Valletta for the 21st century

Abstract

The future of old Historic Towns is a World-Wide concern. What role are they going to play and what is their significance to the 21st Century Man. Do they represent a mere past, being a burden to innovation and change, or do they give a feeling of continuity, a sequence in time, a sense of belonging and of personality to their inhabitants, which bustling modern cities with all their activities surely do not. An actual case in point is our Capital City - Valletta, a 16th Century fortified Town built by the Knights of St'John of Jerusalem during their almost 300 years stay in Malta (1530 - 1798). The City has a glorified past, but like other historical towns all over the world, has seen a decline in population and importance to suburban towns. Valletta was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. Only three other cities have such status, and these are Florence and Rome in Italy and Bath in the United Kingdom. In addition, Europa Nostra recognises Valletta as "a site worthy of protection" because of its cultural heritage. Also, a proposal was forwarded to the European Council to proclaim Valletta as the Cultural European Capital for the month of October 1998. My study, as the title itself suggest, gives a look at the future and how are we going to preserve this cultural heritage for future generations. Apparently, there are two main trends, the conservatives and progressives. The conservatives believe that any form of change and modernisation, endangers the very existence of Valletta. On the other hand, the progressives maintain that only change can bring back life to this City, if we do not want that Valletta becomes a "fossilized Museum" (Asworth, J. 1991) Progress and Preservation : although these two keywords are conflicting, the solution lies in the reconciliation of them both, for "mediating between these conservative and progressive forces will eventually determine the physical outlook of the city as a dynamic organism that is responsible to economic, political and Social forces." (Malta Structure Plan, Report of Survey, 1990) In a survey done for the Malta Structure Plan, 1990 regarding conservation and preservation of Valletta "almost% (74.9%) disagreed that New Buildings in Valletta should be in a modern style to give a new lease of life." From this statement, it is clear, that a good percentage of the population is against modernisation in Valletta, but yet everyone knows that our capital city is becoming stagnant and that there is no life whatsoever after the shops close at 7 o'clock in the evening.