Birgu and the consumption of history

Abstract

The aim of this study is to outline and explain the paradoxes that I encountered whilst I was doing my fieldwork in Birgu. These paradoxes relate first and foremost to a complex relationship between learned history and lived memory, which, as I have come to find out, are linked in the city of Birgu. Learned history has become learned memory, and the motivation for this is the removal of stigma from Birgu. Despite the fact that this negative stigma affects the entirety of Cottonera, the way in which this should be done is to promote Birgu as ‘the city of the Knights’ in order to generate tourists and turn it into a hub of entertainment and consumerism. In the meantime, the locals welcome this change and have embraced it into turning it into something of their own; we see this in the increasing grandiosity of the two religious feasts and the creation of another secular feast, the Birgu Fest. What results is the creation of Birgu as museum – a spectacle for visitors, foreign and Maltese alike.