Over the years, Valletta’s streetscapes and buildings’ internal spaces were re-developed 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 re-buildings of churches, palaces, houses and commercial spaces. New ideas of urbanisation, introduced during the Victorian period, transformed 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.
The speakers review the development of the spatial distribution over the course of four centuries of the orthogonally planned 16th century city of Valletta. This study involves a multi-disciplinary 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 part of the Archaeology Society Malta lecture series, supported by APS Bank, and will be held at 6pm on Wednesday, 14th December 2016 at the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, 173, St Christopher Street, Valletta.
Photo: Aerial View of Valletta painted by Francesco Dell’Antella, engraved by Francesco Villamena, Rome, 1602 for Giacomo Bosio’s History of the Order.