maltese architecture

8/10/2019 Maltese Architecture

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Maltese Houses of Character

Most of these houses are now also being restored or refurbished in away that the alterations being carried out are compatible with the original

plan. I therefore would like to make some references to some of themost common features which gave these houses their true identity as ahouse of character. So let me go back to my childhood days. And thefirst thing that comes to memory is the general view from outside, thehouse faade.

The faade (Il-Faata)

This is not a one size fits all thing. One may encounter hundreds ofdifferent faades, however I am going to restrict myself only to themost common characteristics which one would encounter inhouses of the Maltese upper middle-classes, such as those built toaccommodate a lawyer, notary, priest or a business man.

The first thing that catches the eye on looking at a house, is themain door. This main door was always manufactured in twoseparate parts in a way that each part would open by turningtowards the inside on its hinges, and is closed shut, by the righthand side overlapping a little on the left side on its rabbet (batten).

The material used was always thick red-deal wood (injam tal-amar)and the door was artistically manufactured with panels(panewwijiet)and plinths (zokklatura)and more often than not w itha weather board (parakkwa), at its lower part. On its reverse sideone would note its solidity as it was always manufacturesd withcrossed timbers (traverse). These doors were always seen paintedin green, blue, brown etc.

On each part of the main door there would be a handle in the form

of a knocker (abbata) or a rounded knob (pum). These handleswere generally made of brass, iron, or when in the form of a knob,these would be earthenware (aqquf).

On the right hand side of the door one would find the key-hole(serratura) complete with its key-plate (skudett). This key-plate wasmade of either brass or iron. When made of iron it was alwayspainted black.

From the inside one would see the door lock. This lock was manuallymanufactured by local blacksmiths and therefore, it was quite large


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when compared with todays modern locks. A glance at one of the keysused at the time would be enough to understand the size of the locks.These type of keys (in Maltese called muftie) nowadays are being usedas a decoration on shelving or a side table, or as a paper-weight on

desks.

The main doors when closed shut during the night, had two door bolts(firrolli)on each side. Those on top would be pushed further up and thebolts would pass through an iron ring fixed onto the door posts (aisa).While those below would be pushed down and go into a hole especiallyprovided in the floor. Besides all this, behind each side of the door aniron bar (stanga)of about two centimetres in diamater was then placedforming a right angle at the corner, between the door-way side walls andthe door itself. These iron bars were secured in iron rings (oloq)especially prepared on the door and on the side walls.

On the outside of the door jamb (koxxa tal-bieb)or right in the middle ofthe door lintel (blata tal-bieb) the house number was usually fixed. Onthe right hand side jamb, a chain leading to the door bell was also seensuspended. This when pulled from the outside would rock the bell, fixedon the inside of the house, causing it to ring and the caller at the doorwould soon be noticed. This type of manual door bells have almostvanished completely.

Main door jamb (Koxox tal-bieb)architecture

The main door jamb differed considerably between one and the other intheir architectural and intrinsic work. Some are rather plain, a simplestone-frame jutting out from the rest of the faade by approximately twoand a half centimetres, all around the door. Others are elaboratelyconstructed and their architecture is delicate and often forms part of the

above corbels (saljaturi) supporting the balcony. Other door jambs haveside columns (kolonni)on plinths (zokklatura). One needs only go for awalk around the streets of Malta, with eyes wide open, to appreciate thewealth of these various types of artistic main doors.

Balconies (Gallariji)

Balconies are another of the artistic treasures which abounds in Malta.One has to see for himself to really understand the richness and artistryof the numerous balconies found in Malta. In fact I am not going to

mention the intrinsic work found in the various types of balconies but, Iwill just mention the most common categories. So I start with the main


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central balcony built on top of the main door. This could be a stoneopen-balcony with balustrades or other artistic stone shapes. Theseopen stone-balconies are the eldest type one could find. Of a later dateone could find an open balcony but with iron railings. The door which

leads to these balconies is always found in a recessed alcove. Most ofthese central balconies are of a rectangular or semi-circular base.

