On March 28, 1566, the foundation stone of a new fortified city was laid on the peninsula dividing Malta’s main harbours. It was named Valletta after the name of its founder Jean de Valette, the Grand Master of the Order of St John. Very recently, a monument in his honour was erected in the city next to the Church of Our Lady of Victory where the Grand Master had been buried.

When Malta emerged victorious over the redoubtable Ottoman forces in 1565, Pope Pius IV, keen to maintain Malta as the bulwark of Christendom, sent to Malta his own military engineer, Francesco Laparelli (1521-1570).

He arrived in Malta just over two months after the end of the Great Siege. He immediately submitted his proposals, and the massive ring of fortifications engulfing Valletta was started barely four months after his arrival.

Laparelli left Malta in April 1568 when the defensive works had reached an advanced stage. He passed his project to the efficient hands of his Maltese assistant engineer and architect Girolamo Cassar. He not only completed the fortifications, but also designed and built, on Laparelli’s grid-iron plan, all the important edifices, including the Magistral Palace, the Conventual Church and the seven auberges of the different Langues of the Order.

It is disgraceful that no monument has ever been erected to commemorate Laparelli and Cassar, not even after 1921 when Malta was self-governing on local affairs. This is what I had written in 2003 in my book Valetta Città Nuova – a Map History (1566-1600).

The late renowned David Woodward knew all there was to know about Valletta as he had kindly written the foreword to my book. He was a Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin and editor of the History of Cartography of which four volumes have so far been published.

When he visited Malta he asked me to take him to see and photograph the monuments of Laparelli and Cassar. I was ashamed to tell him they did not exist.