I read with great interest and nostalgia Lino Bugeja's cri de coeur for Fort St Angelo (The Sunday Times, October 18) and fully endorse his genuine appeal for urgent action to rehabilitate this icon of our national identity. I also agree that to restore this fort great skill and massive funding will be required.
Nonetheless, till that vast programme of restoration is finally undertaken, so much can be done by way of ordinary maintenance and embellishment without too much capital outlay. There was indeed a brief reprieve for this fort in the mid-1990s when the National Tourism Organisation took the initiative to do just that.
Under the drive of then Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism Joe Psaila Savona, NTOM, fully aware of the neglect in which St Angelo and other fortifications had fallen, embarked on a programme of reopening of these historical gems to the public.
First, St Elmo was opened with the approval of then Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and the Police Commissioner, then Fort Madliena with the co-operation of the Commander of the Armed Forces and of Marquis Anthony Buttigieg Depiro, Commandant of St John's Rescue Corps. Later, Fort Mosta was opened and an artillery park was being set up. Eventually, before organising Birgufest, it was decided that NTOM should also open St Angelo for that occasion.
NTOM events director Piju Spiteri and manager Gerald Miller left no stone unturned to make a visit to St Angelo a rewarding experience despite the state it had fallen into after its failed conversion into a tourist resort.
The beach-cleaning section of the Ministry of Tourism was roped in to give the fort a thorough facelift. Weeds were removed and lawns mowed, trees trimmed and debris removed. C Company of the Armed Forces clambered up and abseiled down the sheer bastions removing the various shrubs that had grown in the cracks since the British left.
The ugly modern constructions which had been vandalised and used for illicit practices by trespassers were boarded up and banners of the Order of St John hung over them. Guns were placed in position in some of the embrasures. A huge vault was cleared of tons of debris and became the venue of the inaugural Birgufest concert. On the day of the festival, the place was adorned with a fjaccolata to the delight of the hundreds of visitors who wandered through the lower sections of the fort on the two days and nights of Birgufest.
Encouraged by the success of this one-off event, NTOM decided to turn this into a weekly experience. Explanatory boards in various languages were put up at strategic points and a guide brochure was also printed and distributed free of charge to weekend visitors, mostly tourists. The beach cleaners were in the fort twice a week to ensure that all was ship-shape. At weekends, re-enactors in 16th-century uniforms from the In Guardia detachment doubled as guides besides enhancing the historic atmosphere.
The project was subsequently also happily taken on board by the successive tourism ministers Karmenu Vella and Michael Refalo. In this way the fort was protected from vandalism and was receiving attention and ordinary upkeep for some three years.
Alas, this reprieve was all too brief. At the end of August, 1999, NTOM was dissolved and handed the baton to its successor, the Malta Tourism Authority. It appears this project was not deemed to be important by the new MTA board and, after a few months, it was decided to withdraw from St Angelo, as the weekly operation was not producing good bottom-line results. After a short reprieve achieved on a shoestring budget the fort was again abandoned.
Perhaps this sad decision can still be reversed and the fort cleaned up and reopened to the public. This would not warrant any massive investment. It just needs the will to do it. It has already been done in the last decade and it did not break the bank.
Perhaps the enterprising Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna under the professional expertise and determination of Mario Farrugia could be asked to give a hand as was done in the case of the Saluting Battery.