Giovanni Bonello: Valletta – Lost City.
Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, 2016.
364 pp

Just after the Great Siege of 1565, Valletta first rose from virgin fields, almost over-night, and has since then lived, ailed, grown, staggered, fallen and rebounded. When first created, it followed a rational and swiftly executed plan. There was nothing before, with the possible exception of a chapel and a watchtower. Suddenly it was a city. Born after the Great Siege, but conceived before.

At one point in time in its long and illustrious history, Valletta had over 20,000 registered inhabitants. Nowadays, it is down to just 6,000. This negative trend seems to be reversing, however, with the wealthier aesthetes – both local and foreign – hunting for properties with the best locations and views.

The Bartoli Galea Establishment on Kingsway, Engraving. The S. Bartoli Galea establishment stood on Republic Street, corner with St John Street.

The fact that Valletta is a World Heritage site and is entirely listed for the purpose of planning protection means that the major depredations against the urban fabric have indeed slowed down, if not wholly disappeared. Most of the sacrileges committed against this beautiful city during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century, by greed, by ignorance or by crass insensitivity to its magic qualities, would be unthinkable today.

Valletta is relatively easy to portray, because its extension is today exactly what it was in 1570. Cities tend to grow and evolve; they self-aggrandise and sometimes they also self-destruct. In Valletta’s case, the urge to self-preservation sometimes reached the lowest ebbs, but it somehow managed to avoid total extinction. As a living construct, and as a material entity, it survives.

Most cities tend to spread out and then grow concentrically, with the historical area in the centre and the more modern rings towards the periphery. Valletta has none of that. It is surrounded on three parts by the sea, and on the fourth by daunting ditches and powerful bastions. Superimpose today’s map of Valletta to one drawn 400 years ago, and the contours and extent will coincide.

The Egyptian Queen at 131, Old Theatre Street.

There is a lost Valletta and an eternal Valletta. Malta’s capital city was never annihilated, the way Carthage or Pompeii were, but the city of today is certainly not the city built. Valletta – Lost City by Giovanni Bonello is all about the Valletta that no longer exists. It’s about a city that has drastically changed over the course of time. It is the journey through time of a city that hardly recognises itself any longer.

In his book, Bonello tries to include a visual sample of everything that no longer exists, from buildings to shop fronts, from decorations to forgotten ways of life. He looked at paintings, engravings, drawings for the earlier years, and mostly at photographs from the past century and a half. In all, he put together over 1,200 images, but then had to accept to sacrifice many.

International Eucharistic Congress, April 1913. Photo: Richard Ellis Photography

Spitfire in Castille Square, 1943, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Air Force.

One volume was nowhere sufficient for this book project such were the number of images in hand. It was therefore decided to compress everything into two large and prestigious volumes, with the second volume planned for release during the latter stages of this year.

Most of the images come from Bonello’s own collections and have never been published before. Others were sourced from both private and public entities, such as the National Archives of Rabat, the National Library, the Department of Information, the National Museum of Archaeology, Heritage Malta and the Eden Leisure Group.