The Ċentru Santu Rokku, in Valletta, boasts great historical significance and offers an important safe space to socialize for the city’s young people. The planning authority fully funded the project through its Development Planning Fund.
Ċentru Santu Rokku is a Church property (St Paul Shipwreck Collegiate Parish) located at 196, St Ursula Street, Valletta. Apart from serving as a social meeting place and hence holding an important social value, the property also holds great historical worth. In the 18th century, it was owned by one of our foundations of the ‘Soladita dei Preti’, ‘Naves’.
In the 1950s the property was passed on to the Order of the Knights of St John, to operating as a Blood Bank while also serving as their headquarters. Once the Blood Bank was moved to another location, the Order also transferred their headquarters to a new venue in the proximity of Our Lady of the Victories church. In the 1990s the parish initiated its pastoral work from this premises to serve the community of the area and its surroundings.
The property which initially belonged to a wealthy family, was built according to the traditional style of the time with a large open courtyard. A generously proportioned staircase in the yard leads to upper levels, including the sala nobile, whilst a stone spiral staircase connects the back rooms on all floors and was most likely intended for the servants of the household. It contains various alterations carried out in more recent times, including the division of the property into a number of tenements and the replacement of a wrought-iron balcony with a timber one. The façade holds certain simple architectural elements of special note, namely the mouldings around the doors and windows, the wrought iron railing of the open balcony and the balcony corbels.
One also finds a bust and a coat of arms mounted on top of the main entrance. The book and the sword depicted on the coat of arms are the common attributes of Saint Paul. A wordy inscription below the bust reads ‘FUNDATIO NIS. NAVES. 1749.’
The Restoration Project
Due to the extremely bad condition of the façade, the property required intense restoration works to the wooden apertures in particular as well as the courtyard, masonry staircase, cellar, Sala Nobile, cleaning of internal walls and ceiling.
The Planning Authority financed up to €450,000 in this project through the Development Planning Fund. The purpose of the fund is to widen its scope and therefore provide greater flexibility to projects that qualify for it. This fund assists local councils, NGOs, government agencies and any interested party to create small and large projects within a locality that can enhance the quality of life within our towns and villages.
Development Planning Fund Committee Chairperson Vincent Cassar explained that: “This project is one of the best examples of how we wish the Fund to be used for. Through this project, we have seen how this fund can serve to improve the social and community life within the locality. We know that challenges faced by youths today are large and therefore the restoration project will certainly create a safe social space for these youth.”
Currently the property hosts a number of community pastoral care and formation, namely: Faith Formation for children and adolescents; spiritual formation for women; and a youth centre ‘Teen Klabb’. The restoration project enhanced the quality of our community pastoral care, and this would not have been possible without the Development Planning Fund. Our heartfelt thanks go to all the people involved as they were very helpful in guiding us to obtain the funding.
