Encounters with Valletta a Baroq!Je City Through the Ages
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ENCOUNTERS WITH VALLETTA A BAROQ!JE CITY THROUGH THE AGES EDITED BY GIOVANNI BONELLO PETRA CARUANA DINGLI DENIS DE LUCCA PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL CILIA DRAGONARA CASINO First published in 2018 The Internatonal Insttute for Baroque Studies by the Internatonal Insttute for Baroque Studies University of Malta Msida MSD 2080 Since its foundaton in 1996, the Internatonal Insttute for Baroque Studies at Malta the University of Malta has been involved in a range of actvites that support its mission to disseminate multdisciplinary knowledge about the Baroque heritage of mankind, and to promote its appreciaton and conservaton © University of Malta 2018 for posterity. Images © Daniel Cilia, and individual collectons This objectve has been taken forward through teaching actvites at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as through extensive research All rights reserved work which has formed the basis of various publicatons and theses. The Insttute has also performed consultancy services concerned with aspects of No part of this publicaton may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval the Baroque heritage of the Maltese Islands which is linked to the Hospitaller system, or transmited in any form or by any means, electronic, Knights of the Order of St John in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the On an internatonal level, the Insttute has enhanced its teaching actvites prior permission in writng of the publishers. by actvely partcipatng in academic conferences at universites overseas, and has also taken the initatve to organize internatonal seminars in Malta. The Insttute assumed a pioneering role in the foundaton of the Baroque Book layout and design, Stephen C. Spiteri Route Network of the Council of Europe, on behalf of which the Insttute stll regularly publishes a newsleter. The Insttute’s publicatons as well as its Cover design by Daniel Cilia courses ofered at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, refect the interests of the academic staf members in the politcal, military, religious, Typeset at the Internatonal Insttute for Baroque Studies social, philosophical, scientfc, literary, artstc and conservaton aspects of University of Malta the Baroque age. The Baroque world is approached as a holistc cultural entty which Printed in Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd., Gudja Road embodies the two contradictons of the age: the abstract mathematcal Tarxien, GXQ 2902, Malta and methodical aspect on the one hand, and the rebellious, emotonal and exuberant aspect on the other, which are both manifest in the architecture and art forms of the great Baroque capital cites of Europe. The enduring ISBN residues of this eminently European cultural expression bears witness to an age of learning, discovery, brilliance and splendour which contnues to atract the atenton of many scholars and poses a formidable challenge for them to provide answers to a host of yet unanswered questons, and to use archival research to identfy and disseminate new knowledge about the Baroque achievement. Opposite: Decision by the Order's Council to confer the ttle of 'Most Humble' on the city of Valleta on 14 February 1567 (NLM, AOM 91, f. 177) Inside covers: Eighteenth-century paintngs depictng Valleta from the Grand Harbour and from Marsamxet Harbour (Private collecton) life in nineteenth-century valletta maltese and british cross-currents Petra Caruana Dingli The frst century of Britsh infuence in Malta lef a deep mark. Valleta and its magnifcent harbour, strategically located in The island had been under foreign dominaton for centuries but the central Mediterranean. The secondary role of the Britsh when the Britsh setled in Malta from 1800 onwards, its status military garrison on the island was to defend and provide a changed fundamentally. While the Order of St John had received secure environment for the naval forces. Most of the governors revenue from its estates in Europe, Malta was the principal posted to Malta in the nineteenth century were military ofcers, seat of the knights. The grand master lived in Valleta and had entrusted with managing the civil afairs of the island with the complete jurisdicton over the island. Valleta was the capital needs of the fortress in mind. city of a sovereign state. Like the Order of St John before them, the Britsh based Under the Britsh, the island became a small dependency their centre of government in Valleta. And like the feet of the of a much larger politcal entty. It was now part of a global knights, the Britsh naval ships sheltered in Galley Creek (later empire whose head of state resided elsewhere. The island Dockyard Creek) at Birgu on the opposite side of the harbour was governed by a representatve of Britain’s monarch, who as Valleta did not ofer suitable inlets. Valleta