Gruelling stuff eating satchel. Rather him than me!

The Maritime Museum in Birgu is holding a ‘Life at Sea’ themed event all day this Sunday, 31 January. This is definitely one for the kids on what looks like being a showery weekend.

If my seven-year-old is anything to go by, a lot of children in Malta are fascinated by the islands’ maritime history especially the legends of Babary pirates and Corsairs. Not to mention the galleons of the Knights, who washed up here after floating around homeless in the Mediterranean for a few years. Then there are Lord Nelson and the British Navy’s Mediterranean fleet, which was to go on to use Malta as a strategic naval base for almost two centuries. Trade, piracy and war dominate throughout the centuries – and the latter two tend to grab kids’ attention.

The day covers the 16th – 19th centuries, so the colourful eras when life at sea was hardship, weevils, stew made from cooked leather satchels and two or more to a very small bunk. Apparently, the day is focusing on ‘food and beverages consumed at the time’, but let’s hope we don’t get the Real McCoy served up!

The Museum
I’ve always felt the Maritime Museum in Birgu to be one of the best suited to adult and kids’ excursion. Located in the old British naval bakery and right by the creeks and docks of Grand Habour, it is a wonderful location to visit in itself.

The museum’s vast, well-laid out collection ranges over three floors. It takes you from the time of the Phoenicians to the end of the British naval bases in Malta. Its permanent collection doesn’t have hands-on kids’ activities as such, but it does have a lot to feast your eyes on – amazing model boats, a mock-up of a typical, harbour-side bar that British sailors would have used, uniforms, memorabilia, letters from kings, queens and Admirals, medals and a huge engine room devoted to the Anadrian, a steam-driven grab dredger built in 1951 for Malta by a Glaswegian firm. If visiting kids are reading age, then they’ll enjoy deciphering scrawled handwriting of official letters and documents, and peering at fading photos.

The Life at Sea Event includes:
Firing of cannon and muskets, and military drills.
The opportunity to eat typical Maltese food associated with life at sea and cooked as documented in recipes at the time.
Screening of footage of underwater wrecks
The chance to chat with Malta’s Maritime Squadron
Restoration in action – seeing maintenance works on an old boat.
Boat-model building demonstrations
Face painting so children to look like Corsairs!

Info:
Date: Sunday 31st January
Venue: Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa
Time: 09.00am and 5.00pm.
Tickets can be bought on site at the price of €5.00 for adults, €3.00 for senior citizens and students. The reduced rate of €2.00 applies for Heritage Malta members, AFM employees, members of The Friends of the Maritime Museum and Dockyard workers. Entrance will be free for children under 16.

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Of shadows and light; evoking past and present

Last Friday, I was enjoying a rare evening of solitude. My wife was abroad at a conference, my daughter was out with friends and I had just dropped off my son in Sliema for his weekly Boy Scouts reunion. That gave me a solid three hours of being on my own and the dilemma of what to do with the time.

I settled on visiting Vittoriosa, the town where my paternal grandmother used to live and where I can recollect countless moments of joy and nostalgia from my childhood. Armed with my trusted Leica, I drove there and parked my car behind the Maritime Museum.

It was already dark when I got there, but the place was well lit. It was early enough for some shops to still be open and for some, but not too many, people to still be doing their rounds.

I walked up the steps to the left of St Lawrence’s church, past the chapels and the church buildings and found myself at the corner of the square. It was then that 35-year-old memories started to flood my thoughts. I was back in the mid 1970s; a ten year old visiting my Nanna Karmena and all the ghosts from that past suddenly swam into my conscience.

Very few of the places and shops I remembered survive today, although the buildings are still the same. In one corner I saw the shop that used to house Sophie’s Bazaar, a small establishment which virtually stocked everything you cared to buy. Opposite Sophie’s an old door stands guard over where Pawlu’s first butcher shop once stood. Pawlu, my father’s cousin, eventually expanded the business and moved to a bigger shop, now a wine bar, at the other end of the square. Mifsud’s Garage, the chauffeur driven service Ta’ Billurasu still advertises its services but the shop itself now sells household goods.

Moving on, I climbed the hill towards St Dominic’s. Many of the little shops of my childhood are now wine-bars, and Sur Tonin’s old Pharmacy has been redone. The Inquisitor’s Palace, abandoned, dark and scary in my childhood is now refurbished and a fully functional museum. My favourite pasturi shop, where little clay figurines of saints and religious figure were occasionally purchased, is now a confectionery.

