The only surviving Roman catacombs in Gozo are being threatened by a new construction development. Wirt Għawdex, the small but important cultural heritage NGO in Gozo that has been sounding its concern about the risk posed to this historic site for the last two years, raised the alarm recently fearing the days of the tiny island’s only surviving early Christian subterranean burial grounds were numbered.
Excavation works have already started on foundation trenches for a two-storey building in front of these paleo-Christian hypogea, known as Għar Għerduf in Kerċem. Wirt Għawdex’s major concern is that the proposed development will forever obscure this Grade A scheduled site of archaeological and historical importance from view.
The most disturbing aspect of the threat to this important site is the apparent silence of the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, who is tasked with safeguarding Malta’s rich cultural heritage. His responsibilities are fundamental to the protection of precisely the kind of Grade A scheduled site exemplified by this unique Roman catacomb.
He appears not to have objected to the application – albeit while still claiming to be “closely monitoring” the situation. Eleven years ago, when another development in the area had been mooted, the Cultural Heritage Superintendence’s reaction had been more robust. He had asked the then Minister for Gozo “to expropriate the site to carry out urgent conservation work”.
What has happened to this watchdog since? Is it that when the case first came up for consideration in 2006 it was dealing with an administration whose planning authority placed a higher priority on the need to safeguard cultural heritage? Contrast this with today’s planning regulator, which seems invariably to favour the developer over heritage.
It is a fact that the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage is grossly overstretched and that the legal changes to the planning process enacted when the new Planning Authority came into effect last year have resulted in a “drastic surge” in applications requiring cultural monitoring by the superintendence.
However, this must not be allowed to be an excuse for lack of proper oversight in this case or, indeed, any other cultural heritage site threatened, like this one, by the jackhammers and bulldozers of construction development. The Minister for Culture has a duty to ensure the proper resources are given to the superintendence to do its job effectively. He also has a moral and political responsibility to support the Superintendence’s efforts to safeguard cultural heritage sites.
Malta’s strategic position and its closeness to the major civilisations of the central Mediterranean has given it a depth of history and heritage disproportionate to its size. There cannot be many lands that have come into contact with so many visitors or have been so central to the foreign and military interests of other nations. Each – like the Romans at Għar Għerduf in Gozo - have left its mark behind and, to a major extent, made the Maltese what they are.
If we do not protect what past we have, then the information it tells us about ourselves is lost forever. This is the significance of the development near the Għar Għerduf catacombs, which the Planning Authority is belatedly reconsidering. It should withdraw the permit immediately.