Giving back to Sliema (1)

Now that the alien structure in St Anne Square is finally being removed, and the authorities are designing landscaping concepts for the urban space, may one suggest that some kind of fountain/water feature be incorporated into the scheme?

I have seen a photograph taken in 1895 (courtesy of Tony Terribile) that shows the fountain which once stood there until it was later moved to Balluta where it still stands.

The fountain, which featured the goddess Diana, was built to inaugurate the provision of potable water to Sliema. It was designed by the eminent architect Emanuele Luigi Galizia (1830-1906), as was the neo-classical police station nearby, now long gone.

Introducing a fountain into the regeneration plan of an urban space is of invaluable importance, as many who have visited cities like Rome know. The invigorating effect water has on almost all the senses will guarantee the resuscitation of a hitherto suffocated piazza.

Sliema has had so much taken away from it; it is simply superb that something is being given back.