While surveying the area which is being proposed as an extension to the Buleben Industrial Estate, in order to document any features or buildings of cultural heritage significance, Wirt iż-Żejtun has discovered a building which is directly linked to Grand Master Perellos.
Although the building has some modern accretions, the original structure can be easily identified and still survives. Its ground floor is in the form of an “L” shape and consists of a long room roofed over with stone roof slabs (xorok tal-qasba) resting on double side corbelling (kileb). The facades of these rooms, which have a series of arched openings, overlook on what was a large courtyard.
A coat of arms of Grand Master Perellos is still preserved on site, and the current residents also indicated the place in which this was fixed, before it was removed from its place ‘for preservation’ by their ancestors.
This appears be a hunting lodge built on the land known as Il-Fewdu ta’ Buleben, which was administered by the Order. Grand Master Perellos has strong links with Żejtun, in fact he also built a town-house in Triq Santa Katarina.
What could have been another hunting lodge, which also, had the coat of arms of Grand Master Perellos, was completely demolished when a Government Housing Block was built at Buleben iż-Żgħir in 1989.
The historical building just discovered is located within the existing industrial boundary and on the periphery of the proposed extension. Wirt iż-Żejtun is referring the matter to the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Planning Authority requesting the urgent protection of this building.
We have to preserve what is left of our heritage and certainly this comes under this heading. We have so much which is unique to Malta and it is being eroded. We need to stay different to other places and not continuously destroy it and turn Malta into a very poor imitation of places which are being constructed virtually from scratch for the last 20 – 30 years.