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Abstract
Decisions regarding the design, conservation and regeneration of urban areas are influenced by a number of factors. In cities that function as national monuments, matters of national identity and tourism are inevitably prioritized. While these objectives may be compatible, there are concerns that good planning practice and liveability of cities is compromised. This paper analyses these issues through a detailed analysis of Valletta, the capital city of Malta. The paper concludes that an over-emphasis on tourism and national projects has affected Valletta's liveability and, paradoxically, it has made the city less attractive to tourists and less representative of Malta.
Notes
1. Opulent monumentalism was most apparent in the reign of Pinto de Fonseca (1741–1773).
2. The head of the British forces that ‘liberated’ Malta from French rule.
3. The eight points on the Maltese cross represent the eight langues.
4. An equivalent is perhaps Rhodes – also an island fortress associated with the Knights –which provides a border between the EU and the East.
5. Malta's Islamic past is now effectively ignored; no Arab buildings remain.
6. This is in contrast to other national events, e.g. Independence Day and Republic Day, which divide the nation along party-political lines.
7. Turnout in general elections has not been less than 90% in three decades, and these elections are notoriously closely fought.
8. Paradoxically, to ensure the pre-eminence of English over Italian as an official language in Malta.
9. There is now consensus in Valletta that this is an eyesore.
10. Sorlin's (1999, pp. 107–108) statement that ‘with brass parades and over oversized conference complexes [former colonies] have tried to compensate for their lack of national community’ is prescient. The Maltese capital seems to be a city that is particularly fond of parades and brass bands, and has converted the former hospital of the Knights (Sacra Infermia) into an enormous conference centre.
11. This list is a broadly representative sample of views expressed in the hundreds of comments submitted to blogs and internet sites when news broke of the revival of the Piano Plan.
12. Valletta is often known as ‘the city built by gentlemen, for gentlemen’, a phrase attributed to La Vallette, Disraeli, Walter Scott or Lord Byron – depending on who you believe. It is now commonly used in promotions for the city.
13. As one Maltese laments in research by Radmilli (Citation2005, p. 324), ‘why after the congestions caused by tourists by day they are not given the choice to stay in some of the hotels in Valletta?’.
14. This was also suggested for the former capital Mdina, but was resisted by a powerful alliance of outside interests (Sant Cassia Citation1999).
15. Apart from the Sacra Infermia and the Auberge de Bavarie.
16. A noted obsession of the Maltese, perhaps because it conveys their European allegiances.
17. Most famously ‘a city built by gentlemen, for gentlemen’, but also ‘a glorious city of golden stone’ and ‘the city of the Order’.
18. During fieldwork in Valletta, Schofield and Morrisey (Citation2005, p. 491) report that ‘on several occasions we met former British soldiers trying to locate former bars’.
19. Of which 75% are in poor condition (Thake Citation2006).
20. ‘By day it's a thriving and bustling capital: By night, however it wears a sombre mask’ (Cadogan Guidebook). ‘Still dreaming of the past the somnolent city shuts down at nightfall’ (DK Eyewitness Guidebook).