The three-fold project run by St George’s Basilica and funded through the Government’s eco-Gozo scheme is expected to be completed by the end of November, as originally planned. The project, entitled Reviving our Roots: The way forward to safeguard our heritage, was proposed to the Gozo Ministry by the Basilica’s Historical-Cultural Committee last January, and contributes towards the implementation of short-term eco-Gozo measures within an action plan for major sustainability for our tiny island between 2010 and 2012.
With the recent signing of three separate contracts with the respective companies that won the call issued last September, the project is now in the very important phase of implementation and is expected to be ready before the end of this month.
The sum of almost €30,000 for this project was officially allocated to St George’s Basilica through a grant agreement signed on the 21st of June 2011. Mr Joseph Scerri, Permanent Secretary within the Ministry for Gozo, and Mr Anthony Zammit, Director of Eco-Gozo Regional Development, signed on behalf of the Ministry, while Archpriest Mgr Pawlu Cardona and Francesco Pio Attard signed for St George’s Basilica.
The sustainable development for Gozo which the eco-Gozo measures seek to obtain is implemented through the practical recommendations which the island’s NGOs were requested to propose on various levels and areas, namely the environment, the economy, the social dimension, culture and identity. The project proposed by St George’s Basilica is subdivided in three different sections, or smaller ‘projects’ in their own right:
a) the conservation of the whole collection of parish registers of St George’s Basilica and the restoration treatments of the oldest two dating back to the early seventeenth century;
b) the acquisition of a digitisation and scanning equipment for the mentioned registers;
c) the installation of an interactive multimedia information podium.
After the application was accepted, the Historical-Cultural Committee within St George’s Basilica immediately started working on all procedures necessary for the implementation, reporting and achievement of the project. A hard-working team made of Francesco Pio Attard, Mario Casha and Antoine Vassallo, supported by other members of the committee, carried out the necessary technical studies and prepared the call for three separate quotations which was published in local media in September this year and closed eleven days later. A detailed document including specifications and other terms and conditions was also prepared as a guide to applicants.
Only three companies submitted their application, one for each call, which the parish said, made the selection process much easier. After a couple of meetings of the respective evaluation boards, the official results were published between September 27 and October 9. A letter of acceptance was immediately sent to the chosen companies by Francesco Pio Attard, the project leader. Following site visits and meetings, the official contracts of sale of goods and services were signed. Mgr Anton Borg, parish vicar, signed on behalf of St George’s Basilica, since at the time Archpriest Cardona was away in Australia.
The company entrusted with the conservation and restoration of the parish registers, which make one of the oldest collection of ecclesiastical documents on the island, is PrevArti, which has a brand new laboratory at the Mosta Technopark. Pierre Bugeja B.Cons.(Hons.) leads a team of qualified restorers who work on the conservation treatments of manuscripts, paintings and also sculptures. PrevArti’s new laboratory will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister in December 2011, and it owns some of the most modern equipment in Malta for the restoration of old artifacts. It has already carried out major restoration projects, including the disinfestation of thousands of manuscripts at the Old Notarial Archives in Valletta. In Gozo, they have just worked on a very important EU-funded project in San Lawrenz, which included the restoration of Giuseppe Calì’s collection of altarpieces in the village’s parish church.
Earlier in October, Francesco Pio Attard and Toni Farrugia, both archivists at St George’s Basilica, had the opportunity to visit PrevArti’s lab in Naxxar, and said they were able to see themselves the quality of technology that is being used in the conservation process, which promises full protection and no risk for the paper submitted to treatment. The grant of eco-Gozo funds will enable not only the whole collection of 71 volumes of registers (Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Status Animarum, and others) to be disinfested and thus prevented from further damage which came from handling and insect activity, but the oldest two registers in the collection – the Liber Matrimonorum 1620-1710 and the Liber Baptisatorum 1625-1680 – are now being carefully restored and re-bound in a style which reflects the period.
A detailed Condition Assessment Report and Treatment Proposal submitted by the restorers explains in much more detail the state of these volumes and the restoration-conservation treatments which they have been submitted to. The rest of the volumes, already disinfested, have now been placed in the parish library and archives section located on the upper floor of the parish centre, instead of being taken to their original location in the parish office where they were exposed to insect activity as well as to evident danger of theft. Once the restoration of the oldest two registers is ready, PrevArti will also present a Conservation Report which carries documentation (including photographs) of all the phases of the conservation-restoration processes before, during and after the treatment. Mr Pierre Bugeja has recently visited the parish office to make practical proposals about the long-term conservation of the documents and finalise the contract. The parish said that it hopes in the near future St George’s Basilica will get more funds to continue with the restoration of the whole collection of registers which is of inestimable value.
The second part of the project is very much related to the restoration of these volumes and the Basilica’s plan to see to their better conservation. A contract was signed last month with Vianet Systems, a company based in Guardamangia, for the supply and delivery of high-quality digitisation equipment which from next month will be the exclusive property of St George’s Basilica. This includes a digitisation workstation PC with dual monitor, an A3 scanner, a digital SLR photographic camera, a document photography tripod with integrated lighting, and an A3 inkjet printer… an equipment which made Daniel Cilia, an expert in photography, say, “You are going for an excellent set-up… I’m envious of it.” The company will also provide on-site training to the volunteers at St George’s Basilica.
With the new equipment located at the parish archives, close enough to where the registers themselves are being preserved, the hundreds of pages of these volumes will be gradually and carefully photographed or scanned by the trained volunteers, so that finally there will be a digital version of all the registers. This will mean saving the old manuscripts from being exposed to harmful handling, since researchers will from now on refer to a digital rendition of the documents on a computer screen. A strong storage system together with a dual monitor will make this research easy and fast. St George’s Basilica will also be able to offer digitisation services to other entities that might need it in the future.
Exalta AV Ltd will be responsible for the final part of the project, the supply of an interactive multimedia information podium which is planned to be installed just in front of St George’s Basilica. Designed to fit a space of 65cm width and 26cm depth within the façade of the basilica, the podium will contain a touch screen, a speaker and headphone jack and will also be connected to the internet. The included software will enable the visitor to learn more about the various areas of the basilica through photography, audio narration in six languages and text. The project foresees as well the development of a new section of the parish website which will enable tourists and visitors to learn more about St George’s Basilica and its artistic treasures through a virtual tour.
The new podium will provide the necessary information to tourists who would like to know more, but arrive to visit in the quieter times when the doors to the Basilica are closed, as well as to those who want to have a short and very general introduction about the basilica. The committee’s experts are currently working on the content of the podium, and they said that thanks to the services of architect Saviour Micallef, they will make sure that all relevant permits are provided. Recently MEPA has scheduled St George’s Basilica, together with many other old parish churches in Malta and Gozo, as a Grade 1 physical structure.
A banner attached to the façade of the parish centre tells onlookers and those who pass by that St George’s Basilica is currently running this interesting cultural and historical project, Reviving our Roots, and that it is being funded by eco-Gozo.
Those who wish to learn more may contact the Parish Office on info@sangorg.org [1]. The Minister for Gozo, Giovanna Debono, is expected to visit St George’s Basilica to see the project site in the coming weeks.