The fate of a historic baroque garden still lies in the balance as an appeal to overturn a decision not to allow the building of a nine-storey hotel is set to be decided.
In 2019, developers Landgate Ltd filed a planning application seeking to turn parts of the 200-year-old Giardino Zammitello and what remains of the adjoining property in Pietà, into a four-star hotel, with bars and restaurants, a cafeteria, a swimming pool and a multi-level underground car park.
The application also said it would seek to restore parts of the elevated walkway and domed exedra and a tower that was believed to have been used during the French blockade.
The application was rejected by the Planning Authority in 2020; however, the developers soon after filed an appeal seeking to overturn that decision.
Almost three years later, activists who have been fighting to preserve the garden fear that the sword of Damocles may be dangling dangerously close to their heads as the planning tribunal last week put off the matter for a final decision, expected sometime in May.
Members of the NGO Friends of Villa Frere have been painstakingly restoring the dilapidated villa they are named after and its lush gardens for close to 10 years. However, they fear that, if the PA’s decision is overturned, not only will Malta be losing a unique cultural and architectural gem but the resulting redevelopment would jeopardise the context of the scheduled Villa Frere itself.
'Are we going to replace these gems with a Qawra-style hotel?'
A spokesperson for Friends of Villa Frere told Times of Malta that the garden’s namesake was Nicolo Zammit, a titan of Maltese history who served as an advisor to grand master Hompesch and is the only Maltese person known to have a tombstone in St John’s Co-Cathedral.
Based on research, the NGO believes that the original house and its gardens may have been designed by renowned architect Antonio Cachia, who is best known for designing St Dominic’s church in Valletta as well as a number of fountains at San Anton Gardens.
“These are two buildings of immense importance,” the spokesperson said. “Zammit has a monument dedicated to him in the Upper Barrakka Gardens with two lions sitting on either side of him. He was a huge figure just as Hookham Frere was. So we have these two gems and we’re seriously considering building a Qawra-style hotel here?”
The NGO said that much of the situation was created through the 2006 local plans, which, it noted, “condemned” swathes of the country’s urban heritage to the unfortunate situation it is in today. “The only way we are managing to counter this 2006 disaster is by scheduling,” the NGO said.
The NGO feels that a complete restoration and retention of the two-storey house, at best a redevelopment of the structures built in the 1960s, would be more appropriate, given the setting of the site.
“This is a national monument on par with St John’s Co-Cathedral or Ġgantija,” Friends of Villa Frere said. “You wouldn’t build a block of flats to replace them just because you owned the land.”