The Hulda Festival: a ship on a journey of science & art

First, there’s the boat – the MS Hulda, built in 1905. And then aboard it is a travelling exhibition of scientific sculptures by the Turkish-Swedish artist Ilhan Koman (1921 – 1986). The Hulda is now birthed at Grand Harbour Marina, Birgu (3 – 13 July) as part of the Malta Arts Festival. And it’s running some some great, hands-on workshops for kids, for free. But what is Hulda all about and why is it in Malta?

What is Hulda?
The Hulda Festival features events celebrating the meeting of arts and sciences around Hulda and Koman. The Festival kicked off in March 2009 and will draw to a close in November 2010, by which time the Festival aboard ship will have visited Stockholm, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bordeaux, Lisbon, Barcelona, Naples, Malta, Thessalonica and Istanbul. The festival benefits from the active partnership of some of the most prestigious art or science institutions based in these 10 cities.

Ilhan Koman’s creativity combined arts with sciences, make him a representative of a universal approach that descends from Leonardo da Vinci. For the Hulda Festival, Koman’s artworks embark aboard Hulda, the boat that was his residence and workshop. Visitors are welcome to play with the artists’ most interesting pieces to get feel for their scientific properties and artistic qualities.

Workshops for Children
In parallel, ten different workshops have been conceptualised for children by a local organisation in each of the Hulda’s pit stops. The workshops bring artistic and scientific disciplines together to make them more interesting and playful through topics such as “Sculpture & Aerodynamics”, “Creating the Nautical Charts of the Middle-Ages” and “Art and Alternative Energies”. In Malta, the Art and Science Youth workshops are organised by Il-Kunsill Malti għax-Xjenza u t-Teknoloġija (Malta Council for Science and Technology) : 3 – 13 July 2010 – Hulda Tent.

Booking & Info
Workshops will be open to a maximum of 25-30 children each session. You will need to pre-book. For more information please contact Martina Castillo at martina.castillo@gov.mt or give her a call on 23602122.

Background on the Hulda Festival project, which ends in Istanbul to celebrate its year as a European City of Culture.

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Fort St Angelo - its valiant defence of Malta the reason Birgu is called Citta' Vittoriosa

Birgu to the Maltese, and Vittoriosa to others; to my mind the most beautiful and perfectly preserved of the Three Cities which front Grand Harbour. The city was built by the Knights of St John on a peninsula, with proud Fort St Angelo at its tip, during the early- to mid-Sixteenth Century. After the Great Siege (1565) and the building of Valletta (from 1566 onwards) Birgu’s importance diminished and the Knights moved over the water to take up residence in their new purpose-built fortress city defended by huge bastions and star-shaped Fort St Elmo.

Birgu’s ancient auberges and gracious houses stood largely unchanged until the Second World War when the relentless bombing by the Luftwaffe of the Allied Fleet moored in Dockyard Creek did huge damage to this lovely old city. The tall clock tower that once stood in the main square was hit; the Auberge of Italy was flattened and many other buildings were swept away by the air raids of 1942.

So what is left to see of the city that the Knights of St John built?

The massive bastions and ditches which surround the city remain intact and in the quiet streets of the Colacchio where the Knights lived, you are surrounded by buildings representing several hundred years of architectural history.

In Hilda Tabone Street which leads off the main square there are the Auberges of Provence, Auvergne, France and Aragon (the palaces that quartered the various langues of the Knights). These narrow streets are slowly being restored and the ugly metal-framed windows which destroy the symmetry and proportions of the buildings removed.

Some buildings have been restored and used for the good of the community. For example, the Auberge of England is now the public library. The Inquisitor’s Palace is also open to the public. There is the Maritime Museum in the old Bakery on the Waterfront and exhibitions about the Knights. You can visit also the tunnels and shelters near the Main Gate which were dug during the Second World War and are now open to visitors. The museum there recalls the hardships suffered by residents of the Three Cities during the Malta Blitz.

Post-War neglect of the area and the Maltese prejudice against the Three Cities and their inhabitants means that only recently have the beautiful houses been restored and converted.

Birgu Council is encouraging the inhabitants to be proud of their city and organises many cultural activities to draw visitors to the area. Events such as Birgufest, including an evening of Birgu by Candlelight, and the Feasts of St Lawrence and St Dominic attract as many Maltese residents as tourists and allow people to enjoy the feast for the senses that Birgu offers.

It is pleasure to see that every street and alley is decorated by shrubs and flowers in pots and, amazingly, no one steals them as they might in another locality. It adds to the pleasant ambience as you wander the narrow streets. Cafes and restaurants in the main square, on the Waterfront and in quiet shadowy streets encourage one to linger and savour the atmosphere of this historic city. Spend time watching the small ferry boats (dhajjes) departing for their tours of Grand Harbour or ferrying people across to Valletta, and enjoy a coffee by the marina as you gaze across to Senglea or Kalkara on the other side. A timeless view of tranquility.

Photo: courtesy of Leslie Vella

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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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