In this blog I will write about Birgu’s central square, Il-Pjazza tal-Belt Vittoriosa, also colloquially known as Victory Square.
In most Maltese cities and villages the pjazza is the location of the parish church. In Birgu, however, the parish church is located a few hundred metres away, overlooking the waterfront, prompting author Lino Bugeja to describe the actual pjazza as ‘not so much a city square as a state of mind’ (Vittoriosa, An Ancient City of Culture, 2014, p8).
The Birgu pjazza has seen more than its fair share of history. Public executions, including one burning at the stake, took place in the pjazza. During the Great Siege of 1565, soldiers would muster at the base of a watch tower there. When Napoleon drove out the Knights of Saint John in 1798, the French military leaders used the pjazza to officially declare their take-over of the island. (This was done on the feast day of Saint Lawrence, presumably as an anti-Catholic statement from the Napoleonic regime.). Later, celebrations marking Malta’s achievement of limited self-government in 1921 were held in the Birgu pjazza.
The area that hosted all these historical events was much smaller than the current pjazza. Photos of the earlier layout can be found in the book Birgu Then and Now, written by George Agius and published by Birgu Local Council in 2022. Bombing during World War Two destroyed many of the buildings around the original pjazza and left the city with a larger open space. For decades it was somewhat neglected as efforts to restore the city to its former glory were focused on other parts of the locality. More recently, however, work has been done to create a more vibrant space, largely pedestrianised and with more seating and planting, to designs by studjurban architects (https://www.studjurban.com/portfolio/anewheart/).
Below, I explore some of the features, old and new, that can now be found in the Pjazza.
In the South-East corner is the imposing statue of Saint Lawrence. Lawrence was born in the region that later became Aragon in southern Spain, and his following in Malta began in 1283 at the start of the Aragonese occupation. The Aragonese built a parish church which they dedicated to Saint Lawrence, and accordingly he is now the patron saint of Birgu. I will write more about him in the next blog.
The statue was erected in 1880, outside Palazzo Huesca, which is now the home of Is-Soċjetà Mużikali San Lawrenz, the Saint Lawrence Band Club. At the time, it would have been more central in the much smaller pjazza, but now it stands in the corner, overlooking everything.
Down the gentle incline to the South-West corner is the Statue of Victory. The figure is a personification of Victory herself, carrying a short sword. It was erected in 1705 by the Knights of Saint John in collaboration with the Università or town council, to commemorate the victory in the Great Siege of 1565 ( see and earlier post ), by the Knights of Saint John in collaboration with the Università or town council. In more recent years it has formed the centrepiece of ceremonies to celebrate Victory Day and Birgu Day on 7 September each year.
Around the statue are railings with an interesting feature. The top of the railings features Christian crosses. Around the bottom are crescents, a symbol for Islam. Overall, the design is a visualisation of Christian Europe’s triumph over the Muslim Ottomans during the Great Siege.
From the statue you can see the entrance into the precincts of the Saint Lawrence Church, where you can find the Saint Joseph Oratory (originally built in 1832 by the confraternity of Carpenters and now housing a History Museum), and the Oratory of the Holy Crucifix (which mostly acts as a store for statues used in processions through Lent up to Easter).
In the North-East corner, high on the wall, is a niċċa or niche containing a crucifix. Those who were condemned to be executed in the pjazza by the Knights or the Inquisition would stop to pray here in front of the crucifix before they were put to death.
Other things worth a mention are features of the modern design of the restored pjazza. In the North-West corner, just outside the shop Franka Lira, is a strange design of tiles which doesn’t match the tiles in the main body of the pjazza.
In fact this design reflects ruts and other features that were found underneath the original tarmac when it was dug up. (Photo of the works by Christian Raggio Vella – thank you).
A second feature picked out on the floor of the pjazza is the outline of the old Birgu clock tower. Originally a watch tower, it was built in the 1540s and gave the pjazza an earlier name: Il-Pjazza tat-Torri or The Square of the Tower. It was forty metres high, with five floors and a balcony on the fourth, giving a good view of the surrounding sea as well as the Birgu land front. Grand Master de Valette famously used it to keep an eye on his enemies during the Great Siege.
The main alarm bell in the tower was cast in 1504 and had that date engraved onto it. A second bell was added in 1629 when a clock was installed. The clock was visible from two sides of the tower. Sadly this major landmark was destroyed by bombing in April 1942 and the decision not to rebuild it was taken to allow the pjazza to be extended to its current size and shape.
Also in the floor of the pjazza are long red lines which mark the original entrances to the collachio, the warren of narrow streets behind the pjazza where the knights were originally quartered in their auberges. One passes to the left of Palazzo Huesca, by the site of the old Auberge of Allemagne, which was destroyed during World War Two. Here was an old entrance to the collachio that is now blocked by modern housing. At this point is a large granite bollard, one of many that formerly marked the boundaries of the collachio.
Finally, underneath the pjazza is a cistern, a reservoir for collecting rainwater. It was built in the 17th century, using the barrel vault system that the knights used to build their warehouses. Being seventeen metres long and eleven metres wide with a height of approximately two stories, it can hold about a million litres of water. (Photo credit Steven Mallia).
In fact, the cistern under the pjazza forms part of a network of at least twelve reservoirs in Birgu that you can explore on a one hour walking tour through the app found here: https://alteraqua.stqry.app
The new pjazza was reopened about two months ago by the Mayor and other dignitaries and is once again the central point of the city for locals and tourists alike.