I wish I could define more exactly what I am writing about. In many smaller towns and villages, there are, I believe, urban spaces that promote human, almost domestic, interaction better than others.

A rare photo of Mdina’s main square, 1930s

Traditionally, it would be a main or minor piazza, which, far from being merely an open square, used to serve multiple civic purposes.

Many became the informal centre of gravity for socialisation, the open-air club of the conurbation.

Celebrations for the inauguration of ducted water in Mellieħa, 1912

In Valletta, I recall particularly Strada Rjali. Not the whole Strada Rjali, God forfend, but only the section between Wembley Store and Cordina Café, where people of all social strata enjoyed their passiġġata, where folks agreed to meet, or met anyway without agreeing.

The informal centre of gravity for socialisation

It was virtually impossible to go through Strada Rjali without accidentally coming across persons you knew.

These habits, these urban imperatives, reflected the southern Italian institution of a Via dello struscio, inevitable in every self-respecting township.

The cattle market square in Ħamrun in the 1910s

A 1910s view of the centre of St Paul’s Bay

Siġġiewi’s main square in the 1930s

Knowing about these quaint, intimate, often photogenic, centres of attraction in towns and villages was not the challenging part but documenting them through old postcards and photographs turned out to be.

Camera artists and publishers mostly followed business dictates – offer for sale what would likely sell most.

In pre-independence Malta, the obvious commercial catchment market would be the many British servicemen and their families stationed here and a meagre trickle of foreign tourists.

Would they be interested in buying images of minor life in quaint corners of unknown towns? Publishers believed: no.

A more intimate and festive post-war Mosta square

Alfred Vella Gera circulated this intimate image of a Qormi square.

That accounts for their extreme scarcity.

Piazzas, when they do at all, only figure as backdrops to festas and political meetings. Despite this, I will split this pictorial in two, not including Valletta.

A political meeting in Birkirkara parish square in 1932

The central square of Żurrieq during a political event in 1932

All images from the author’s collections

A quiet corner in Mdina, by Alfred Galea Zammit

A quiet open space in pre-war Sliema by Alfred Vella Gera – ‘Vela’