Superintendence puts €25,000 tag on Nigret development

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage has conditionally given its blessing for a road that will service new apartments on a site added to development boundaries in 2006, at in-Nigret in Zurrieq.

The road and residential development will result in the destruction of part of an old farming complex and a mysterious oval structure.

The SCH accepted that the demolition of an “outer room” of a farmhouse, although having “cultural value”, was considered as an “accretion” that can be removed in view of the need to form the road.

However, the SCH also said the room’s removal could only be acceptable if it is subject to a planning gain of €25,000 to mitigate “the loss of historic fabric and the truncation of the space delineating the original farming complex”.

It also called for a redesign of the road plans to safeguard the rest of the farmhouse complex which it considers “a good example of vernacular architecture.”

The SCH referred to the presence of an oval structure on the site of the proposed development but dismissed claims that this could signify the presence of a medieval structure or domestic use of the site in question, for which it found no evidence.

Objectors noted the similarity of the structure to huts known as “Africana Magalia”, a term originally used by Jean Quintin D’ Autun to refer to inhabited countryside structures in his description of Malta in 1536, and used by archaeologist Quentin Hughes to refer to small-sized rural dwellings.

But the SCH insists that the term is a generic one which likely refers to “corbelled stone hut rather than a mature farmhouse.” While taking issue with the terminology used by objectors, the report does not refer to the structure’s possible heritage value.

The construction of the road is being proposed in a zoning application by Anton Camilleri on behalf of unknown owners of the site, and is recommended for approval by the PA’s planning directorate. Apart from calling for a redesign of the road to protect part of the farmhouse, the SCH is also calling for further changes to the application to minimize its visual impact.