The development of the spatial distribution of the capital city of Valletta over the course of four centuries is the focus of a talk taking place today.

Over the years, Valletta’s streetscapes and buildings’ internal spaces were redeveloped, introducing new concepts of space to exhibit status and power as well as to meet demands of population growth. This led to several alterations and the rebuilding of churches, palaces, houses and commercial spaces. New ideas of urbanisation, introduced during the Victorian period, transformed 16th-century Valletta’s orthogonal plan by opening up new spaces and the widening of roads.

To explain these transformations, Mevrick Spiteri and Christian Mifsud, from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage Malta, will be delivering a public lecture entitled Transforming Valletta’s Built Spaces. They will take a multidisciplinary approach through different historical perspectives including archives, architecture and stereotomy, cartography and archaeology, presenting new insights into the development of Valletta as we know it today.

■ The talk is taking place tonight at 6pm at the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage to be found at 173, St Christopher Street, Valletta. It forms part of the Archaeology Society Malta lecture series, supported by APS Bank. For more information, visit www.archsoc.org.mt.