Criteria to Develop the Historical Centre of Malta, Open Air Museum

The paper shows the results achieved during a research developed during the Community Program called INTERREG IIIA ITALIA-MALTA (2004-2006) - METIC – Mediterranean Trading and Innovation Centre. The research has been organized around the theme of a new kind of tourism were the tourists wont to become part of the daily life of the places they visit, and want their journey to be an occasion of knowledge of new place, new culture but, in particular, of the common life of the local people. Malta and its Historical centre have a tourist vocation, this aspect is very important to put in action new development strategies to recover a Mediterranean landscape destined to a slow decay. Malta is one of the strategic island of the Mediterranean Basin: the characteristics of the historical centres of Malta called Cottonera have induced us to develop a recovery methodology called “Open Air Museum” for the existing urban structure. Therefore the Cottonera area needs the exploitations of its symbolic connotative characteristics that are essentially: - the close contact with the sea; - the wide and articulated presence of integrated fortifications in the urban structure; - the persistence of a good minor house building structure; - the morphological places; - the presence of historical buildings; - an interwoven and diversified whole of urban environments with vernacular characteristic; - the presence of a native culture conditioned by the influence of different domination ands so representative of the southern Mediterranean. This elements are a presupposition to develop the planning of “open air” museum that doesn't constitute only a net between points and buildings important only for their history but a space continuous of stimulating occasions that can be valorized in two directions: 1) for the tourist, involving the visitor for permanence time longer than the time employed for the visit of a specific interest point. Recent developments in tourism seek to integrate the social life of the place, in order to better understand the local culture and tradition. 2) Rebalancing the urban quality of the people that live there, through services development bringing improvements in social, cultural and economic growth of the local community. The search has been developed according to the followings points: - Definition of the concept of “open air” museum as methodology to recover the building patrimony; - Analysis of similar urban recovery examples; - Synthesis of the historical stories that characterized the urban system of the Cottonera and have determined the actual condition of the area; - Individualization of guide lines for a “open air museum”; - Individualization of possible economic development. At the end, this planning could stimulate a process of conservation and maintenance of the historical and cultural patrimony and bring over a new economic development.