Nature Within the Stone Walls of Valletta

Nature Within the Stone Walls of Valletta

The first impression I had of Malta was that limestone houses seemed to have risen out of the rock that forms the island. From the airplane window, the cities looked like geometric rock formations; small mountains of different size cubes. The city walls of Valletta could be mistaken for cliffs because of their natural colour and vast size, but when coming closer, their smooth surface reveals that they are not natural yet a centuries-old human construction. During the taxi ride from the airport to our hostel, we seemed to be engulfed by the limestone colour that almost every building in Valletta is built out of. The bright sun made it the beige was even brighter and all-encompassing.

However, contrasting against the sea of beige is the intense blue colour of the water surrounding almost all of Valletta. Every time I walk out of our hostel I am amazed by the many shades of blue the sea reflects, and I wonder if I would ever be able to recreate it in some way, maybe with watercolour. Along with the blue are the lively whites, pinks and reds of the many flowers and the bright green of the trees and other plants in the city’s beautiful Upper and Lower Barrakka Gardens (Image I and II). These public parks are one of the main tourist attractions of the city and offer an amazing panoramic view of the harbour. When I think of a public park, I envision them as places where you can get away from the city, away from the stone buildings and busy streets to be in “nature” for some time. Yet, in my experience, “nature” in Valletta is very much planned and structured. The only patch of grass I discovered in Valletta was by the canons of the Saluting Battery, which people had to pay for in order to get close (can be seen in the video below). I have been made aware that grass is very difficult to maintain in the hot climate of Malta, but in the city of Victoria on Gozo, there was a small public park with green grass that many people were enjoying. The comparison shows that it would be possible to organize the public space in a different way. The gardens of Valletta had neatly maintained flowerbeds bounded by fences and the trees would be placed in a way that would not hinder the visitors on the stone paths, keeping nature and culture from mixing. These paths guide the people through the space and subtly shaping the route they take. Water fountains are centrally placed, the splattering sounds replacing the sound of the waves. From the high walls, you then look out over the harbour and the sea far away behind them. Since and Valletta is on the coast, it was surprisingly difficult to actually get to the water. When searching online for a place where we could swim in the sea by Valletta, we found this secretive place where you could slip behind the walls by walking down a staircase and get to the rocks and water beneath. It was a quiet area and there was a stone pier-like structure with a ladder to get into the sea, as the rough surface of the rocks made it dangerous to walk into the water otherwise.

As Malta is a relatively small island, my expectations were that it would be in close connection to the sea, close to nature and also make this relationship with its surrounding the main attraction for tourists. The walls and structured public spaces of Valetta contrasted these expectations. The limestone city of Valletta blends into the landscape as a manmade natural structure, but from within them, it seems that the stone also keeps nature out. While these walls have protected the city for all this time from many enemies, one could wonder what the costs were of then being secluded from all the rest as well. Nature in Malta is beautiful, but it feels that you can only experience a hint of it within Valletta by enjoying it from a distance.

Image I

Image II

Video of the "Saluting Battery" in Valletta, seen from the Upper Gardens