Heritage Malta will host a public lecture by architect Mirco Azzopardi titled Saints, Fireworks and Urban Development: Malta’s Ongoing Negotiations – Jeremy Boissevain’s Malta Revisited through Contemporary Urban Transformation on September 25 at 7pm at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Vittoriosa.
The lecture revisits the work of anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain, who in the 1960s highlighted Kirkop’s church, piazza and winding streets as central to cultural identity and social life – a delicate interplay of compromise and negotiation.
Azzopardi will explore how these dynamics persist today, as Malta’s village cores navigate the tensions between heritage preservation and modern development, identity and speculation and tradition versus contemporary demands.
Linking to the current exhibition A Legacy of an Anthropologist – The Jeremy Fergus Boissevain Archive at the Inquisitor’s Palace, the lecture invites architects, anthropologists and the public to consider how urban planning shapes Malta’s cultural, social and political landscapes.
Admission to the event is free, though pre-booking is required through Heritage Malta’s online store or at any Heritage Malta museum or site.