Restoring a magnificent palace

This morning President de Marco will inaugurate the Vilhena Palace Forecourt Project. This is one important step towards the rehabilitation and restoration of this magnificent palace just behind the main gate of our most historically important town.

This project has completely transformed the court d'honneur of the Magisterial Palace, most commonly known as Vilhena Palace.

This important forecourt, a miniature Versailles, as Denis De Lucca likes to call it, was in a most shabby state. Its paving was thick concrete. One quarter of it had been turned into a garden with balustrades around it: one could never appreciate the size of the forecourt. Four enormous eucalyptus trees covered the beautiful façade. The rest had been literally left to itself.

The triumphant coat-of-arms on the exterior door and the beautifully sculptured allegorical figures around a bronze image of Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena and a marble version of his coat-of-arms could hardly be appreciated.

Professor Guido de Marco, our President, always mentions to me how he would love to see this palace regain its dignity. With this project the Mdina Rehabilitation Project within the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure, has given it a new façade, restoring the dignity of its entrance, giving this space the look it deserves.

We have not solved the problems of the palace. We are still monitoring the devastating movement on the bastion side and we hope to have soon an initial report over what could be done to stabilise this side of the palace. But at least, now, the thousands of tourists coming into the city can better appreciate the architectural and artistic beauty of this imposing palace.

The project was put together by a team which I had the fortune to work with over these weeks. It included Kalaxlokk and Government workers who all gave their best. The result is, to my mind, of a very high standard.

The design of the project was in the hands of Architect Joao Campos who was commissioned by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to do this work. I have known Joao Campos for many years through my work in the International Council of Monuments and Sites. He is a bureau member of the International Committee of Historic Towns and Villages which I chair. He has helped to transform the Portuguese city of Porto from a crumbling beauty into the vibrant city it is today.

He has worked on many of the international projects that are done by the Gulbenkian Foundation which seeks to bring dignity back to the vast architectural heritage of Portugal in Africa, Asia and South America in particular.

It was Joao Campos who put me in touch with the Gulbenkian Foundation and with the two officers who came here and immediately fell in love with Mdina.

Gulbenkian Trustee Jose Blanco and International Director Joao Pedro Garcia almost immediately agreed with my proposal to carry out this project and to finance it substantially.

Joao Campos' design has first of all cleaned the forecourt of all the extra features that were hampering its full appreciation. The design emphasises the squareness of the forecourt and gives the visitor a very remarkable route from the outer door, past the Maltese eight-pointed cross, towards the magnificent entrance that takes you up the steps to the proper palace itself.

The design, simple yet complex at the same time, greatly complements the beauty of the architecture of the palace. It is after all a forecourt and the design somehow manages to emphasise this point.

Another very important element has been the liberation of the spaces on one side of the palace. These had been closed off in the early Seventies and turned into an aquarium built into the walls. The empty spaces, the inner part of which are enclosed for exhibits, has added a new dimension to the forecourt.

Another very important element is the introduction of two 270 year-old olive trees, a gift of the Portuguese family of Caleia Pinto, which add dignity to the whole area.

When we started the project we knew, from the research done by De Lucca, that there may be parts of the original structures predating the palace. The archaeological work was a very important element of the project. We were proved right.

ASC's Katya Stroud unveiled for us part of the original structure, the second original door of Mdina. This somewhat delayed our project as the design had to be adjusted to allow for a partial view of this very important wall. The result is a great satisfaction to us all.

Certainly the most important conservation element of the project was the work undertaken by Sante Guido and his team on the allegorical figures and the coat of arms. These outstanding sculptures can now be seen in all their beauty. Amply researched by Dr Keith Sciberras, we now know the full story of these works.

Sante Guido's work, once more, has proved to be outstanding both on the bronze medallion and on the Maltese masonry itself. It was a meticulous work that on its own was worth doing.

The project has not been without its little controversies but the end result is certainly one to be admired. The palace at night will reveal its tremendous beauty. During the day the colour of its intricate stonework could be admired as one of the best examples of Maltese baroque architecture, wanted by a Portuguese Grand Master, designed by a French engineer, and built by Maltese stone masons.

Thanks to the Gulbenkian Foundation, it can now be admired in all its beauty.

Ray Bondin is executive co-ordinator of the Mdina Rehabilitation Project