Din l-Art Helwa said that it has filed an appeal against the Planning Authority’s recent decision to approve a major extension to the Grand Hotel Excelsior, located directly beneath some of Malta’s most significant historic fortifications. It warned that, “Malta cannot keep sacrificing its heritage for more hotel rooms.”
The approved plan authorises a new six-storey wing, adding 77 guest rooms and replacing over 1,200 square metres of existing open space.
In the view of Din l-Art Helwa, this marks yet another ”deeply troubling decision from a Planning Authority that appears increasingly unwilling to recognise that Malta’s historic environment is not a disposable asset.”
The NGO stated that the original Excelsior hotel development already left a ”conspicuous scar on the historic bastions. Rather than seeking to mitigate or soften that impact, this latest approval allows the hotel to expand further into the bastions’ setting, introducing additional bulk and development into one of Malta’s most sensitive historic landscapes.”
These very fortifications are included in Malta’s recent bid for them to be assigned UNESCO World Heritage status, a recognition that carries with it an obligation to protect, not diminish, their outstanding universal value, DLH said.
Din l-Art Helwa said it also ”strongly rejects the outdated notion that tourism success is measured solely by rising bed numbers. Malta cannot credibly pursue a quality tourism model while simultaneously permitting developments that erode the very historic and visual assets upon which that tourism depends. Our bastions are not a backdrop for development. They are the heritage that development must respect.”
Patrick Calleja, Executive President of Din l-Art Helwa, said. “there is a profound historical irony here. Din l-Art Helwa was founded more than sixty years ago out of public outrage at the desecration of these very bastions by the original Excelsior development. More than sixty years later, we now find ourselves once again defending them, this time against a further extension of the same hotel. That tells us, sadly, how little has changed and how little has been learned.”
He concluded by saying that ”together with Malta’s other NGOs, activists and citizens who refuse to remain silent, Din l-Art Helwa will continue to fulfil the role for which it was created: to stand guard over these islands and defend the heritage that belongs not only to us, but to generations yet to come.”
Photo: DLH