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Karl Schembri
Illegal excavations carried underneath St John’s Co-Cathedral have seriously damaged the area’s underground historical features, MaltaToday can reveal.
The illegal development was carried out by the tenant of a shop at 210C Merchants’ Street, Valletta, who was digging a cellar to change the outlet into a wine bar, cutting rock directly underneath the Cathedral Oratory – home to the world renowned Caravaggio painting of The Beheading of St John – and destroying the nineteenth century unicorn fountain well just above.
In fact, the police are expected to arraign tenant Duncan Fenech in court in the coming days for breaking cultural heritage laws, on charges that carry a maximum of six years imprisonment and up to Lm50,000 in fines if found guilty.
Contacted yesterday, Fenech said the truth was different from the authorities’ version but declined to comment further.
Described as “shameful” by the executive secretary of the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation, the works were carried out last year at the corner of St John’s Square mainly at night to avoid scrutiny and have also ruined World War II shelters while compromising the Cathedral’s foundations.
“Inspections by officers of the Superintendence have revealed actual physical damage to historical features, due to rock-cutting and removal, structural features and dumping of construction debris into WWII shelters,” said acting Cultural Heritage Superintendent Nathaniel Cutajar. “The police are currently drawing up criminal charges to be brought against an individual.”
The heritage superintendence discovered the illegal excavations last September and since then it has been working with the police, the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation and the Lands Department to stop the destructive development and bring the tenant to justice.
“There is considerable damage to the fabric around the area of the Co-Cathedral, including rubble dumped in the underground wartime shelters,” said the Co-Cathedral foundation’s executive secretary, Claude Busuttil. “They cut through the rocks destroying the historical fountain well.”
Busuttil said the Foundation had opposed an application for a change of use, which included turning the shop into wine vaults, to no avail. Still, Fenech was never granted permits to excavate the basement.
Only last week, the police asked the superintendence’s technical input to proceed with the arraignment, eight months since the destruction was discovered.
Fenech however applied in October through his architect, Samuel Formosa, to sanction the illegality with MEPA, although the planning watchdog has frozen the application pending further information about the case.
The Lands Department, which is the owner of the building, has meanwhile opened a civil case for damages against Fenech.
“An officer of the Superintendence has already testified in these proceedings,” Cutajar said.
Speaking about the impending criminal proceedings, Cutajar said: “If the accused is found guilty according to the Cultural Heritage Act (2002) Article 53 (1) (a), the accused would ‘be liable, on conviction, to a fine of not less than Lm500 and not exceeding Lm50,000, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six years, or to both such fine and imprisonment’.”
Completed by the Knights of St John in 1578 on the designs of Maltese military architect Gerolamo Cassar, the Co-Cathedral also houses another priceless Caravaggio masterpiece in its Oratory, the St Jerome, attracting the highest number of tourists to the capital from around the world with around 450,000 visitors a year.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
Links: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/02/19/t10.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John’s_Co-Cathedral
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