I should preface today’s piece by declaring a potential conflict of interest. I am about to write an article on two cases which are currently before the Planning Authority. The cases concern properties which form an intrinsic part, in their different ways, of Malta’s historic environment. They are owned by two friends of mine.

I define the historic environment as what generations of Maltese have made of the places in which they lived. It is all about us as a people. We are the trustees of that inheritance. It is in every sense, our common patrimony, Malta’s common wealth.

Most of our towns and cities, and all our remaining countryside, are made up of layer upon layer of human activity. Each generation has made its mark. And each generation makes its decisions about the future use of our land and buildings in the context of what it has inherited. That historic context – that sense of place – is irreplaceable. Once gone, it is gone forever.

For most Maltese the historic environment represents pride in the place in which they live. They value it for the quality of life it can afford them. For others – the millions of visitors to this country and those who have chosen to live here – it is the place they visit and esteem for the inspiration that it offers. Above all, people care about the historic environment of Malta. They value its meaning and beauty, its diversity, its familiarity, its memories and the quality of life it affords.

But the future is no longer secure. In the past 60 years, much development has simply ignored or trampled upon its historic context in city, town, village and countryside. Rampant construction, excessive traffic, poorly designed housing and commercial developments have degraded the places where many people live, and thus their quality of life.

I focus today on two cases affecting Malta’s historic environment. They concern a classic, centuries-old heritage country house, Villa Barbaro in Tarxien, and a group of traditional houses in part of the ancient village of Għargħur.

The 500-year-old Villa Barbaro in Tar-xien is still virtually intact today. The villa is one of Malta’s oldest country houses, resembling in its architectural style the scheduled Inquisitors’ Palace in Girgenti and Palazzo Gomerino in Rabat. The early 17th century walled garden boasts several impressive architectural features, including a unique two-storey high pavilion. The villa’s important heritage value was recognised a century ago when it was placed on the list of protected monuments by the then museums authority.

Villa Barbaro is a Grade 1 scheduled building. But it is under threat from a planning application to build a five-storey apartment block directly in front of it, which would dwarf it and irrevocably undermine the historical environment and architectural setting of the building. It is absolutely no use scheduling a building if its setting and context are not also safeguarded. The reason for this is that the Planning Authority has not extended the buffer zone in which the villa lies to cover the crucial and sensitive area directly in front of it.  

The historic environment of Malta is an irreplaceable asset representing the investment of centuries of skills and resources. Villa Barbaro is a prime example of this. This five-storey development would cause harm to the significance of the villa by affecting adversely the character and sense of place which, overridingly, makes it worthy of Grade 1 scheduling. It would be most retrograde if the Authority were to “allow the villa to be reduced to nothing but a panorama for the towering blocks threatening to surround it”.

It is absolutely no use scheduling a building if its setting and context are not also safeguarded

The second case affects Għargħur, a medieval hilltop village on Naxxar Ridge overlooking and close to the historic Victoria Lines. It is a characteristic rural village, still totally surrounded by good quality agricultural land. Like many of the dwindling examples of such villages, it was created by the interaction over the centuries of human activity and the natural environment. 

We can still see it in wide areas of rugged, open country, thinly cultivated fields and rocky hillsides, among which little isolated cubic-shaped farmhouses, some gathered into hamlets, and small rustic chapels built before the time of the Knights, connected only by rough tracks or narrow roads, still survive. This is the indigenous architecture of Malta, little changed – until now – since the time of the Phoenicians.

But a particular corner of Għargħur around Kromb il-Baħar Street – an urban conservation area – is about to be defaced by the construction of four villas on directly adjacent agricultural land, creating 60 metres of blank walls four storeys high and dwarfing the traditional old, restored village houses that have stood there for decades and which integrate the village core with the surrounding open rural area. 

The planning application is PA0229/19, to which a whole raft of objections have been lodged on several grounds, the most powerful of which is that urban development is not permitted on sites classified as having agricultural value. 

The agricultural land in question forms part of a series of fields that border Għargħur’s urban conservation area and extend down into the valley towards the Victoria Lines. This planning application places the historic environment of the Għargħur countryside at severe risk. 

Despite the depredations of the last few decades, the Maltese countryside is still marked by low stone walls stretching endlessly across a gently rolling terrain. Little terraced fields rise to the ridges in shallow steps, creating a pattern of white, yellow ochre and burnt sienna. 

Malta’s historic landscape sets man against nature with dramatic effect. That so much of man’s work is contained in so small an area increases its visual impact. Yet there is a unity, a feeling of continuity, for what is man-made is part of the island itself – stone laid upon stone, cream or honey-coloured, deep yellow or glowing pink, the colour of the stone changing with the light. Its quality endures and with it the image of Malta. This is the historic landscape that must be protected. 

Villa Barbaro and the small group of traditional indigenous houses nestling in the urban conservation area of Għargħur threatened by PA0229/19 represent elements of Malta’s deep-rooted historic landscape which the Planning Authority has a duty to safeguard. 

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece