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CITY PROFILE

Valletta, the capital city of the Malteseislands, is examined in historical andcontemporary perspectives. The ori-gins of the city are explained and thestrategic military function of the settle-ment is traced from its foundation tothe modern, post-colonial, post-second-world-war era of the MalteseRepublic . Problems of the modern eraare discussed and evaluated focusingespecially on the difficulties of graftingthe dynamic of contemporary urbanform and function onto a city thatremains enshrined in the historicaland geographical contexts and cir-cumstances from which it grew. Theprofile concludes by identifying issuesat the heart of Valletta's transition toadministrative and commercial hub ofa modern and thriving economy .

Conrad Thake is with the School ofArchitecture, University of California, Ber-keley, USA ; Brent Hall is with the School ofUrban and Regional Planning, Universityof Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, CanadaN2L 301 . Tel : +1 519 885 1211 . Fax : +1 .519 725 2827 .

Valletta

0264-2751/93/020091-12 © 1993 Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd

Conrad Thake and Brent Hall

The Maltese islands - consisting ofMalta, Gozo and Comino - lie at thegeographical centre of the Mediterra-nean basin, some 60 miles south ofSicily, and 200 miles from the NorthAfrican coast. Malta, the largest is-land, is 17 miles long and 9 miles wide,and covers an area of 95 square miles .The islands, strategically located atthe crossroads of the Mediterranean,have throughout their history acted asa cultural bridge between Christianwestern Europe and the Muslim re-gion of North Africa and the MiddleEast .

Valletta, as the capital city of Malta,has had a long and chequered history .i t was conceived as a planned fortifiedcity by the military ant] religiousOrder of the Knights of St John in1566 and was to be the home base ofthe Order of St John for the next twocenturies until their expulsion fromthe Maltese islands by Napoleon in1798. The history of Valletta goes farbeyond the limited interests of theMaltese islands . On at least two speci-lie occasions the fate of the city andthat of the Maltese islands would havea critical bearing on the course ofhistory in the Mediterranean region .The Great Siege of 1565, when theMaltese and the Knights of the Orderof St John repelled the Turkishonslaught, seriously checked the west-ern expansion of the Ottoman Turks .From this siege, out of the war-ravaged landscape of the Sceherraspeninsula, the city of Valletta wasfounded .

During the second world war, Maltawas subjected to another siege whichwas just as intense as the battle of1565 . In this case, the enemy Axis

forces operating from neighbouringItaly and the North African coast re-lentlessly pounded the island in orderto interrupt defence communicationswith the Allied forces on the conti-nent . That the Maltese would not suc-cumb, even when on the verge ofstarvation, and would weather thecontinual bombardment against allodds is testimony to the islanders'resilience in the face of adversity .

In both epic battles, the land penin-sula that is the site of the city ofValletta was very much the centrestage. Today, the city faces differentchallenges as it seeks to adapt to itsrole of administrative and commercialcapital city of a country that aspires tohe fully integrated within the Euro-pean Community by the year 2000 .Walking through the streets of Vallet-ta is equivalent to browsing throughthe annals of Maltese history . Witnes-sing the landmarks on the urban land-scape of what was once MountSceherras, it is possible to experienceMalta's past ruling powers - the Orderof St John (1530-1798), the Frenchoccupation (1798 18W), the Britishcolonial era (1801-1964) and, finally,signs of a fledgling independent Mal-tese nation (l964-present) .

The genesis of a fortress city - Valletta .In 1522, the military and religiousOrder of St John was dislodged fromits highly developed fortress strong-hold on the cast Mediterranean islandof Rhodes, after a lengthy but futiledefence against the Ottoman Turks .Rendered homeless, the Order was inno bargaining position and in 1530 itreluctantly accepted Emperor CharlesV's offer to set up a new base on the

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Maltese islands, together with the for-tress of Tripoli on the North Africancoast . In sharp contrast to the fertileisland of Rhodes, the Maltese islandswere barren and hardly appealing tothe Knights. An early 16th centuryaccount describes the main island,Malta, as: 'merely a rock barely co-vered with more than three or fourfeet of earth, which was strong andvery unfit to grow corn .' The inhabi-tants were described as `poor and mis-erable, owing to the bareness of thesoil and the frequent descents of cor-sairs' .

The Knights had hardly had time toestablish themselves in Malta when, in1565, the Turkish leader Sultan Sulei-man the Magnificent ordered a 40 000strong force of Turks and mercenariesto attack the islands . In what came tobe known as the Great Siege, most ofthe intense fighting that took placewas centred on Fort St Elmo, strategi-cally located at the tip of the Sceberraspeninsula on the north-cast coast ofMalta, between Marsamxett and theGrand Harbour (Figures 1 and 4) . Theheavily outnumbered Knights, underthe leadership of Grand Master Jeande la Vallette, managed to keep theTurks at hay. I lowever . after repeatedTurkish assaults lasting over a month,Fort St Elmo capitulated but the pricepaid by the Turks was unprop-ortionately high, with the loss of over8 000 men including their inspirationalcommander Dragut . A discouragedand dejected Turkish leader, Mus-tapha Pacha, surveying the Knights'defensive stronghold in li Borgo fromthe ruins of St Elmo, remarked -'If sosmall a son has cost us so dear, whatprice shall we have to pay for so largea father' .' It was a short-lived victoryfor the Turks, as their depleted andseverely demoralized army unsuccess-fully attempted to take over Fort StAngelo on If forgo . With the immi-nent arrival of relieving Christianforces, the Ottoman Turks called ahalt to the siege and set sail back toConstantinople .

The experience of the Great Siegeof 1565 had amply demonstrated thatmaking the strategic Sceberras penin-

'Quentin Hughes, Fortress : Architecture sula an impregnable outpost would beand Military History, London, 1969,

necessary in any future defence of the

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CITY PROFILEislands . As soon as the siege waslifted, Grand Master La Vallette peti-tioned the Pope to provide a militaryengineer capable of planning a newfortified town on the Sceherras penin-sula. The Italian architect, FrancescoI.aparelli from Cortona, was commis-sioned with the task of drawing up aplan for the new city of Valletta, to benamed in honour of its founder, Jeande La Vallette . Laparelli submitted hisplans to the Council of the Order. Asthe Knights deliberated on the feasi-bility of undertaking the constructionof a new city, Laparelli lost no time inmustering workmen and buildingmaterials and in outlining the line ofthe fortifications .

After various discussions, the Orderfinally approved Laparelli's plan andon 28 March 1566 Grand Master LaVallette laid down the foundationstone of the new city . Constructionworks proceeded quickly . Fortifica-tions were constructed with squatpointed bastions on the land front andat strategic points on the lateral sides .The construction of the new city en-tailed the deployment of an appreci-able labour force. Many Maltese hadperished during the Great Siege of1565. Others had fled to Sicily andwould return to Malta only onceworks on the building of Valletta wereat an advanced stage . At the peak ofthe construction work, more than8 000 labourers were working on thefortifications and, due to the acuteshortage of local labour, workers hadto be brought over from nearby Sicilyand Calabria .The topography of Sceberras penin-

sula was markedly uneven with a pro-nounced downward slope from theCity Gate to Fort St Elmo, at the tip ofthe peninsula (Figures 2 and 4) . Va-rious attempts were made at levellingthe ground, prior to implementingLaparelli's plan of a gridiron patternof rectilinear building blocks and para-llel streets . However, the Knights hadto abandon the idea of levelling thepeninsula, as the limited financial re-sources, shortage of labour, and thefear of an imminent avenging Turkishcounterattack dictated otherwise . Thefailure to alter the uneven topographyentailed the construction of various

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Figure 2 . Stairs in the city of Valletta .

2Quentin Hughes, The Building of Malta1530-1798, London, 1956 .

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stairs along the gridiron network ofstreets (Figures 2 and 4) . These sanestairs, which gave Valletta its distinc-tive character. would in later yearsincur Lord Byron's wrath as - 'Vallet-ta - cursed streets of stairs!'

