Evocations of Lija's built heritage

Abstract

The main theme of this dissertation will be an analysis of the evolution and development of the village of Lija within the context of the Maltese Islands. Its objective is to increase the awareness of the principal points in the village's timeline which have moulded the place that, generations later, is still being lived in. Furthermore, a better understanding of what is the built heritage in local villages will be developed through these historic evocations. This investigation will analyse references to Lija from the earliest known citations up to today. The study concludes by exploring the future of the village's built heritage from a wider perspective. Some conclusions will be reached on the definition of the term 'built heritage' and it will be demonstrated that Malta is still developing its own definition of what it is. A brief comparison will be made of various working examples of heritage planning systems and the spatial planning structures that have adopted this wider definition as a way of improving the quality of the overall built landscape.