The Manderaggio

103cm x 76cm x 27cm

National Museum of Ethnography - Inquisitor’s Palace

The site known as the Manderaggio, sitting across Manoel Island in the Marsamxett Harbour side of Valletta, was originally intended as a galley port for the Order’s navy.  In the absence of natural harbours or creeks occurring along the Sciberras peninsula, the area was to be excavated down to sea level to create an artificial basin.  Works on the site were however interrupted when the excavation hit an impenetrable rock layer.

Following the project’s abandonment, the area was quickly taken over by the destitute and transformed into an overpopulated shanty town.  By the first years of the 20th century more than 2500 persons inhabited its 2.56 acres (approximately the size of 2 football grounds and a half), most of whom were unemployed and living off criminal activities.  Owing to the area’s infamous reputation very few outsiders ventured onto its streets and visitors to the island described it as ‘the most concentrated and intense slum in the world’.  The Manderaggio’s old clustered dwellings were demolished in the 1950s as part of a housing project, and replaced by Government apartments.

This model, made by R. Calleja, is registered as an acquisition in the Museum’s Department Annual Report for the year 1947-48.