More common and of a more recent date, are the wooden enclosedbalconies. These also have a recessed alcove around the door leadingto the balcony. And if one takes a good look he would notice that theupper arched part of this alcove is never enclosed, but is left as afanlight (rewwiea)above the roof of the balcony. This could be openedor closed for fresh air, or it could be used to carry out maintenance workon the roof of the balcony. These closed wooden balconies were in their

majority of a rectangular shape. Although one cannot exclude tomention that other rounded shapes exist. They have the upper part withframed panes that could open on its top hinges and held in an openslanting position on two hooks (ganetti), one on each side of the pane.On top of these panes, other smaller ones are found but these arepermanently fixed. The lower part of the balcony is always closed withpanelled wood. On the top of the wooden-balcony-roof a layer ofapproximately seven centimetres thickness of sand and cement mixturewas applied. On this balcony roof, a small water spout (miieb) was

formed from this cement mixture to enable the rain water to escape on tothe street below. Later on, a corrugated metal plate (Pjana immewa)was also fixed on top of all, for double protection from rain water.

The timber used for balconies was the red-deal, and this afterwards waspainted in a colour matching the main door and the other windows onthe faade.

Let me go back to the house faade. Here, it was very common to findtwo windows, one on each side of the main door. Sometimes one would

find houses with two ore more windows on each side of the main door,but I would say that a window on each side is the most frequently seen.Other instances existed where instead of a window on each side onewould find a secondary door on each side. No matter whether thesewere side windows or side doors they always had louvers (persjani), andthese were always made to open on to the street. In fact, faades usedto have a kind of an adjustable hook so that the louvers were secured ona windy day. From the inside of the window, on the inner side of the sill,one would also find another window with three or four framed panes on

each side and a wooden shutter attached to it on side hinges (portelli).Both the louvers and the inside windows were secured by specially


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made bolts. These bolts, in Maltese spnajuletti, are fast disappearingto make way for more modern fittings.

So on each side of the main door, on the ground floor, one would usuallyfind a window or a side-door. In like manner, on the first floor, one wouldfind a similar window or door on each side of the central balcony. Theside doors on the first floor, of course, were always made to open on toa small open balcony.

In front of the main door one could also find an iron gate (grada),approximately a metre and a half high. This was generally alwayspainted either white or black. The threshold (l-gatba)was, more oftenthan not, made of local first class hard stone (ebel tal-qawwi).However, sometimes it was also made of cement or mosaic or marble.

Houses which were built elevated from street level, besides thethreshold had two or three steps in front of the main door. Such housesusually had a basement (kantina) underneath the house.

I am referring to the most common characteristics found in Maltesehouses, however, I must mention that quite a number of houses had aniche on the faade or if it were a corner house this niche would befound decorating the corner. These niches were always constructedapproximately one storey high or sometimes even higher, above streetlevel. These niches were embellished with a stone statue of a particularsaint or of Our Lady, inside them.

The glazed door (antiporta)

Behind the main-door one would find a glazed door generally within awooden frame, called an antiporta. This door was always fixed at adistance, enough to allow the main door to open on the inside of thehouse; unlike any other window or side door, as these were alwaysmade to open onto the outside.

Behind the panes of the antiporta a lace curtain was always foundhanging. This while decorating the inside glazed door also allowed thelight to pass through it, however, it would prevent any passer-by fromlooking inside the house.

This glazed door (antiporta) was very popular, because at a time whenthe means of transport was almost inexistent, people were confined tostay at home and old people especially, used to spend most of their timebehind these glass doors looking on to the street, in winter. While in

summer, they would sit for hours between the opened main door and theglazed door to enjoy the evening breeze, when or if there was one.


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The Yard (Il-Bita)

In the yard one would usually find the well which until just before thesecond World War was the main source of providing the necessarywater to the household. The top part of a well was always foundsurrounded by a huge stone, in Maltese known as the era. This wasmade from one large stone and had a hole in its middle so that the pailcould pass through it. This stone was placed on the top of the wellmouth to prevent people from falling in. The outside of this stoneappeared in various forms, circular, rectangular or very often, in the formof a wide balustrade. When attached to a wall, this well-stone, wasusually found with an arched recess behind it. Inside its arched top, awrought-iron artistically designed hook was attached to the wall andprotruded outwards. On to this hook a pulley was then suspended to

that the pail could easily be raised and lowered down the well whendrawing water. When the well was detached from the wall, the stonearound it usually had two square pillars built one on each side, on whicha lintel (blata) was then placed. In such cases the pulley was thensuspended from an iron ring fixed to this lintel.

