The practise of fixing placards to masonry structures using steel nails – a method widely used in Malta – is destructive and causes irreversible damage to the building fabric, as well as having indisputable aesthetic impacts, especially problematic with culturally significant heritage buildings. With a superficial area of circa 316 km2 , Malta and its dependencies represent the smallest EU Member State and, at the same time, the nation state with the highest density of designated World Heritage sites. Its capital, Valletta, was also listed by UNESCO in its entirety as a World Heritage Site in 1980 [1]. It is one of the most concentrated heritage areas on the globe – 320 cultural monuments within an area of 55 ha.peer-reviewe
