Complaints by visitors about the mess caused by the Citadel restoration project has prompted workers to erect a fence.
The project was due to be completed by June but the deadlines had to be extended, as workers stumbled upon archaeological remains. The boundary was put up after visitors raised concerns over exposed excavation work at the peak of summer, when Victoria is crowded, especially as crowds arrive for the popular Santa Marija feast. Only last Sunday it was in a shambolic state.
The Sunday Times of Malta went on site to see visitors navigating around workers and ongoing excavation in the dusty environment. Meanwhile, workers laid a pathway specifically for festa-goers and erected a concrete brick fence along the passage, cordoning off the works.
Project leader John Cremona and project manager Teddie Busuttil defended the ongoing works. “It is true that until a while ago there was no proper access; however, by feast day, access to the city was cordoned off and secure. The police came on site last week to propose safety measures, and this week again to check whether there were any remaining issues,” Mr Busuttil noted.
While restoration work above ground – such as on the facades – has been completed, excavation to lay utilities and access to the city have had to be paused whenever workers unearth archaeological remains.
The remains are cleaned, surveyed and monitored by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the planning authority’s Heritage Monitoring Unit and two other archaeologists.
“We came across remains at every spot we excavated, and this delayed the project. In fact, plans for access to the city were changed three times,” he said, noting that such discoveries enhanced the final project.
We came across remains at every spot we excavated, and this delayed the project
The restoration of the Citadel involves two EU co-funded projects and has been going on since 2009. The work on the bastions was completed at the end of 2013 and the infrastructural work of the other project kicked off in March 2014.
The €14 million project included the restoration of historic facades, turning the disused reservoirs built during the British rule just outside the city into a visitors’ centre, reconstructing the paths, piazza and streets and upgrading the ditch.
The initial plan was to unearth the sally port and its access, which has not been used for at least 150 years, but that was when unexpected archaeological remains started cropping up.
“If we don’t come across any other surprises, paving within the Citadel and in the ditch should be completed in September and the whole project closed off by the end of the year,” Mr Busuttil said.
The major discovery was the original passageway to the fortified city dating to the 17th century, which will be incorporated in the new gateway design.
The entrance used nowadays, which was opened in 1956 for the Santa Marija procession, will be partly closed, but still accessible to those who go to Mass, ambulances and the feast procession.
Visitors will be encouraged to use the original entrance, to the right of the current one.
The most recent discovery is that of a Roman wall just outside the Citadel, which workers stumbled on last month.
Not far off, some 10 structures – believed to be silos dating back probably to the Bronze Age and which continued to be used in Roman times, were rediscovered in May. These were mentioned in a book published in 1898 called Ancient Pagan Tombs and Christian Cemeteries in the Islands of Malta. In it, A. A. Caruana recorded residue of ashes and charred bones inside these columbaria.
These were not the first unearthed curious features. In December, an undated structure was discovered in the bedrock of Cathedral Square. Because of its fragility, it will be covered with insulating material and uncovered on special occasions, Mr Cremona explained. No similar structures are known to exist on the islands.