Focus on Great Siege Monument and explain the History.
The Great Siege Monument was sculpted by Antonio Sciortino in 1926, while he was in Rome. It was then cast in bronze using the lost-wax method, and the monument was inaugurated in Valletta on 8 May 1927. During the inauguration, Chief Justice Arturo Mercieca delivered his speech in Italian, while the priest, philosopher and poet Anastasio Cuschieri delivered a speech in Maltese, both in the presence of the British Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Thomas Alexander Vans Best. This illustrated the language question and the political tension of the time.The monument is located in Great Siege Square (Maltese: Misraħ l-Assedju l-Kbir) along Valletta's main road, Republic Street (Maltese: Triq ir-Repubblika) by the side of Saint John's Co-Cathedral. The monument originally faced Auberge d'Auvergne, which was replaced by the Courts of Justice building in the 1960s after the original building had been severely damaged in World War II.The Great Siege Monument appeared on three Maltese stamps issued in 1956, 1962 and 1972. It also featured on the Maltese 50 cent coin that was minted from 1972 until it was replaced in 1986.The monument was restored between August and September 2010. It is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.Since October 2017, the monument has been used as a makeshift memorial to journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia by members of her family and anti-government protesters. For a while the tributes were removed on a daily basis by Government employees. In 2020, a court decision found that the then Minister for Justice Owen Bonnici's orders to repeatedly clear the memorial were a violation of protestors' human rights for the freedom of expression.
Courts of Justice building Arturo Mercieca Maltese Anastasio Cuschieri Valletta Daphne Caruana Galizia 50 cent coin freedom of expression Italian Saint John's Co-Cathedral National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands Owen Bonnici Thomas Alexander Vans Best Auberge d'Auvergne lost-wax method Antonio Sciortino