Malta’s Rubble Walls for UNESCO – Edward Said

Malta’s Rubble Walls FOR UNESCO

By Edward Said

Finely restored rubble wall at Għajn Barrani Gozo.

Back in December 2018, my jaw slowly dropped in astonishment as I read a story carried in the Times of Malta, reporting how various European countries were celebrating their rubble wall legacies being collectively inscribed by UNESCO to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

What stunned me was that Malta was not mentioned—we had missed out, apparently due to lack of nomination by the public or civil society! Surely, even to the most culturally indifferent, our ħitan tas-sejjieħ leap to mind with other ubiquitous Maltese hallmarks like the gallarija tal-injam, the ftira, and colourful old buses?

To be precise, what was given recognition was dry-stone walling as a skill, thus a genre of intangible patrimony. Further research revealed that Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland all had movements and platforms through which they are actively fostering awareness about the individual ancient ways of building and keeping their walls.

Arguably, ħitan tas-sejjieħ constitute the most extensive type of man-made limestone structure across the Maltese Islands. How fascinating and useful it would be if the many kilometres of walls some quite possibly dating back to prehistory were to be accurately measured, possibly also deducing the lengths that have been lost from old survey sheets!

As a trade it surely deserves the same status as that of our timeless stonemasonry, indeed we know that such dry walls until not too long ago were often erected by skilled labourers, under the supervision of kapumastri. We are also aware that, out of necessity, farmers and gardeners were apt at this kind of work.

It is also safe to say that, despite a post-war decline in demand for rubble-wall building, such practices have far from disappeared. I daresay that for a few years now there has been something of a resurgence due to the growing fashion of private ‘country resorts’ and getaway fields. Extensive roadworks many in rural areas as well as certain State-sponsored schemes to assist the agricultural sector are also characterised by trims having ‘rustic’ boundaries. Street adverts and posts on social media offer sejjieħ building serviceswith many customers engaging them after having the Planning Authority impose permit conditions to this effect.

Such a trend is of course all positive, however the overall quality of the work witnessed visà-vis local traditional techniques is generally, in a word, dubious. Quick-fit substitutes employing hollow concrete or stone block backing-walls, infilled by pouring concrete within skins and as topping are commonplace (albeit illegal in Outside Development Zones and Urban Conservation Areas). Worse still are large ‘jumbo’ concrete blocks ‘imprinted’ with random softstone rubble pieces, a favoured State technique for retaining walls along major thoroughfares and other infrastructural projects. Equally worrying are the direct imports, predominantly the Sicilian ‘ muro a secco’ which although remarkable in its dexterity and almost-perfect jointing patterns, is nothing short of alien to Maltese landscapes. Promotion of these walling services are even being published locally in Italian!

Commendable however, for instance, are the lengths of roadside walls and access to fields recently reconstructed with the aid of EU funding in Gozo in areas such as the north of Gharb and San Lawrenz utilising consistent locally-sourced, graded rocks, having profiles raked and suitably bonded at discontinuities, and of course no cheating with cementitious materials; yes, stonework in our sister isle again being of a superior and more lasting quality.

Most commonplace regrettably are ‘rustic’ walls composed of an assortment of limestone pieces brought directly from some crosscountry demolition site and assembled with whatever comes first-to-hand, often just the common kantun split in halves and quarters. The result is often an incoherent quasiamateurish mishmash, quite incongruous with most surroundings or any of the typologies of Maltese traditional dry walls, the proper sejjieħ, incidentally an appellation with enigmatic origins! Yes, typologies, because indeed there are multiple.

One of the main reasons for the concerns raised above is that even within the tiny confines of our archipelago, as encountered with other aspects of vernacular architecture, rubble walls have significant regional differences, a phenomenon which I am currently researching with the aim of flagging this intriguing, precious and, of course, highly endangered heritage asset to practitioners and authorities. The slatey walls enclosing fields in Delimara could not be more different than the more cubic xulliel type seen in San Gwann

Dry stone wall and hut in Siggiewi.

Coursed rubble wall at Villa Frere, recently restored.

or the pointed coralline grey structures at Bingemma.

Even within the tinier limits of our unfolding and edifying Villa Frere project in Pieta we have noted variants and are meticulously conserving them for posterity. Our intensive work there ultimately drove us to react immediately to the UNESCO shortcoming and nominate Malta’s dry walling heritage earlier this year. The principal reasons being the different techniques, some endemic to specific parts of the country or applied for certain types of structures only. Furthermore, one must not fail to appraise other associated stone works which include a variety of bucolic buildings, formal garden walls and notably the iconic girna; all in all a wealth of architecture (not by architects!) that dates back to time immemorial. Another category worthy of inclusion are the spurs, revetments and other battlements fabricated in dry walling such as those at Fort Manoel and Fort Chambray.

Our request is currently being processed by the Culture Directorate of the Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government, with the hope of inscription in the near future. We have emphasised that our scope is to attain international recognition for dry walling construction which is complimentary, to say the least, to our nation’s famous neolithic heritage, deserved of so much more understanding, protection and emulation. Only with wellinformed, almost scholarly appreciation of this art, and application of patience, practice and passion to restore original fabric or build anew in accordance with the ancient ways, can we hope to ensure its survival and growth, particularly at a time when our built and natural environments face increasing unprecedented degradation. n

Garden wall in Attard, close to San Anton Gardens.

Edward Said is a practicing architect specialising in historic building conservation. He is a founding member of the voluntary organisation Friends of Villa Frere which for almost ten years now has been safeguarding and rehabilitating a historic country estate dating to the early nineteenth century which includes well over an acre of formal gardens. More recently the charity is working in partnership with Heritage Malta in managing the national monument.