La «nova fabbrica» del Borgo Vilhena a Malta nel XVIII secolo

The foundation and subsequent planning of the Borgo Vilhena inside the bastioned widening of the Floriana of Malta in the eighteenth century represents one of the most important experiences of transformation of a military space to a residential building area. The new urban installation is delimited by an impressive surrounding wall and it follows the same “safety” conditions of La Valletta town, a requirement which guarantees the urban success. This project is conceived for being to all intents and purposes an extension of the densely populated and overcrowded capital city. The districts of the new Borgo are made of residential structures, all morphologically similar among each other and all subject to a bound of “precariousness” with the full awareness of the owners. In case of a Turkish siege the bound establishes the demolition and subsequent disappearance of the ruins inside the basement of the same houses in order to give back to the space of the Floriana its original military use. The events connected to the planning of the areas of the new Borgo seem to elude the traditional records of contemporary urban foundation processes taking place in other European and extra European.