The rectilinear street plan of the citywas laid out by the time that La Val-letta died in 1568 . When La Vallette'ssuccessor Grand Master Pietro delMonte gave the order to move from ItBorgo to Valletta in 1571, there werevery few completed buildings in thecity. However, in the next two de-cades building work intensified, withthe construction of seven auhergesthat would accommodate the sevendifferent langues of the Order. TheKnights of the Order were drawn frommany parts of Europe and belonged tolangues corresponding to the countryor province from which they came .Thus, for example. a Knight fromProvence would belong to the langueof Provence and would normally livein the Auherge de Provence . The

seven langues represented by the late1560s were those of Aragon, Auverg-ne, Castille e Leon, France, Germany .Italy and Provence .

Besides the auberges, the Orderconstructed the Magisterial Palace, atreasury, St John's Co-Cathedral, andthe Order's hospital and bakery. Va-rious churches were built in Valletta,as were also private palaces for theknights . One of the most prolific Mal-tese architects of the time, GerolamoCassar, was responsible for the con-struction of the auberges and theOrder's Conventual church of St John .Cassar had been an assistant toLaparelli and during an architecturalvisit to Rome had been exposed to thevarious Renaissance and Manneristarchitectural works. Upon his returnto Malta, he proceeded to reinterpretthese stylistic trends within the Mal-tese vernacular, producing an austerearchitectural style, symbolic of themilitary and religious vocation of theOrder.'

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Figure 3. Towards the Three Citiesfrom Valletta .

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In 1582, a visitor to Malta observedthat the new capital was now largelybuilt-tip and that there were fewvacant sites . By 1590, there were 4 000people living in Valletta . The citywould, in the 17th and 18th centuries,flourish into an impressive andmonumental baroque city, not unlikeother absolutist East European capit-als such as St Petersburg, Prague andVienna. The catalysts for growth werevarious, but there were two principalreasons. First, most of the populationin Malta was concentrated in the har-bourside towns of Valletta and theThree Cities - Vittoriosa, Cospicuaand Senglea, that were located on thesouth-east side of the Grand I larbour(Figure 1 and 3) . As the populationincreased rapidly, so did the demandfor housing in the new capital .Second . the Knights sought to projectValletta as a monumental creation ofthe Sovereign Military Order of StJohn and to impress upon the otherEuropean states the Order's growingstatus and prestige .

With the decline of the OttomanTurkish empire, fears of a possibleinvasion abated . In the late 17th cen-tury and throughout the 18th century,there was less concern for militaryfacilities and various projects wereundertaken in Valletta with the inten-tion of housing the administration ofthe local government and encouragingcommercial growth . The city was gra-dually transformed into a resplendentbaroque city, the epitome of suchmonumental opulence being attainedduring the tenure of Grand MasterEmanuel Pinto de Fonceca (1741-73) .

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To the earlier group of public build-ings, the Order added a theatre, acustoms house, an administrativebuilding for the Universini of Valletta .The Conventualchurch of St John andthe Grand Master's Palace were madeeven more grand in scale . All of thisreflected the Order's greater concernwith ceremonial rituals, administra-tion and projecting a more sophisti-cated lifestyle . Ultimately, the Order ' .sway of life tended to become muchmore concerned with self consciousimagery and gave way to a laissez-faireand decadent lifestyle . The reign ofthe Order of St John (1530-1798)came to an abrupt end in 1798, withNapoleon's takeover of the Malteseislands-

Morphogensis of VallettaDemtograph y . The Maltese islandshave one of the highest residentialdensities in Europe, with a currentdensity exceeding an average 2 0(N)persons per square mite of land on theislands . The most heavily populatedarea is the Grand Harbour urban con-urbation, in particular, the olderThree Cities - Vittoriosa. Cospicuaand Senglea, facing Valletta on thesouth-east side of the Grand Harbour,and the newer outlying towns of Msi-da, Sliema and St .lulians (Figure 1) .Unlike other harbour area towns . Val-letta is sited on a peninsula and hem-med in by the line of fortifications andhas real physical restraints that do notpermit an outward expansion of thecity .

During the span of the Order's rulein Malta, between 1530 and 1798, the

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3 Brian Blouet, The Story of Malta, Malta .1989 .

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population of the Maltese islands in-creased from some 20 000 to 100 000inhabitants . By the time the Orderwas expelled from Malta, one out ofevery five Maltese lived in the city ofValletta . By 1861, Valletta and thenew suburb Floriana had a combinedpopulation of over 3(1 000 represent-ing 25 0% of the total Maltese popula-tion . However, at this time thepopulation of Valletta had peaked . In1901, the total number of residents inValletta and Floriana accounted foronly 15 % of the total Maltese popula-tion . The steady drop in the popula-tion of Valletta was the outcome of aregular tendency for people to moveto the less-crowded newer towns in theoutlying harbour conurbation .'

The decline in Valletta's populationhas been a steady trend up to presenttimes. The national demographic cen-sus of 1985, registered a population of9 200 in the capital city - a figurecomparable to the number of residentsliving in Valletta in the mid-17th cen-tury! By 1990, the recorded popula-tion was 8 300, signifying a net de-crease of 9.8% over a five-yearperiod, and a mere 3'X, of the totalpopulation of the Maltese islands .Although the Grand Harbour urbanconurbation is still today the mostheavily populated area in Malta, mostof the population is not concentratedin Valletta, but in the outlying towns-the Three Cities, predominantly aworking class district, and the SliemaiStJulians regions, traditionally residentialareas for white-collar workers .

Spatial morphology . The principalthoroughfare of Valletta is RepublicStreet, formerly known as Kingswayor Strada Reale (Figure 3). It is borderedby a variety of retail outlets, rangingfrom traditional tobacconist kiosks .local shops displaying fancy goods,silver filigree, jewelry and Malta lace,to international-style boutiques . Mostof the upper floor levels accommodateoffices that serve both the governmentand private sector. The administrativeand commercial core of the city is the.rectangular area bounded by RepublicStreet and Merchants' Street parallelto it, from City Gate entrance up tothe Grand Master's Palace (Figure 4) .

Valletta is also (he seat of the govern-ment of Malta . with (he Grand Mas-ter's Palace serving both the Presi-dent's office and Parliament house .Also, most of the auberges establishedby the Knights today accommodatevarious government ministries_

Residential housing is concentratedon the secondary longitudinal streets,parallel to Republic Street - streetssuch as Old Bakery Street, St PaulStreet and St Ursula Street' I' lie urbanarea beyond the Grand Master'sPalace up to Fort St Elmo is mainlyresidential in character . This area hasbeen the focus of an active urbanrenewal programme with the demoli-tion of substandard housing tenementsmaking way for social housing projectsthat are heavily subsidized by the gov-ernment A number of secondarystreets in Valletta were traditionallythe domain of specific occupations andactivities ; fur example, Irish Streethoused blacksmiths' shops . part of St .Lucia is still today the centre forjewellers' shops, and Strait Street,popularly known in its heyday as 'theGut' by British and American sailors,is still one of the city's less salubriousnight-life areas (Figure 5) .

['here are two main squares wherelocals tend to congregate . The GreatSiege Square . in front of the lawCourts building, tends to be more of atransient space . animated with pedes-trians walking to and from the upperpart of Republic Street, which ineffect is a pedestrian precinct . Repub-lic Square, or what was formerlyknown as Queen Victoria Square OrPiazza Regina, is located in front ofthe National Library and is adjacent tothe Grand Master's Palace, Duringthe warm spring and hot summer daysthe square is the site of various out-door cafes, with both locals and tour-ists enjoying the spectacle of a dyna-mic yet human-scale city life .There are few public gardens in

Valletta . The more prominent by farare the Barracca Gardens, close to StJames Cavalier, which offer spectacu-lar views over the Grand Harbour andthe Three Cities . The Lower BarraccaGardens command a less strategicvantage point but they contain variousreminders of Malta 'ss colonial past

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Figure 5 . Strait Street : 'one of thecity's less salubrious nightlife areas' .