I climbed down again, through the side streets. I walked past a garage: a third of a century ago it was Nini’s grocery, where I would be sent on minor errands to buy 50gms of ham, a bottle of milk, a smear of kunserva on some wax-paper. I walked down the hill to the Maritime Museum. Zahra’s barber shop used to be there, and, at the foot of the hill, the Rose, Shamrock, Thistle Bar, overflowing with British sailors. All are gone now and only the ghosts in my mind remain.

I walked to the seafront, past my late Nanna’s flat. The yachts have replaced the British Navy and instead of the foreign sailors Ix-Xatt now attracts other outsiders: Maltese who barely knew the place existed before it became fashionable.

Vittoriosa has changed, mostly for the better. It is now more organised, cleaner, beautiful, and prouder perhaps. It is better known and popular. Formerly part of the impenetrable south, it is now a landmark. This is in no small way due to its people, proud of their little city as they are.

As I walked the little streets, with their flower pots and their period light fittings, I could not but reminisce of when it was cruder but more real. And somehow, I prefer that blemished past to the present. Strange thing, nostalgia.

Related articles: see also Birgu Festival

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Wine bar in eroding Fort. Birgu reborn in the 21st century.

It’s that time of year for festivals. Last weekend was Valletta’s show with its Notte Bianca; this weekend we cross Grand Harbour for the Birgu Festival (Vittoriosa) which runs 9-11 October. Autumn is for festivals what summer is for festas. Yes, there’s a difference – in brief, festas are religious in origin; festivals are more about pageantry and celebrating a locality’s uniqueness, be it in history, crafts, food, traditions or whatever.

The BirguFest isn’t something just dreamed up. It’s a fixed event now, having been around on and off since 1990. For those interested in a blow-by-blow account of how it became one of Malta’s best loved, most attended and colourful festivals, there’s a full history of it on the Birgu Local Council website. So, we’ll keep the background short…

Why the BirguFest?

To quote the local council, “BirguFest is an extravaganza highlighting Birgu’s glorious past and celebrating Malta’s oldest maritime city”. Today, people have a far better understanding of the importance of Birgu in Malta’s history – its landmark, Fort St Angelo, saw off the Saracen’s Great Siege of Malta in 1565. But, until the early ’90s, most of the Three Cities area, including Birgu, was somewhat in the doldrums; run-down, neglected, off the tourist trail and associated with industrial Malta (dockyards). The Birgu festival was born in part from the need to focus attention on the area’s amazing wealth of heritage and to heighten awareness of what the city has to offer locals and visitors. And it has done just that, most successfully; thanks also to an energetic Birgu mayor.

Highlights of BirguFest 2009

The programme is extensive with open-air events, historical reenactments, street theatre, concerts (everything from choral to traditional and ethnic-inspired music), state museums and palaces open to the public beyond regular hours, and historical street scenes replete with hawkers of traditional Maltese foods.

Each day’s programme starts between 09.00 – 09.30 and runs till the early hours. Given the expected crowds, official parking is being organised (so follow the signs – see the Birgu Council website for info). There is lot to entertain families, with kids no doubt appreciating the reenactments that include scenes from the time of the Great Siege, such as life in the Dominican Priory, the Turks discussing battle plans, and the reaction of poor, local folk to impending invasion!

Don’t miss!

Tribali – Malta’s anarchic, ethnically-inspired band has a huge following, so don’t miss this last chance to see them in 2009. The concert is at the Birgu Bastions in Couvre Portre, which will be candlelit for the occasion. Doors open at 7pm and tickets are 12 Euros (in advance), 17 Euros at the door and 25 Euros for VIP tickets which include an after part at D Centre in Birgu. Tickets on sale at all Puma shops or D’Centre in Birgu, or see: www.jaggedhouse.com. For more information call ticket hotline 99017470 or email: dcentrebirgu@gmail.com.

‘Birgu by Candlelight’, on Saturday 10th, 18.30 onwards, promises to be a magical and atmospheric event. Streets are lit as they would have been before electric lights, thanks to Vittoriosa residents doing their bit and positioning candles and lanterns everywhere they can.

The Jackson Pipe Band, from 19.30 on Saturday in various streets. The Jackson family band plays traditional Maltese instruments including a kind of bagpipe. There is a remarkable story behind this family group.

Info

Full programme and background, see: http://www.birgu.gov.mt

Photo: Andrew Galea Debono

Postscript: Birgu or Vittoriosa? Birgu is the local name for the city which the knights named Citta’ Vittoriosa after its role in the victorious defeat of the Saracens at the 1565 Great Siege.

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