World renowned architect Renzo Piano was selected by former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and his Cabinet to undertake the rehashing of City Gate in Valletta, actually Porta Reale since Grand Master Verdala around 1580. (There is nothing wrong with a republic having a Royal Gate, as in Noto, Sicily).

The imposing and graceful gate has now disappeared and has been replaced by Babylonian and Egyptian style slanting monoliths, in the style of Iraq’s and Egypt’s massive archaeological remains.

Not only is the Gate to Valletta gone but its overlying bridge to Hastings Gardens has gone as well. Listen to Valletta residents’ comments, like Albert Ganado’s.

Piano’s office in Paris was reportedly paid about €1 million for his version of the project. He walked round Valletta and, sad to say, he learned nothing!

The new Parliament House is, in many people’s opinion, another disaster. In my view, it is in the wrong place and in the wrong style, not one iota in keeping with Valletta’s Mannerist architecture.

The said architect has imposed an ultra-modern building in a Renaissance city, massive and unwelcoming, and in bad taste, like his Centre Pompidou or Beaubourg in Paris, nothing but controversial.

Is this what world renowned architects can come up with?

An amateur like senior draughtsman Innocent Centorrino can, with his expert knowledge of Baroque architecture, do much better, in my honest opinion.

And what about the ruined opera house? Is this historic and grand monument destined to remain a ruin forever? This issue can be debated in public with profit.

What our majestic capital city is in need of is a decent entrance, which, unfortunately, Enzo Piano & Co. have not provided.

What a sheer waste of time and money and what shabby treatment of us, the Maltese people, and of our visitors from overseas, when we could easily do much better!

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