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with the monument to Sir AlexanderBall, the first British Governor ofMalta, and the recently inauguratedsecond world war memorial amongthe more important landmarks .There are a number of open-air

markets in Valletta . The hawkers'market usually sets up its stalls on aportion of Merchants' street duringthe weekdays . On Sunday mornings,an even larger number of hawkersdisplay their wares outside the citywalls, beneath St James bastion . Thisweekly event attracts local, and tour-ists alike. browsing through an oddand eclectic assortment of clothes,household goods, antiques, musicaltapes and other items . Also, the ware-houses built by Grand Master Pinto

beneath St Barbara bastions on theGrand Harbour side, today serve as afish market .

Musical band clubs are very impor-tant social centres for the residents ofValletta . The two resident clubs arethe La Vallette Band club and theKing's Own Band club . Both handclubs play an active role in the celebra-tion of the city's main feasts . St Paul'sfeast day is celebrated with greatsolemnity and pageantry in Valletta,St Paul being the patron saint of theMaltese islands . The streets of Vallet-ta are decked with festoons and statu-ary in preparation for the ecclesiasticalprocession on the least day (figure (1) .Such streets as St Paul's Street . lead-ing to St Paul's church . become literal-

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Figure 6. Preparation for the eccle-siastical procession on the feast dayof St Paul .

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ly a theatrical stage set of baroqueexuberance . On the saint's feast day, astatue of the saint is paraded along thestreets to the accompaniment of handmarches followed by crowds ofparishioners . A fireworks displaymarks the grand finale of the variousfestivities .

Contemporary transformations . Eversince the mid-19th century, when thepopulation of Valletta was at its peak,the city has experienced a sharp de-cline in its number of residents . Theresidential areas of the city are con-tinually shrinking, with the more well-placed tenements being absorbed bythe commercial zone. With Vallettaretaining its role in the 20th century asthe primary administrative, politicaland commercial centre of Malta, therehas been an ever increasing demandfor buildings to accommodate publicinstitutions and retail facilities . This

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phenomenon has further reduced thepotential residential housing stock .Outlying towns in the Grand I larbourand the Marsamxett harbour conurba-tion, such as Sliema, Gzira, St Julians,Msida and Ta' Xhiex, all in closeproximity to the capital city, haveexperienced very rapid populationgrowth . For example, Sliema'spopulation rose from a mere 325 resi-dents in the mid-19th century to some14 000 residents by the mid- 1980s .Most of the more recent towns on theoutlying harbour area are predomi-nantly residential in character, withthe housing stock dating from thepost-second-world-war era and is in abetter state than that of the capitalcity .The 1985 Maltese Housing Survey

revealed that there are some 3 400residential tenements in Valletta (in-cluding the outlying suburb of Flor-iana). Most of these are located to-

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wards the lower part of the city andalong streets secondary in importanceto Republic Street and Merchant'sStreet - such as Old Bakery Street,Old Mint Street . St Paul Street and StUrsula Street . A substantial percen-tage of residential dwellings tend tovary from substandard to an averagelevel of housing accommodation . Dur-ing recent decades, the Maltese gov-ernment has embarked on an intensivehousing rehabilitation programme toreplace substandard housing in theseand other areas by medium-rise socialhousing apartment blocks for lower-income groups . It has still provedrather difficult to attract higher-income groups to take tip residence inthe city . In spite of the unique historic-al urban environment Valletta offers,other factors such as inadequate park-ing facilities, precipitous and very nar-row streets, relative overcrowding, thelack of open green spaces and res-traints in adapting older dwellings tocontemporary needs have all madeliving in the city relatively unappeal-ing .

Another problem not to be under-estimated is that some 420 dwellingunits in Valletta are presently vacantas a consequence of outdated rentregulations which make renting to loc-al residents highly unprofitable . Giventhat the number of vacant dwellings inthe city represents approximately 1 11%

of the total number of dwelling units,it is an issue that deserves more thannominal attention . The local rent reg-ulations make it virtually impossible toevict a local tenant even upon ter-mination of the lease, and in effect,tenancy is equivalent to permanentresidence . Thus, a substantial numberof the residents living in the olderparts of the city arc not owners of theirresidences but are tenants with leasesdating hack several decades, and paynominal annual rents that were set inthe pre-second-world-war period . Asizeable proportion of this housingstock is in a poor state, a conditionfurther aggravated when both thenominal owner and the financiallystrapped tenant are reluctant to effectany necessary repairs and mainte-nance work . Current policy makerswill have to consider seriously a revi-

sion of the anachronistic rent regula-tions, as this would have the desiredeffect of making present-day vacantdwellings available on the local hous-ing market .