and the Three answered to the Colonial Ofce in London where important Cites across the harbour (Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua) formed decisions over Malta’s afairs were taken by the secretary of state the urban centre of Malta. in Westminster. Malta’s status as a Britsh naval base was the The Grand Master's Palace in Valleta was turned into primary consideraton in all politcal, military and civil decisions the seat of the governor, and from 1835 onwards councils of concerning the island. government including Maltese members were held there. Monument Local interests were always weighed against imperial The Auberge de Castlle, probably the grandest building built dedicated to Sir Alexander Ball at interests, with the later generally taking priority. The entre in Valleta by the knights besides the Palace and the churches, the Lower Barrakka island was governed as a defence post, mainly focused on became the seat of the military garrison. The army was largely Gardens in Valleta 289 encounters with valletta - a baroque city through the ages statoned around Valleta and Floriana untl new barracks began to be built at St George’s Bay in the 1860s, as well as at St Andrew’s, Mtarfa and Sliema. While the Navy was initally based in Birgu, its commander-in- chief retained his main residence in Valleta, in what is today stll known as Admiralty House in South Street. Untl very recently this building housed the Natonal Museum of Fine Arts. The civil service and government departments were also based in Valleta, scatered among the former auberges and palaces of the Order of St John. The Castellania in Merchants Street contnued to be used as the law courts untl they were moved to the Auberge d’Auvergne in Republic Street in the 1850s. This auberge was destroyed in the second world war and replaced with a new law courts building on the same site as that previously adopted by the Britsh administraton. Society At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the entre populaton of Malta numbered 100,000 persons. By 1900 it had practcally doubled in size, expanding at a faster rate in the second half of the century. Excluding the troops, the populaton of the urban harbour area in the 1860s was around 60,000 persons, nearly half the populaton of Malta at the tme. This rapid increase in residents created huge pressures on housing and sanitaton in Valleta. Due to its size and scarce resources, Malta depended on external supplies for food. Its agricultural produce was too limited to sustain the populaton. Unemployment and over-populaton resulted in chronic and severe poverty among the lower classes within both urban and rural areas. Under the Order of St John, the export of coton had brought in much-needed revenue to Malta. While the knights did not put the island’s economy on sound foundatons, they averted economic disaster by investng some of their foreign revenue in Malta, which was their main base. Their inability to contnue to inject funds into Malta in the late eighteenth century, partly due to the loss of their estates 290 life in nineteenth-century valletta in France, coincided with great dissatsfacton with their rule by Navy and army personnel returning from batles and a tough Opposite: the Maltese, many of whom were delighted to see the back of life on board ship were understandably eager to celebrate Musicians outside Porta Reale, 19th- the Order of St John when it capitulated to Napoleon in 1798, and have some fun once they reached the safety of Malta. In century paintng leaving behind serious debts. one example, in 1841 some ships in harbour were obliged to signed G. Gianni By the frst decades of the nineteenth century Malta was undergo a long quarantne due to plague on board. One of the (MUŻA – Heritage Malta) losing its coton trade. Atempts were made to encourage other ofcers, Captain Collier, was taken to the naval hospital in the industries such as fsheries under Civil Commissioner Alexander harbour with serious injuries to his leg sustained at the second Ball before 1810, and the plantng of mulberry trees to produce explosion of Acre. Once the quarantne was over and the silk in the 1820s,1 but these initatves did not amount to much. captain was released from hospital, he gave ‘a splendid dinner’ Between 1805 and a severe outbreak of plague in Malta in 1813 for all his ofcers at the United Services Club House in Valleta, (startng on board a ship in the Valleta harbour), the Britsh ‘where the greatest hilarity prevailed. The dinner consisted of commercial community in Valleta expanded rapidly. This was every delicacy of the season, and the sparkling champagne was helped by developments in internatonal trade, partcularly the passed around in double quick tme’. Collier thanked the ofcers French blockade on Britsh goods on the contnent.2 of the naval hospital who had helped him avoid the dreaded Due to this expansion of trade and the infux of foreigners, amputaton of his leg.