The well (Bir) or the underground cistern (iebja)

Underneath the yard and sometimes even under part of the house itselfone would find the well or an undergrouns cistern. Both these two waterreservoirs used to be dug out manually in the rocks. The well wasalways bell-shaped with its mouth in the top narrow part. The watercistern was usually bigger and although it was also manually dug out inthe rocks, its roof was constructed with stone slabs resting on archesand not on wooden beams. Moreover, the sides and bottom of both welland cistern used to be plastered with a mixture of cement and sand inorder to make them impermeable (ibbattmati).

Rain water and ground-pottery (deffun) roof sur faces

The rain water stored in these water reservoirs was the main source ofdrinking water at the time. The water catchment area originated fromthe roof of the house. These roofs were made of stone slabs resting onwooden beams, or in earlier built houses, on stone arches and thencovered by about twenty centimetres of soft stone chippings mixed withfine material and lime (torba)and then on top of this, they used to lay afinal surface to the roofs by using ground-pottery mixed with a littlecement (deffun).


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All this was manually laid and then pressed by beating with a woodenblock, semi-circle above and flat below, (in Maltese marzebba). Thisroof-surface beating was always carried out by women. There weregangs of women who undertook this work and these were known as the

beaters (in Maltese il-ballata). It is said that these used to folk sing onthe roofs while carrying their daily toil.

While this surface was being done, special attention was given to bring aslant on to one side (pendil) leading to an earthen drainpipe (katusa) laidon the side of the yard. The bottom part of this pipe found in the yardbelow had at its end a hollowed square stone with three holes. The firsttwo, one on top and the other one below it, were a continuation of thepipe which led straight into the well. The third hole was on one side sothat when the well was full of water the bottom hole was capped and the

water would turn out from the side hole and into the yard, from where, itwould flow out into the street through the storm water pipe.

A structure for the conveyance of rain water (sieqja)

Cisterns found in gardens usually had a hole outside in the streetunderneath the garden wall which led into a water culvert and ranstraight to the cistern. In fact, it was very common during the rainyseason, some years back, to find a folded potato-sack or two held inplace with small stone slabs used as weights and placed next to theseholes to catch the rain water from the street and direct it into the well.

The staircase (It-tara)

There exist varous kinds of staircases. The oldest type found are thosewhich were constructed between two walls and had two flights running inthe opposite direction and meeting halfway in a common landing (pjankomuni). The inner wall dividing the flights of stps usually had adecorative opening, like a window, sometimes even with balustrades.

The outer wall when common with the yard had large windows lookingon to the yard.

The winding stairs (Tara tar-ra or Tara la Inglia)

This geometrical stairs in Maltese is also known as an English stylestaircase. The name speaks for itself and it clearly shows that this typewas introduced after 1800 when Malta passed under British rule. This isa very attractive staircase and each stone step (skaluna) is overlappinga little on each other lengthwise and is wedged in ( ingulmati) on the side

that touches the wall. Each of the steps are slightly wider on the sidetouching the wall and this enables it to wind up gracefully as it goes up


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at a right-angle corner. On the outside of the staircase an artisticallywrought iron railing (adid tat-tara) is then fitted to serve as a hand rail(poaman) and to offer protection. Each of these steps was alwayshand chiselled (minurin) out of Maltese limestone. When ready the

staircase would be painted with linseed oil (ejt tal-kittien) to prevent itfrom absorbing dirt and for easy washing.

The stairs carpet (Tapit tat-Tara)

During my childhood days it was very much in fashion to lay a carpetalong each flight of steps. This carpen ran down right in the middlealong each step and covered only the middle, or one third of each step.The sides of each step, therefore, were always painted white. Thecarpen was held in place because, on every riser just were it meets the

tread (mal-waqfa tal-iskaluna), a brass ring (annella tar-ramm)was fixedon each side of the carpen wherein a brass rod (virga tar-ramm) wasthen put through them so as to press the carpet down and hold it firm.

The spiral staircase (garigor)

Another common type of stairs was the spiral staircase. I do notremember ever seeing it as the main stairs in a house. It usually was asecondary flight at the back of the house. Houses with basementssometimes had such stairs starting from the basement and going

straight up to the roof, with an exit on each floor.