Although Valletta is a very dynamiccity during the daytime, the pace ofcity life tends to stop almost complete-ly at night . The Valletta Rehabilita-tion Committee and the Ministry forthe Development of the Infrastructurehave both been trying to address theproblem of a marked decrease innight-time social and cultural activi-ties . A national competition was re-cently announced for the design of aperforming arts complex to he con-structed on the derelict site of the oldOpera House that was destroyed dur-ing the second world war . The futureconstruction of this arts complex, inaddition to other initiatives to improvethe City Gate approach and the flood-lighting of the line of fortifications,should contribute to a rediscovery ofthe nightlife which was once the capit-al city's pride .

l'he delicate conservation issue ofadapting historical buildings to con-temporary uses is a recurrent and con-troversial theme in Valletta . Facadealterations to accommodate shopfronts on the commercially thrivingRepublic and Merchants' Streets haveon occasion utilized non-traditionalbuilding materials and non-contextualdesigns that detract from the harmo-nious unity of the streetscape . Theindiscriminate and, at times, in-appropriate use of building materialsalien to the island's building traditionis more marked with the proliferationof retail outlets . The familiar ornatefacades in local globigerina limestoneat times give way to garishly colouredplastic and aluminium shop fronts .Although fortunately these intrusionsare, as yet, riot widespread and tend tohe on a minor scale, it is generallyaccepted that more stringent urbandesign controls need to he imposed inorder to preserve the architecturalcharacter of Valletta . On the positiveside, the local Aesthetics Board hasactively sought to ensure that suchram itiar architectural elements as thecharacteristically Maltese timber hal-conics (Figure 7) are not replaced by

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Figure 7. Characteristic Maltese tim-ber balconies in Valletta .

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cheaper versions in aluminium, as isoften the case in other towns andvillages on the island .

It is not only an issue of preservingthe architectural heritage of the city,but of ensuring the survival of ahuman-scale city life that is still, inmany respects, not overshadowed bythe anonymity that usually comes withthe modern city of international-stylebuildings . One of the most colourfulaspects of city life in Valletta is thevery dynamic level of social interac-tion that occurs during the daytimealong the pedestrian precinct of Re-public Street and the chaotic hawkers'market on Merchants' Street. One canobserve people from all walks of lifeand of all ages strolling along RepublicStreet . An aimless passegialu in aMediterranean city, as is Valletta, ispart of the ritual of everyday life andhas none of the unhealthy connota-tions that loitering has in cities else-where in the world .Public transport on the island of

Malta is still highly centralized, withthe majority of the bus routes con-verging on the main bus terminus,which is located in front of the CityGate to Valletta. More than SO busesmay at one time he cluttered aroundthe Tritons' Fountain, contributing toa less than attractive and noisyapproach to the city . The recentlyapproved Structure Plan for the Mal-tese islands has made a recommenda-tion for the relocation of the bus ter-minus to an equally accessible yet less

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visible and prominent site . There havebeen various initiatives intended torestrict private vehicular traffic in Val-letta . The lack of available parkingspaces within the city has been addres-sed by the provision of on-surfaceparking lots and a multi-storey carpark which is currently being con-structed just outside the City Gate .Still, even more stringent measurescan be implemented, such as the in-stallation of parking meters which areas yet non-existent in certain areas . Arecent initiative intended to create analternative route to Valletta is a ferryservice from the Sliema seafront to theMarsamxett harbour side of Valletta .The ferry link which has been in op-eration only a couple of years has sofar proved to he commercially viable,with more than 101) 000 persons usingthe service annually .

