Government works on Sliema’s Annunciation Square have unearthed entrances to an air-raid shelter and an inspection team from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage will decide on how best to preserve it.

Sliema mayor Anthony Chircop said the council was insisting that the war-time shelter would be surveyed to ensure its safety, remains intact and its entrance preserved as part of the country’s heritage.

But it would not be asking for the subterranean structure to be open to the public and a decision on how best to close off the site after certifying it is sound would have to be determined.

The local council would not be requesting to turn the shelter into an attraction, Chircop said, pointing out that it already had a huge air-raid shelter in Dingli Circus in its care but that this was riddled with maintenance problems, including flooding and other issues.

“We had planned to use the Dingli Circus shelter on certain occasions but, on second thoughts, it requires so much attention,” Chircop said.

What was important was that the World War II Annunciation Square shelter was surveyed to see that the structure could support whatever happened above ground, including cranes, the mayor said.

An extract from the shelter records at the Office of Public Works, indicating the trajectory of the wartime shelter.

The entrance should be left accessible for posterity, rather than closed off and forgotten

Manholes to keep entrance accessible?

Architect Edward Said, a Sliema resident who has been researching the locality’s subterranean heritage for the last 20 years, has also asked for a proper land and archaeological survey of the underground structure.

However, he maintains that “the entrance should be left accessible for posterity, rather than closed off and, essentially, forgotten”.

The air raid shelter discovered on Sliema’s Annunciation Square. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

This could be done using suitable inspection manholes, sensitively designed to impact minimally on the heritage fabric but also remain firmly shut so as not to cause any nuisance, he suggested to the authorities.

Said pointed out that the concrete slabs currently covering the entrances “could be of historic importance as is the case with others that were installed just after the 1956 Suez Crisis when a number of former war shelters were reopened for fear of attack on Malta”.

These slabs are often imprinted with the date 1956/57, he said.

The architect compared the discovery to a similar one in Pietà at the end of last year, also resulting from roadworks, which saw the involvement of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.

Based on a “hunch”, Said believed the Annunciation Square shelter was of particular interest. Located in a landmark space, he expected it to be rich in features associated with these sites, such as cubicles, carvings and graffiti on the walls.

Sliema is home to around 90 public shelters and plans from the Public Works Department were testament to the existence of this latest one.

The entrance was buried below the tarmac but an opportunity to rediscover it and document it had presented itself, he said.