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James Debono
The breathtaking views at Fomm ir-Rih must have been of great inspiration for Gorg Borg Olivier’s son-in-law, whose summer house stood atop the idyllic beach back in the 60s as his father-in-law contemplated independence for the Maltese islands.
The villa with its private beach was the source of much campaigning by Mintoff when he led the Labour party in opposition, calling for access to the shoreline as a national policy.
Today however, a villa named after the dolphins adorning Malta’s Independence coat of arms blocks access to the beach, its locked gates leading to the only safe path down to the panoramic beach.
So how do ramblers get down to Fomm ir-Rih’s beach? The only alternative route, is a narrow and dangerous passage, and the Ramblers Association is now spearheading a campaign to reclaim access to Fomm ir-Rih.
Villa Delfino was rebuilt out of Borg Olivier’s summer house. Subject to two enforcement orders from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority since 1996, one for illegal additions to a surrounding military pillbox, the other for the construction of a wall covering the cliff face, no enforcement has yet taken place.
Lino Bugeja, president of the Ramblers Association, recalls that until the 1960s one could still walk down to the beach through a military pathway from Ras il-Pelligrin. The military pillbox, which used to serve as a concrete machine gun emplacement during WWII, was later leased out, expanded and built around.
“Access to the foreshore is a birth-right to all Maltese citizens,” Lino Bugeja insists, who is calling for a firmer commitment from government to ensure the right of way to its citizens.
Access to the beach is only one of the various land ownership problems facing ramblers in the Fomm ir-Rih site.
Ras ir-Raheb, lying 45 metres above the sea and precariously close to the cliff-top, is considered to be a site of major archaeological importance. Its ruins were identified with those of the celebrated temple of Juno by Antonio Bosio and Marc Antonio Axiaq, writing back in the 16th century and basing their work on an account by Cicero.
Art historian Mario Buhagiar says the Roman remains on the site may have had a religious significance, and could possibly be linked to the temple of Heracles mentioned by Ptolemy.
Access to this important site is however denied to the public. Bugeja insists the law guaranteeing public access to the first ten metres of the shore line should also apply to the coastal cliffs.
But ramblers have already been threatened by someone claiming they were trespassing on his property. After writing to the Lands Department back in 2004 about the incident, Bugeja was told that the land in question was in the process of being expropriated – a process which had started back in 1975.
Thirty years later, the site is still considered as private property because the expropriation has not been finalised.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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