conventual church of the Order of St John.

At a much higher level there is Vittoriosa-born Lorenzo Gafà, one of the greatest exponents of baroque in Malta, and his brother, the artistic genius Melchiorre Gafà, whom the great Bernini considered as his rival.

Perhaps the ECOC 2018 will be a fitting occasion to erect a monument to these illustrious brothers.

As the first seat of the Order of St John, the collegiate museum possesses unique treasures brought by the Knights in 1530, which are exhibited during special festivities.

On the Marina Grande, which presently hosts a prosperous yacht marina, one can enjoy impressive edifices like the National Maritime Museum and other ostentatious buildings, a sure sign of the Knights’ artistic and aesthetic refinement, their military might as well as their opulence.

Throughout the ages, the Castrum Maris (Fort St Angelo), at the tip of the Vittoriosa promontory, was Malta’s major fortification. Its impregnable bastions provided adequate protection to the galleys that berthed in Galley Creek (now Dockyard Creek), welcoming mariners and merchants from Pisa, Genoa, Venice, Catalunya, Sicily and other ports in the western Mediterranean region.

This ethnic admixture made the people of Vittoriosa less insular and more receptive to European customs and ideas than the rest of the island with the exception of Mdina.

As secure records show, over the years, the Castrum Maris emerged as an environment of European sophistication well before the young sons of the European nobility came to Vittoriosa with the Knights in 1530.

That such a small enclave possesses such unequalled artistic, architectural, historical and cultural treasures is a tangible proof of Vittoriosa’s and the Castrum Maris’s past glories. They are, thus, fully deserving to be included with Valletta’s candidature as European Capital of Culture in 2018.

Like little Oliver, I humbly beg “Please Minister, besides Valletta, can we have two more?”

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