Notre Dame Gate

Each time I walk from Tarxien to Birgu, I come across the baroque gate which Grand Master Nicola Cotoner of the the Order of St John built in 1675 and attributed to the Italian architect Romano Carapecchia. In June last year the bronze bust of the Grand Master sitting in a central niche at the top of the gate was replaced after 4 years of restoration. The whole area comprising the three cities of which Birgu is one, is named Cottonera after the GM himself. The gate makes part of the massive line of fortifications called the Cottonera Lines built on four of the Bormla hills to protect the three cities. The fortifications were designed by Italian engineer Antonio Maurizio Valperga. Notre Dame Gate now belongs to the Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna.

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Nights under the stars

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There is a stage in the works where it all seems worse than when you started. It's just an impression of course, at least that's what I'm told. Roof is still off and open to the elements. The good thing is the weather is such that one might even contemplate a night's sleep under the twinkling stars. La Indulgenza is going to have to get used to being a free spirit for a while.

The one great thing I was pleased to see when I arrived at Birgu was that the room upstairs is going to have one hell of a high ceiling (see picture on top). We used bricks at the back of the room because the room upstairs is going to have white board walls anyway to introduce some contrast to the rest of the lime stone walls in the house.



The library's low ceiling (which is also the bathroom floor) has been removed out of a need for an uninterrupted floor at the bathroom level. It was either this or an unpractical and possibly dangerous step in the bathroom. The bathroom of La Indulgenza will be one of the main features of the house. We could not afford to compromise on a room where we are going to spend a substantial amount of our budget on.

Having a bathroom on top of a library can be cause for trouble in the future unless precautions are taken to make sure no water makes its way downstairs. Practical considerations were discussed ad infinitum with the architect and the contractor.

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Village People

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Although the suspect mustache of Mayor John Boxoll does remind one of the famous pop group from the past, the title refers to the friendly community feel of Birgu, very much like that of a sleepy village in the UK. The historical importance of the area where the Order of St John first settled, building grand Auberges and a substantial quarter, the Collacchio, where only the elite few could enter, has been preserved in the pride that the modern Birgu population have in their city.




While other similarly working class areas in Malta show their disadvantaged background through rubbish strewn streets and graffitied surfaces, the locals here have much more pride in their surroundings. Many of the quaint streets and lanes are decorated with plants and I have noticed notices by the local council thanking everyone for their efforts. Indeed, the local council in Birgu has been a great success story.



The small size of the city helps to create this feeling of a small community. The main square, down the road from our street, is always full of life with old and young gathering at one of the bars, cafes and social clubs. There is talk of paving the whole of Vittoriosa Square and even the rebuilding of the old clock tower that stood there. The latter might prove a little bit too Disneyish for my taste. Nothing remains of the original but old photos.

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Look mum, no roof!

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With weather threatening to douse us on Saturday, the roof of the room on top was dismantled. The room had been prepared for such an eventuality but only a few drops reached us, instantly lapped up by a combination of wind and sun.

Today, much of the wall touching what will be the roof terrace has been carefully disassembled, the well preserved parts of which put aside for use elsewhere. Old stones are available to buy, but ones from the same batch will always match the others better.



In the meantime, this afternoon another company specialising in glass structures came about to take my brief. This one came recommended by the architect. I have not had much luck so far with the other two that had been asked to quote, both taking ages to get back to me. One of them finally spilt the beans and admitted to not having the necessary experience to do both the jobs I was asking for.

It does annoy me incredibly that people here say there is not enough work and that they are feeling the pinch. Judging from their utter apathy towards their business and towards concluding a deal, this credit crunch will sort out the men from the boys / women from the girls.

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Rubber and jam

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So it wasn't alcohol that those jars contained, after all. There was enough left of this label (see jar above) to figure out they were all Crosse & Blackwell's Fresh Fruit Jam jars. I have written to the company to try and find out the date of the jars. Unfortunately I managed to break one of the jars in the process of cleaning.

On the house front, a liquid rubber material has been painted on to the floor of the room upstairs before the roof is taken off. Any rain water will be channeled away instead of seeping in through the floor and into the room below. Hopefully next week will be a dry one. It's a horrible thought, that of opening the house to the elements, but it has to be opened before being transformed into the splendid butterfly it is planned to be.

Back to the original

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Some of the alterations made by the previous owners were misguided. I don't know what was going through their heads but wooden beams were installed over apertures instead of stone lintels, a change way too rustic for a town house. When we came to replace the old lintel above the door, there were two challenges that faced us. Above the aperture are two wooden beams holding the roofs of both the kitchen and the dining room. This meant we were not sure the lintel would hold both. As a solution we introduced an RSJ (rolled steel joist) above the lintel, hidden behind the stone. You can still see the RSJ ends were the stone cladding has not yet been applied (see picture above). The second challenge was finding an old lintel of a similar length. Most we found were too short but Frank (our mason) finally sourced one.



The window in the dining room was wider than its height, dimensions that are not in keeping with houses of the period. We transformed it into a long and narrow aperture. The 4 corners will have a design consistent with the door next to it. This still needs to be added.




Today I only went to check on the house when the workers had already left. They had been doing some clearing out (the rubble always seems to accumulate so quickly) and must have found these old bottles. It's probably an old stash of alcohol kept down in the stairwell. I have now taken them home to clean and will probably place them in the glass cabinet in the stairwell when the place is ready. Must make a point of finding out their date of production.