Malta’s iconic rubble walls are in for a chance to be included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage, after a local NGO kickstarted the process this week.

The move comes three years after the United Nations’ cultural agency announced that the art of dry-stone walling, knowledge and techniques in Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland had made it to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The exclusion of the Maltese rubble walls from that list disgruntled locals but a Culture Ministry spokesperson had told Times of Malta it was the community, not the government, that must submit nominations.

So Friends of Villa Frere president Edward Said last week filed an application with the local intangible heritage authority to consider the construction, repair and protection of ħitan tas-sejjieħ as intangible cultural heritage.

Said warned in the application that the condition of ħitan tas-sejjieħ in many areas in Malta was critical mainly because of construction development.

The process for inscription in the UNESCO list kicks off with someone from the public, an NGO or an association nominating an intangible culture element to be included in the national inventory. It is up to the Intangible Cultural Heritage board to then decide whether it should nominate the inscription for the UNESCO representative list.

So far, għana, ftira, village feasts, Żejtun nicknames, sea salt harvesting, stereotomy, ephemeral art, brilli, falconry, għażżiela, bizzilla and gold embroidery have been enlisted in the national inventory and Maltese crib making will also be added in the coming weeks.

Għana and ftira have made it to the UNESCO list while festa has been nominated by the board but has been queued up for consideration with several other nominations by other countries, the Director for Culture, Mario Azzopardi said.

UNESCO sets an annual threshold on the number of such elements added to its list.

Among others it also takes into consideration whether it is truly at risk of being lost and how many elements the applicant country already has inscribed. 

Azzopardi confirmed that the board had received Said’s application for the inclusion of rubble walls in the national inventory. 

Why rubble walls?

In his application, Said explained that the limestone structures have been an essential device for survival in rural and urban contexts since time immemorial.

“Rubble walls are at the very core of Malta’s architectural identity, crafted in a variety of techniques refined for millennia, most likely imported by neolithic man over 7,000 years ago.”

Sadly, as a consequence of rampant and rapid development in the past 50 years or so, kilometres of these humble walls have been lost and the skills for building or restoring such walls using ancient local ways have dwindled, he noted.

Said told Times of Malta the local trade risked being replaced by quick-fix or imported methods often using unsympathetic materials (such as cement and construction debris) resulting in a mediocre, alien appearance.

Typical Maltese rubble walls vary even across the islands, depending on the type and availability of the stone in a locality and the function of the dry wall required.

Ħitan tas-sejjieħ range in form, from simple low boundaries delineating territories to retaining structures enclosing fields or terraces.

There are also rubble walls within the built environment, erected to impressive heights – at times over two storeys – around gardens and orchards, offering security and shelter from strong gusts of wind.

Said noted that both Hospitaller and British engineers made use of sejjieħ techniques in the construction of the island’s fortifications, adding that dry-rubble methods were also synonymous with the girna, the diminutive domed field hut found in the north of Malta.

Friends of Villa Frere is especially interested in the preservation of the skill because, for the past eight years, some of its volunteers have been learning and honing their skill in the restoration of centuries-old rubble walls at the historic gardens of the Pietà villa, many sections of which had fallen into decay after decades of neglect.