Sayonara Guesthouse

With reference to the article ‘Eight-floor hotel downscales to five-floor guesthouse’(April 4), reporting an approved extension and conversion of an existing building on Triq Il-Qalb Imqaddsa and Triq is-Sorijiet, St Julian’s, we would like to clarify certain details included that were either partially or wholly incorrect.

The report stated that the original proposal for a hotel development “had to be downscaled” in a bid to achieve planning approval. Conversely, the decision to alter the design was taken independently by the architect and developer as part of the project’s design evolution, following vocalised criticisms that were accepted as new tangents for its development. The planning submission was accordingly adapted to convert the building’s use from hotel to guesthouse, decreasing its dimensions in parallel with a lower-impact scale of use.

Prior to this change, specific measures were already proposed to mitigate disruption to the building’s surroundings. Commercial and leisure offering within the building was limited to guests only, avoiding undue crowding, noise and disturbance within the area. The report of a restaurant having to be removed from the initial proposal is inaccurate. A restaurant offering never formed part of the proposal.

In addition, amenity spaces were each positioned within basement levels; specifically, the hotel’s pool was located below ground as opposed to the roof, alleviating visual and noise impact. These measures will be retained within the adjusted design, which intends to remove one level to the newbuild extension, converting a 47-room hotel into a 36-room guesthouse.

In terms of the building’s massing, the original hotel proposal constituted seven floors and one recessed floor. The recessed floor was removed early on as an objective design decision.

The new guesthouse proposal now comprises six floors, having only removed one floor from the original proposal. This opposes the “reduction of three floors” outlined in the article.

The report also inaccurately claims that the existing 19th-century house was ‘earmarked’ for demolition. The original building has always been an integral element within the design proposal. As such, the retained building is converted into an entrance lobby within the proposed design. The proposal also safeguards the existing building’s preservation, with each of its original features planned to be conserved and structurally restored.

Valentino Architects – Valletta and Mark Camilleri – on behalf of Hotel Co. Limited

Correcting wrong assumptions on Bonaparte and Malta

In reference to Charles Gauci’s missive about  alleged ‘Omissions’ (May 9) regarding my feature on Bonaparte’s Malta links (May 2), may I correct the wrong assumptions made by him.

Plunder of Malta’s treasures: the June 12, 1798 Convention between the Order and France conceded the Order’s possessions to the French Republic. No plunder of parochial churches took place except for some wayward soldiers picking the odd altar lamp as recorded by parish priests.

The silver passed to the government was per legal agreement entered with the Curia in July 1798 and confirmed again on September 16, 1800, after the French had left. It was in exchange for the exclusive Catholic use of St John’s, which providentially served to save it from the British turning it into an Anglican cathedral.  

Various undersea expeditions around Aboukir Bay never found any ‘treasures’. It is most improbable that any spoils allegedly taken from Malta were on board the Orient when it sunk on August 1. The French had disembarked their ships over a month earlier. Nelson destroyed French moored seacraft in Aboukir after a 12-week chase.

Execution of Maltese patriots: a Maltese traitor revealed the names of Dun Mikiel Xerri and Guglielmo Lorenzi to the French military. Hardly assisted by leader Canon F. X. Caruana, this plot was uncovered in Marsamxett, a war zone. The plotters were condemned to death as traitors. No one interceded on their behalf not even the Bishop in Valletta.

Malta should always respect patriots who, like Carmelo Borg Pisani during WWII, died for a cause they believed in. The 1798 plot leaders assumed that Orthodox Russia would have been a better option.

Slavery: Bonaparte in the ‘democratic’ spirit of the revolution had abolished slavery on arrival freeing thousands of Muslim slaves and Maltese captives overseas. In 1802, Consul Bonaparte had re-established slavery in Caribbean islands, where the French authorities continued with slavery. These new orders affected mostly St Domingue (Haiti), Guadeloupe and French Guyana. Haitians defended their island and became independent in 1804. 

The re-introduction of slavery in the Caribbean, had Malta remained French, would not concern Malta or anywhere it was abolished. Bonaparte’s ordinances had also indicated that Malta was destined to become a collectivité locale – with its own government – like Corsica. 

Still, after losing Malta, Bonaparte devised another plan for the island. In 1802, according to the Treaty of Amiens between France and the UK, the Order was to return to the island, establishing a Maltese langue, with the two powers guaranteeing neutrality. 

Eventually, Malta would have become a principality, like Monaco. Alas, Britain did not honour the treaty and colonial Malta was left instead struggling for representative government until 1921.

Charles Xuereb – Sliema

My experience in the Holy Land

I refer to Anna Marie Galea’s article ‘Of colonisers and lost lands’, (May 16). When my wife and I visited the Holy Land three years ago it was exactly the other way around of what was stated in her article. We booked a hotel in Tel Aviv and we were treated very well by all the Israelis we encountered.

It was by Palestinian soldiers at checkpoints that we were treated in an uncivilised manner and by a Palestinian taxi driver who charged us four times as much as Jewish taxi drivers charged us at Tel Aviv for the same distance.

I also wish to point out to the writer of the article that the Maltese language is semi-semitic and not as the way she described it in her article.

If Galea doesn’t have anything nice to say about Malta and the Maltese, she should write about something else.

Alfred Gauci - Sliema

In favour of life

In his homily during Mass celebrated at Mellieħa Sanctuary together with four newly-ordained priests on Mother’s Day, Archbishop Charles Scicluna underlined that a woman’s womb is a symbol of life and not death.

President George Vella also confirmed his stand against abortion. He further declared he will resign rather than sign any document legalising abortion.

Opposition leader Bernard Grech confirmed his stand and that of the Nationalist Party as being against abortion.

This outcry against abortion followed a private member’s bill by independent MP Marlene Farrugia and seconded by independent MP Godfrey Farrugia. Both MPs want to decriminalise abortion. It seems that both MPs, both coming from the medical field, have forgotten their vow to do all that is possible to safeguard life.

They also said that Malta is the only country in Europe where abortion is not legal. Is it a sort of stigma for Malta to be the only European country which is against abortion? We believe that life begins at conception and no one is empowered to terminate it. In every circumstance, there is always a solution and committing an abortion is surely not one.

Emily Barbaro-Sant – Mosta

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