Demolition of irrep - protecting the ver
he discipline of archaeology teaches us that no copy or imitiation, no matter how cleverly done, can substitute the original. There is an intrinsic importance in the original artifact, which links us with the time when it was created, in a way that a copy cannot. The same principle applies to buildings, regardless of whether they originate from an archaic age, such as the Phoenician walls and tower incorporated in some houses in Żurrieq; whether they are medieval vernacular structures, as in many of our village cores, or from more recent eras.
The fact that they’ve survived and now form part of the architectural landscape of Malta makes them worthy of preservation. We have come to appreciate our more sophisticated 17th and 18th century architecture, but sadly, the vernacular is not understood at all.
This is evident from the everincreasing rate with which permission is being given to demolish vernacular architecture as though it has no value. There are two traditional buildings in the main square of Żebbuġ, in a row of houses that is practically integral and intact. There is the little free-standing house on the Marsascala seafront; even the fact that this exists as a free-standing building, indicating its existence predating the more formal town-plan of the terraced rows of houses behind it, should be enough to preserve its uniqueness, however humble and rustic.