It was once positioned prettily on a road in Mosta - but now all that remains of a charming old traditional townhouse is a solitary door.

Before-and-after pictures posted on social media of the latest piece of Malta's heritage to be razed to the ground, have led to questions about why the authorities allowed the destruction of the entire façade.

Its fate was highlighted by Thomas Camilleri, who runs the Lazarus Tiles project, which saves old traditional Maltese tiles from destruction, and turns them into art works after restoration.

He acknowledged that people would be forgiven for thinking the ‘free-standing’ door was Photoshopped – “but sadly, it is true”.

A solitary door remains of a Mosta townhouse. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Camilleri first noticed the house on Triq il-Kbira, when a friend spotted a Planning Authority notice on its façade, heralding its impending demolition. He went over and salvaged some of the old tiles from its two front rooms before they bit the dust, together with the rest of the property.

The rescue of the traditional Maltese concrete flooring had to be carried out fast because the back rooms of the house were already being demolished, he explained.

Images, in fact, captured the remains of a traditional stone staircase in a pile of rubble.

The thinking at the time was that the façade would be kept and incorporated into the new building, said Camilleri, the creative director behind Lazarus Tiles and Instagram’s The Lazarus Club. 

The traditional hand-painted tiles were removed before demolition. Photo: Lazarus Tiles

But that was not to be. And the door is the sole survivor, opening onto the "war zone" beyond.

“Even though our current ‘façadism’ fad might be creating a series of pastiches that are only skin-deep, it does help to maintain a vague idea of what our streetscapes looked like in a time when fastest plus cheapest equals best,” Camilleri said.

His mission to bring the tiles back to life – after “scavenging” in construction sites, dumps, skips, garages and townhouses destined for demolition – is often paradoxically tied to the demise of another aspect of Malta’s fading architectural features.

“Now you see it, now you don’t,” commented Marquis Tony Cremona-Barbaro, whose fight to protect Malta’s built heritage has seen him engage in a 10-year battle with the authorities to preserve the context and buffer zones around his own Grade 1 scheduled Tarxien palazzo.

Pointing out the soil infill in the walls, he maintained they indicated the “charming old house” in Mosta was constructed at least 180 years ago. 

Other comments highlighted the irony of promoting the typical door at Malta International Airport, referring to a length of hoarding that features a row of colourful versions for visitors to see the unique characteristics of the islands’ architecture.