The basement (kantina)

The basement used to be roofed by stone slabs (xorok) resting onarches (nejjiet)and not on wooden beams (travi tal-injam). The reasonfor this was because the basement was always very humid; even thoughan air passage from the basement and leading into the street wasalways found. This air passage, or ventilator, was then covered withthick iron grating (sprall). Houses with high roofed basements going upto half a metre above street level had these ventilators in the form of asmall window very low to the ground and secured with iron gratings.Such houses would have two or three steps in front of their main door.

The room at the end of the stairs leading to the roof (tromba tal-bejt)

At times this was not even a room but the upper walls of the stairsadjoining or leading up to the roof and with a door at its end. In such

cases its roof showed the same slant as that of the stairs underneath.


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The height legally allowed four such structures was, not to exceed eightcourses (filati).

The parapet wall on the roof (opramorta)

This parapet on the roof ran along the perimeter of the house. The outerpart of it, which ran along the faade of the house, usually had a largestone (Il-ebla tal-bandiera)in its middle so that a flagpole could be fixedon to it. This large stone used to be sculptured on the outside to show,either the date when the house completed its construction, or the familyemblem, or both date and emblem.

Very high storeys (Sulari goljin)

A look from up the roof (bejt) of one of these houses of character on tothe street below will reveal that the storeys were very high, aroundtwenty courses or more, when compared to our present 11 or 12courses. The older the building the higher the storey. The rooms wereroofed with stone slabs resting on wooden beams or in older houses onewould find one-cane-stone-slabs (xorok tal-qasba) resting on corbels(kilep). One cane was a Maltese measurement equivalent to 2.096metres in length and known as qasba (meaning cane).

The corbels embellished the room as it projected out just under the

ceiling and therefore looked like a frame going around the room andsupporting the roof structure.

Flagstones (angatura)

The rooms were all paved with limestone (tal-franka)flagstones. Theseonce laid were all painted with linseed oil so as to prevent them fromeasily getting dirty. Later on, coloured cement tiles were introduced andgradually everybody was changing to this modern and more practicalway of paving. These standard, eight inches by eight inches tiles, were

elegantly designed in a way that the room would look as if it werecarpeted.

Thick Walls (itan tad-dobblu)

The walls were very thick, in Maltese these are called itan tad-dobblumeaning, doubled walls, however these were much more than doubled.Today they still use the doubled wall especially when building the housefaade, but this means that they build an inner wall and an other one,

with nine inches wide stone slabs (nagen)

. However, at the time whentehse houses of characters were built, a dabouled wall meant a


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thickeness of about four feet (equivalent to approximately one hundredand twenty centimetres). This was so, as between the outer wall and aninner one, a gap of about seventy or eighty centimetres was left. The inbetween was then filled with a mixture of soil and fragments of stone

(torba jew mramma). The thickness of these walls rendered the houseas strong as a fortress and together with the height of the ceiling of eachroom these walls proved to be a very good insulation against the wintercold and summer heat.

White Washing (Tibjid)

At a time when plastic emulsions were unknown, white washing ofrooms was the order of the various colours. The ceilings were alwayswhite washed with white lime, but the walls were washed in various

colours. The colour was made by fist kneading a heap of lime into thickpaste and then a small portion of it was separated and added colouredpowder to it (in Maltese known as terratombra) which was available invarious strong colours. This coloured portion was again kneaded untilthe colour was thoroughly mixed. This mixture would be of a deepcolour as afterwards it had to be mixed again with the whole limemixture. The white washer had enough experience to determine theright amounts of colour needed to obtain a certain delicate colour, aswhite washing always fades in colour when it totally dries.

The brush used for white washing (known then as il-broxk tat-tibjid) wasalso very different from these we know today. The wooden handle wasvery long, about thirty centimetres, and its bristles resembled more thatof an ordinary broom than those of a paint-brush. All in all, it was verydifficult to white wash a room unless you were indeed skillful, and this,not only because of these queer brushes but more so, as the roomswere almost artistically finished.

Whitewashing of rooms

The ceiling, as already mentioned above, was always painted(whitewashed) white. This white colour of the ceiling used to continuealso as a border (burdura) on the top part of the walls, immediatelybelow the ceiling to a height equivalent to the thickness of the hangingwooden beams. Further down this border by about seven centimetres,another border of approximately seven centimetres thickness, was againpainted. And further down by yet another seven centimetres below thissecond border a third border was generally the same as the colour used

for the dado (zukklatura). The dado was always the last four feet or soabove the floor and this was always made of a deeper colour from the


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rest of the walls. If the walls were painted pale green the dado would bepainted in a dark green shade, if the wall was painted pale yellow thedado would be of a brownish colour, etc. Above the dado, two otherborders as those found under the white of the ceiling were again

painted. The rest of the room would be the main colour and this, asalready referred to, would be a rather pale colour.

