Restoration works on the Victoria Citadel are in full swing and appear to be quite close to completion. This task is evidently being diligently accomplished by the right people with supervision entrusted to qualified personnel.

It is reliably assumed that the entire cost will exceed the €6 million threshold. Were it not for the European Union, this feat could not come to fruition. In fact, 85 per cent of the expenditure is co-financed by Brussels.

It is also gratifying to note that apart from the diligent restoration works, the entrusted experts have managed to eradicate one of the main sources of damage to these fortifications: several caper bushes that over the past decades grew in the main cracks of the ramparts.

In the wake of this herculean task, many are now taking it for granted that the authorities will also manage to look after the adjustment of the Citadel’s second gate, which was introduced way back in the late 1950s.

This huge gate, apart from being completely out of proportion with its environment, is devoid of any architectural motifs and symmetry. It contrasts sharply with the original gate, which just flanks it by a couple of metres.

Many are hoping that a way out can be found to rectify this glaring blunder, which, for the past decades, has tarnished our island’s main attraction.