Editorial: After 18 years, hope for Qbajjar Battery

Here is a little nugget of information that puts the recent announcement about Qbajjar Battery in Gozo into perspective: Din l-Art Ħelwa first accepted to take it over in 2007.

That is how long this saga has been going on for. Almost two decades.

Much has happened in the intervening years but the fundamental principle has not changed: the NGO was ready and willing to take on this huge restoration project, to raise the not inconsiderable funding for it, to accept the guardianship for it – meaning ongoing maintenance – and to add it to its portfolio of heritage sites accessible to the public.

The NGO is not obliged to do this; it is actually doing the government a favour, taking on board something that the state was actually bound to do by law.

It was begging to take on this huge responsibility, both in terms of restoration and maintenance, to find uses for it commensurate with its values, to ensure that there were enough volunteers to make it accessible for the public. And – yes, why not? – to enhance Gozo’s tourism product.

While the NGO waited, the elements relentlessly chipped away at the structure of the scheduled 18th-century battery.

And in the meantime, the government stonewalled, saying that “every request for the issuance of a guardianship deed needs to follow a standardised procedure and each request is currently being processed according to this procedure.”

The NGO has taken a professional approach to how it would use the battery, asking a few years ago for assistance from the UK National Trust.

It even has a five-year business plan covering capital and recurrent expenditure, and apart from the installation of security cameras, it has outlined ways that the battery could be used, from making it part of a heritage trail, to collaborating with the Żebbuġ local council, and providing public spaces for exhibitions and re-enactments.

Bar a few recent incidents, the NGO’s track record speaks for itself – far louder than the recent history of the battery used as a discotheque and snack bar.

Admittedly, it was just one of several heritage sites commercialised at the time but it was the unauthorised works that worried heritage experts.

Over the years, the gun platform was excavated and some of the structure was demolished; other parts were built and various materials were used which, in today’s more respectful restorations, are simply not acceptable and will have to be removed.

The government knew all about this: in 2005, the superintendence for cultural heritage was asked if it had any objections to renewing the bar’s lease, and the following year

it said it would like to pass it on to DLĦ. The clock ticked and time continued to erode the structure.

Then came a brief moment of hope: in 2021, the culture ministry asked DLĦ to prepare a restoration and sustainability brief.

The clock ticked on, and the structure became more and more dangerous. In March 2025, Heritage Malta was even asked to “eliminate danger” in the structure.

And now, after all these delays, DLĦ is being promised guardianship yet again, crossing its fingers that this will actually happen and not turn out to be a pre-election promise that gets buried under glitzy projects. The project simply cannot afford to be delayed any longer.

Recently, DLĦ Għawdex member Daniel Cilia wrote: “There are moments when a nation quietly chooses the right course and, in doing so, strengthens its bond with its own history.”

At least in this case, it sounds as though the country is finally doing the right thing.