One could easily understand that whitewashing a room needed a skilledhand and plenty of work, therefore the dado served a dual purpose; itembellished the room and, since the lower part of the wall was the moreliable to be scratched, therefore, from time to time one had only torepaint the dado and save all the hassle to white wash the whole room.

Here I want to make a special reference to the house faade and

mention that on the outside only the first storey of the house was to befound white washed. The top part of the house was always leftunpainted, hence, the stone would by time be weathered and take eithera red-brownish colour when facing the sun, or greyish black if the houseis facing North.

Pictures, Pelmets and curtains (Inkwadri, sopraporti u purtieri)

It was also very much in fashion, until just after the Second World War,to hang lots of pictures/paintings on the walls around each room. Most

of these were of a religious nature, however, they made the rooms lookwarm and elegant, more so, as the rooms used to have also pelmets(sopraporti) and curtains at every window and door; and since thesewere all very high, to accompany the high ceilings, the drapery lookedeven better.

Holes under every window sill

Underneath every window from inside the house, two, two cm. thickchannels were cut in the wall, starting from each side of the window silland running down at about 45 degrees to meet a hole right in the centre.This hole penetrated from the inside to the outside. The purpose for thiswas so that any rain water which could seep inside the window couldfind its way out through this hole.

Thick, wooden doors in between each room

The walls separating each room used to be also, double walls, and as ifthis were not enough, each room had a thick wooden door solidly

manufactured with panels and crossed timber at the back of it. Thesedoors used to be made in two parts, the right hand side, the left hand


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side. When shut these were secured by door bolts and also locked by alock and key. These locks had a latch and during the night when thedoor was locked it was the habit to insert a wooden wedge in betweenits spring. This wooden wedge (feles tal-injam)would be found, when

not in use, hanging on a string nailed at the back of the door itself.These inside doors used to open on to the thickness of the walls andtherefore would not be in the way.

The thickness of these inside walls was also ideal, to construct built incupboards (armarju). In fact one would find a cupboard or two of thesebuilt-in cupboards almost in every room. Some were small others wereas big as the size of a large door. In the thickness of the wall, in thedoorway leading from one room to the other, it was very common to finda recess which served as a place where to put the earthen ware lamp or

a paraffin lamp.

Very old houses

The oldest houses were those which, as I already explained, had theirstaircase built in between two walls, a basement and very often a spiralstaircase at the back of the house. They also had open balconies madeof stone and sometimes a niche with a statue on the faade of thehouse. Others even had, next to their main door, a stone jutting out ofthe faade with a hole that goes through it. This was intended so thatthe owners of the house could tie up their horses, while they go insidethe house. Another feature, which today has become very rare to beseen, was a three-step stone structure constructed alongside the housefaade. This was used to make it easy for a horse rider when climbingup on horseback, or to enable a lady or an elderly person to ride on ahorse drawn carriage.

The servants quarters

Some of these old and rather big houses used to have also the servantsquarters. These quarters were generally found on the first stairs landingbetween the two flights. Here one could find a door leading to a very lowroom or rooms where the servants used to live. These rooms wereliterally squeezed between the ground floor and the first floor. The firstfloor upstairs was always used by the owner of the house and his family.Some of these houses even had a coach house on the ground floor.These type of houses are usually found around the cities of Mdina,Vittoriosa and Valletta.

Large Stone-stove (Fuklar tal-ebel)


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Very old houses also had its large stone stove fixed to the walls inthe corner of the kitchen. This looked like a rectangular workingbench with a top area of approximately one metre long by seventycentimetres wide. It had holes on its side from where the logs and

other timber were fed when building a fire. On its flat top therewere other holes on which the pots were placed while cooking. Ontop of all this stood a hood connected to stone chimney whichenabled the smoke to be extracted outside the house. This hoodwas also made of stone and it covered the whole stove areastarting from just above head level and receding s lowly until i t metthe ventilation opening in the ceiling and went up straight to theroof. I have my doubts whether any of thiese stone made stovessurvived into this century.

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