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This blog is dedicated to Malta - my island home. My aim is not to bore you with history but to share my thoughts and a few facts together with a photo or two. For a more in -depth background of the island please go here. The purpose of this blog is not to point out the short-comings of the island. There are plenty that do that already. My wish is to show you the beauty of an island at the cross roads of the Mediterranean, a melting pot of history; a place where fact and fiction are sometimes fused to create unique myths and legends; a country that has been conquered so many times that our culture is a mish mesh of the lands that surround us and of lands far away. I confess that my greatest desire is to make you fall in love with this tiny enchanting island.

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Wednesday 13 January 2010

Valletta in Sepia (2) – Abandoned and Derelict

This is a house in Merchants’ Street. It has been abandoned and forgotten as have many beautiful buildings in Valletta. Many of these houses are huge and cost a fortune to maintain. Not many people can afford to live on such a grand scale any more. So most  of these houses, or perhaps I should say mansions, now rot away slowly before our eyes. Shops have been opened on the ground floor of many of them but it seems that the upper storeys are left to fall into disrepair. It is a shame because these stately houses boast of some very beautiful Baroque architecture. My hope is that one day private or public funds will be donated to restore these buildings to their former glory. Meanwhile, I will continue to gaze in awe at their crumbling facades and imagine them as they used to be whilst freezing them forever in this moment in time with my camera.

Christmas Decorations 039 Christmas Decorations 038

9 comments:

  1. Sepia sure suits this abandoned mansion well. All those lovely architectural details on the outside make me curious about what the interior looks like.

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  2. The buildings look amazing in sepia! Detail architecture showing through!

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  3. I wish I had the money to restore a place like that and make it my home! It is so sad that so many places now have gotten to this same state of disrepair.

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  4. These are lovely in sepia. Would have been interesting to see them in their time of glory and what activities would have been taking place.

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  5. We have the same here in Brussels. Now the city tries to restore and sell them as appartments.

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  6. Catching up on your pics, they are gorgeous. I do enjoy visiting.

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  7. I so agree, it is really a shame, there is so much potential in that city, it could be so very beautiful if only it was cared for as the historic city it is. Of course I do like the rustic warn look but it is sad to see so many houses crumbling down from neglect.

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  8. Some of the beautiful houses in the main shopping street of Antwerp are in the same state. This post also reminded me of Lisboa, I saw it there too. We have our cameras to preserve some of that grandeur, other than that there is not much we can do I'm afraid! * sigh*

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