Large cistern found in Pembroke on Chinese embassy grounds, mayor asks for preservation

Land clearance works on the site of a proposed Chinese embassy in Pembroke have uncovered a previously unknown cistern, prompting calls for its preservation.

Pembroke Mayor Dean Hili has written to the Chinese embassy and the Planning Authority asking for action to preserve the vaulted cistern.

It was trekker and athlete Conrad Neil Gatt, who initially reported the finding on Facebook after he was tipped by a friend.

“After we were tipped by a friend of mine, I ran to the location to investigate what's beneath... What looked like a normal bell-shaped well opening, was in fact the edge of a typical 2.5m high water reservoir, with limestone arches, approximately 2m wide and more than 30 feet long,” Gatt wrote on Facebook.

The reservoir is currently empty from water but full of soil and other debris.

Independent candidate Arnold Cassola had previously highlighted the hazard to passers-by posed by the opening in the ground.

Contacted by MaltaToday on Wednesday morning, Dean Hili confirmed that the reservoir was uncovered during site clearance works on the embassy grounds.

“Fortunately, a major accident has been averted and no child has fallen into the well, as this is an area where we as children often used to play,” he said.

The mayor said that he also alerted the Planning Authority and the Chinese embassy on the need to preserve this piece of Maltese heritage.

“I have asked the Planning Authority chairman to take concrete steps, including a stop notice on works if this is necessary to ensure that the cistern is protected,” Hili said.

He also called for a revision of approved plans to ensure the incorporation of the cistern in the new development.

Cassola also wrote to Cultural Heritage Superintendent Kurt Farrugia asking him to issue an emergency conservation order to protect the underground heritage. He also called for an investigation to determine whether the Chinese embassy had reported the finding as required by law.

Under Hili’s leadership the council had objected to the development of the embassy on 19,500sq.m of woodland which was approved by the Planning Authority in 2020. The site was originally earmarked for residential buildings in the local plans but these were changed in 2012 to allow the development of an embassy.

No reference to the cistern was made in the plans approved in 2020. Works in the area had to be subject to archaeological monitoring according to the permit issued by the Planning Authority.

The embassy will rise to six floors in breach of local plan rules setting heights at three floors at Triq Suffolk.

The embassy will have 20 residential apartments and a formal garden of 5,000sq.m.

Two of the embassy blocks will be five storeys over the ground floor, despite the 16m height limitation, as compensation for the reduction of the developed footprint from 9,500sq.m in 2012 to 3,700sq.m.

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had warned that the development “is evidently one of very high intensity and visibility”, which will have an “inevitable impact on the spatial and visual context of the surrounding scheduled buildings”.