John Samut-Tagliaferro (The Sunday Times of Malta, August 18) is correct in writing that Maltese architect Tommaso Dingli’s second Porta Reale is post-1580, in fact of 1632, and I am quoting Micchael Ellul’s admirable work entitled ‘Valletta – Porta Reale and Environs’, National Archives, Malta 2013.

Whether engineers Francesco Laparelli and Girolamo Cassar were involved in designing Valletta’s original main opening or gate has to await relevant details from architect Stephen Spiteri, who is a recognised expert on Maltese fortifications.

When Grand Master Hugues Loubenx de Verdalle adopted the name Porta Reale to the original main gate of Valletta, he was, according to Spiteri’s reliable explanation, outlined on Google, following Italian practice for the name of the main, but not any secondary, gate of a fortified city.

Valletta was just that, until the late 1960s – early 1970s, when the alterations by George Borg Olivier’s government put paid to that quintessential characteristic of our capital city since 1572, when Grand Master Pietro Del Monte moved our capital from Mdina to newly constructed Valletta.

Valletta was meant to constitute a bulwark against Christendom’s enemies in the central Mediterranean.