Converting historical buildings to anappropriate use in a contemporarycontext is at times a challenging feat .Most of the auberges and palaces,built during the rule of the Order ofthe Knights, today serve various gov-ernment ministries - the Auberge deCastille e Leon is the Office of thePrime Minister, the Grand Master'sPalace is the Presidential office, theAuberge d'Aragon is the seat of theMinistry of Industry and economicaffairs . Palazzo Ferreira serves theMinistry of Social Policy, and so on .The Order's hospital or Sacro Infer-rnia has been converted for use as aMediterranean Conference Centre

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and the Old University building is theseat of the Foundation of Mediterra-nean Studies . Still, a landmark as his-torically prominent as Fort St Elmo isnormally inaccessible to tourists as ithouses the Malta Police Academy .Only the part of the Fort thataccommodates the Malta WarMuseum is open to the public. Thismuseum displays an impressive nunrher of exhibits related to the secondworld war and could be even furtherextended to incorporate a permanentdisplay on the role of St Elmo duringthe other Great Siege of 1565 . As it istoday, the Fort's potential is still notutilized to the full .

ProsprclsThe Structure Plan for the Malteseislands, prepared by the Ministry forthe Development of the Infrastructurein 1990, acknowledges 'the special sta-tus and role of Valletta, not only as aworld Heritage site but as Malta'straditional centre of authority andpublic administration, and a primarycentre for shopping, offices and cultu-ral activities'-'fhe Structure Plan thatwas approved by the Maltese Parlia-ment in July of 1992 also recognizesurgent problematic issues in the capit-al city that need to be addressed ; suchas the steady loss of population andjobs, obsolete rent regulations thathave led to onderutilization of build-ings, and parts of the urban fabric thatare in a slate of physical decay . Crea-tive and flexible policies, including thecontinuation of an energetic urbanrenewal programme for the derelicturban areas, are essential if a remedialaction plan for Valletta is to be suc-cessfully implemented .

Life in Valletta conjures up imageryof a by-gone age . of some vastmuseum - seemingly restrictive andincompatible with the advent of mod-ernity and yet too historical and stimu-lating an urban environment to riskcompromising for the sake of econo-mic progress . However, freezing thepast through an inflexible and naivesense of nostalgia does not recognizethe pheonornenon of cities, as entitiesin a perpetual state of evolution andregeneration . Some well establishedlocal conservation groups such as 'Din

I-Art Ilelwi have, despite all goodintentions, vigorously resisted changeand any modern physical interventionwithin the city . For example, a projectintended to revitalize the City Gatesentrance by the Italian architect, Ren-zn Piano, was shelved its a result ofwidespread criticism from the generalpublic and local conservation orga-nizations . The project was deemed tohe too disruptive of the historical con-tinuum and incompatible with theurban fabric of the city . The popularview is that a more classical and tradi-tional intervention should he made, asopposed to a more avant-garde andprogressive solution .

Mediating between these conserva-tiveand progressive forces will even-tually determine the physical outlookof the city as a dynamic organism thatis responsive to economic, politicaland social forces . The unrestrainedforce, of a free economic market andthe unyielding pressures of an ever-inereasing tourism trade can be poten-tially as destructive to Vallctt's town-scapc as were the two Great Sieges .On the other had, conservationdiehards, by pursuing am inflexiblepolicy of preserving a status quo withstrong colonial overtones, would hesounding the deathkncII of the city bynot recognizing current social realitiesand societal obligations .

Prior to the modern era, Malta wasruled by foreign powers, with its fatedetermined by the military strategicfunction that the island afforded to itscolonial masters. Independence fromthe UK in 1964 and the declaration ofthe republic in 1973 have freed Maltaof an overbearing colonial rule . TheMaltese are Ior the first time in theirhistory in a position to determine free-ly their role in the Mediterranean re-non and within the context of anintegrated Europe. Ultimately, poll-tical decisions . economic force,, andcowing societal changes will deter-mine the nature of Valletta . as thecapital City of an independentMediterranean island state . Ilope-fully . a course will he steered that willenable the city to retain its uniquecharacter without stagnating in thepast. nor succumbing to the forces of alaissez-faire economic market .

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