These weekly pictorial essays have so far only covered prominent landmarks in Valletta and Gozo that no longer grace cityscapes and panoramas. But the rest of the island has not been spared time’s erosion of its history. A number of its foremost structures had to pay the ultimate price to real or perceived progress.

Chateau Bertrand, ‘The Mad House’, an architectural folly in Ta’ Qali, damaged and later pulled down during World War II.

The unrelenting blitz of World War II, besides Valletta, targeted mercilessly the three antique harbour cities and their surroundings, like Marsa and Kalkara, and the exigencies of defence sacrificed other outstanding edifices, like Gourgion palace, in Gozo, and Chateau Bertrand, in Ta’ Qali.

The original Fleur-de-Lys arch ‘accidentally’ demolished by a military vehicle in World War II.

Genuine progress in transport and communications found no way of saving the narrow baroque entrances to fortified cities. Not one single decorated gate of Valletta of the knights has survived – all demolished.

The Savoy Hotel, one of the earliest in Sliema.

Casa Said, one of the lost art nouveau edifices in Tower Road, Sliema.

Same for Floriana. Porte des Bombes has suffered modifications at least five times, to render it unrecognisable. 

The elegant art nouveau Meadowbank complex formerly in Tower Road, Sliema.

And the massive Notre Dame and St Anne’s gates had to be obliterated, to facilitate the flow of traffic.

And we must mercifully overlook the ‘accidental’ collision by a service truck that destroyed the original Fleur-de-Lys gate that was slowing down heavy military vehicles.

The Chalet, once Sliema’s art nouveau entertainment hub.

Malta never took on board with genuine passion art nouveau architecture, like Vienna, Prague, Turin or Budapest had done, becoming world shrines for the new aesthetic. But Sliema did put in some effort to catch up in the first quarter of the 20th century. Creditable landmarks stood out, with refined art nouveau detailing, like Casa Said, the Chalet and the Meadowbank Hotel, among others. 

The military chapel in Tigné Barracks, Sliema now modified and used as office space.

Apart from Balluta Buildings, in St Julian’s and the Lombard Bank branch, in Tower Road, virtually all the others have been razed to the ground, to make way for fletsijiet u penthowsis with a sea view.

Porte des Bombes started as a single opening embedded in the bastions.

The historic watchtower in Vittoriosa damaged and dismantled during World War II and never rebuilt.

The rigging once used in Grand Harbour to mast and unmast sailing ships.

Our ancestors brought Rome to Valletta. Their successors brought Buġibba to St Julian’s

This is the fifth feature about prominent landmarks that somehow define Malta and that, for a variety of reasons, have now gone missing.

My final two-part series documents instances, outside Valletta and Gozo, of what Malta has lost. Some vanished in World War II but the robust contributions of insensitive reconstruction and of ‘development by metastasis’, should never be underestimated. It’s only fair to credit where credit is due.

The original neo-gothic church in the village of St Julian’s.

This, to some, may sound like nostalgia for fuddy duddies. But Malta was never another of the hundreds of odd islands dotting the Mediterranean. 

The neolithic people and the Order of St John had imprinted on it a unique, unrepeatable and spectacular cultural profile, which made it outshine every other small detached land mass in Europe. Without them, Malta would have been another forgettable Pantelleria or Lampedusa.

Another majestic entrance through the Floriana fortifications, St Anne’s Gate.

So why this hysterical rush to inter our main claims to civility? Several neolithic sites, like Corradino, were destroyed by deliberate vandalism or institutional neglect.

The systems of fortifications left by the Order (like the impressive Valletta lines outside city gate), which are absolutely unique in Europe for might and elegance, have frequently and joyfully been flattened out, a lust that failed to spare even British fortifications like the Victoria Lines and the forts excavated in the bowels of cliff masses.

The original neo-gothic church in the village of St Julian’s.

A direct hit during the blitz of World War II destroyed the parish church of Kalkara.

The Vandals ravaged the rest of Europe in the fifth century AD. They postponed their conquest of Malta to a later date. 

Are these vanished landmarks just the tip of the iceberg? That would be an exaggeration. But I only illustrated losses of which I had photographs in my collections.

The sumptuous Sans Souci summer residence in Marsaxlokk.

The original parish church of Floriana was built with a different façade.

A direct hit during the blitz of World War II destroyed the parish church of Kalkara.

The short-lived Brittania theatre and circus in Floriana.

The original church of St Ubaldesca, in Paola.

The first Dolmen Hotel, one of the 12 hotels designed by Richard England which are no more.

All images from the author’s collections