Appreciating fortified cities : an educational perspective

One element in the heritage around us is constituted by the numerous sites which evoke life from long ago. One such heritage site is the fortified city. In the Maltese Islands, although not so numerous, such fortified cities do exist, and these offer much opportunity for the young and not so young to learn about a particular type of past. In modern times these heritage sites still offer snapshots of days gone and, though contemporary elements have now become an integral part of their historical texture, they are still important centres for the transmission of historical, social, architectural, and cultural education to both students and tourists who visit them.peer-reviewe

Before the birth of real popular education in British Colonial Malta (1800-1836)

Before Britain took over the Maltese Islands, the latter did not have any real school structure. Even with the arrival ofthe British in 1800, little changed for the first three decades. Malta had only some private schools. which were run by afewforeign and local teachers, and a number ofnormal schools run as semi-charitable institutions. Gozo fared even worse. The local Roman Catholic Church did not help much to promote education along this period and the colollial government did not show any particular verve towards the opening of schools for the populace. Things only began to change when (j Royal Commission visited Malta in 1836.peer-reviewe

Politics, religion and education in nineteenth century Malta

Malta became a British colony in 1800 and its function was that of a fortress within an imperial network. This influenced all that happened in the colony along the nineteenth century. Not least affected was the sphere of education where a main feature of Anglicisation was the forceful attempt to change Malta’s everyday school language from Italian to English. This was no easy task as the Maltese pro-Italian party, the Nationalists, made every effort to impede and overturn any such British attempt. To add to the tension, the British were religiously Protestant and this clashed with the sentiments of the predominantly Roman Catholic native population. Thus the vigilant Catholic Church viewed with suspicion all that was attempted in education by the colonial Government. There was a continuous concern that the British would use schools to convert the Maltese to Protestantism. In such an atmosphere life in schools was by no means easygoing. Teachers bore the brunt of contrasts and concerns without having the space to show their distress.peer-reviewe

The life of a rural village - Mosta : pastoral visits, plague, and the erection of a new parish (1575-1619)

It was an unexceptional reality in Malta of the Hospitallers, for the bishops and the grandmasters to be on what may at best be termed as ‘less than amicable relations’. The relationship between Bishop Martin Royas de Portalrubio and Grandmaster Jean l’Evesque de la Cassiere was no exception. During the first decades of the Order’s rule, the bishop in Malta also acted as inquisitor on the island. Then, following the term of Domenico Cubelles (1562-65), after a lapse of eight years during which the islands first experienced a months-long ruthless Ottoman siege, dubbed as the Great Siege of 1565, and then entered the building spree which was to see the birth of a new fortified city named Valletta, a new inquisitor was appointed. Thus Royas, Bishop of Malta, took up the episcopal position which he would occupy between 1572 and 1577.peer-reviewe

Malta: a differentiated approach to the pilgrim-tourist dichotomy

Tourism is today considered to be a main player in most countries of the world. A particular sector of tourism, pilgrimage and faith-based tourism, has proven to be crises-resistant. The synergy of this sector is a mixture of religious sentiments, demands and motivations and on the other hand there is the rationality of the tourism infrastructure. This paper argues that the islands of the present republic of Malta have been a pilgrims’ destination from Neolithic times to the present. The islands’ rich cultural, religious and historic fabric offers Roman Catholics, Protestants and participants of the New Religious Movements an opportunity to experience religious or spiritual fulfilment within the spaces and sites. The discussion about the tourist-pilgrim dichotomy in the context of Malta provides room for extended value and range of this dichotomy in view of the register and diversity of the participants and the intensity and range of their experiences and fulfilment

Post-Pilgrimage: Beyond secularisation

This paper proposes to introduce the term ‘post-pilgrimage’ as a key concept to the theory of pilgrimage applied to the Western Christian point of view. Tourism and pilgrimage have been joined to the hip since Palaeolithic times and have since then dynamically developed. And since we apparently live in a post-modern world, in which ‘post-tourism’ and ‘post-secularism’ are well-known models in the theoretical field of tourism research, the idea of ‘post-pilgrimage’ is perhaps overdue

Sustainable tourism management – a collection of studies from Malta, Lebanon and Jordan

HELAND is a European framework project aiming to promote socio-economic sustainable development through innovative technological actions for Mediterranean tourism-heritage and landscapes protection clusters.peer-reviewe

The Maltese teacher corps : from humble beginnings to unionisation – some observations

The teacher corps in Malta has originated from very humble beginnings. In fact one cannot speak of a corps before the British period and even then, it is only from the late 1830s that the semblance of a formal teacher body can somehow be discerned. Yet, as time elapsed and teachers became more and more aware of their particular position, the situation began to gradually evolve. This process finally resulted in the setting up of the Malta Union of Teachers (M.U.T.) in the early years of the twentieth century. Teachers in Malta could now speak of one unified body as the M.U.T. gave the teaching corps protection, identity and the necessary focus for the corps’ consolidation and professionalisationpeer-reviewe

Maltese heroism as depicted in literature on the Great Siege of Malta of 1565

Going through the literature on the Great Siege of 1565 one comes across many Maltese, participants in this important event, in the annals of this small Mediterranean archipelago. Some of these inhabitants are identified by name, but other individuals and groups are faceless and anonymous. Yet, known or unknown, i~ is stated all along the passages of the Christian literature of this eventful siege, that these Maltese formed the backbone of resistance to the Muslim invader. Being the most numerous, single group on the Island, it is no wonder that they made up quite an important element in the defence of Malta. The existing literature recounting the siege is charged . with the high respect paid to these Maltese inhabitants and their deeds and actions as supporters and faithful subjects of the Order of St John. Analysing the comments and observations in the pro-Christian, pro-Order; literature, one needs to put such high regard within the framework of the patriotic vein in which such episodes were written.peer-reviewe