Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1523510
12 maltatoday | THURSDAY • 3 JULY 2024 NEWS MATTHEW FARRUGIA mfarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt Manikata chapel to be surrounded by apartment blocks on both sides F Solution to last week's crossword The answers to today's crossword will be published in next week's Midweek edition Weather Partly cloudy Visibility Good Wind Northwest force 5 to 6 backing West Northwest force 6 to 7. Overnight becoming force 5 to 6 Sea Rough, locally very rough at times TOMORROW Crossword WEATHER SUNNY 29 0 / 32 0 TODAY SUNNY 26 / 20 0 FEELS LIKE 32 FEELS LIKE 29 0 ACROSS 1) Get the opinions of others 5) Act the mother hen 9) Briquets, post-barbecue 14) Tenor's standout perfor- mance 15) South Seas land? 16) Reside 17) Cousin of Sven? 18) Close by 19) O'Gill in a Disney movie title 20) Light-haired one 23) Prepare a gift for presenta- tion 24) Cartridge contents 25) Pago Pago denizen 28) "The Lord of the Rings" creatures 30) Blubber 33) Like pieces in need of assembly 34) Chinese nanny 35) Plumlike gin flavoring 36) Popular apple 39) Fine follower 40) Absolutely first-rate 41) What spin doctors spin 42) D and C, in D.C. 43) Sound from an angry cat 44) Conjures up 45) Ending to some Web addresses 46) Three monkeys' subject 47) Bling component, some- times 54) Show-stopping place? 55) Too dry for growth 56) Pledge of Allegiance, e.g. 57) "Peter, Peter, pumpkin ___" 58) Event ending "Chariots of Fire" 59) Number dialed before 1-1 60) Disgusting 61) Old "Heck!" 62) Interpret a barcode DOWN 1) Insect's sense organ 2) One type of college exam 3) Old Milan money 4) "Famous" sentences 5) ___ haddie (smoked had- dock) 6) Deplete 7) Four-RBI hit 8) Particular Slav 9) Accessories 10) Ritzy 11) Elephant group 12) Dresden's waterway 13) Covert 21) Not at all happy 22) Chinese fruit (var.) 25) Long, heroic tales 26) Toward the left, when floating 27) Ice cream shop orders 28) Harbingers 29) Breathing abnormality 30) Dagger's go-with 31) Cheek reddener 32) Affirmative responses 34) Commotions 35) Dollars, in old slang 37) Easy to deceive 38) Word with "pride" or "duty" 43) Levitates 44) Gave the slip 45) Pastes 46) "All My Children" character 47) Char, as a steak 48) "___ the wild blue yonder" 49) Order to a chef, sometimes 50) Speak arrogantly 51) Worldly rather than spiritual 52) Peak in Sicily 53) Not now 54) Act the couch potato (with "out") THE Manikata chapel which has been dwarfed by an apartment block and was the source of out- rage in 2022 will now be surround- ed by apartment blocks on both sides. A planning application shows that the applicant, Alex Tanti, is planning, "internal alterations to existing building, retaining exist- ing facade; and construction of ground floor garage and maison- ette, six apartments and two over- lying penthouses." Nationalist MP Ivan Castillo took to Facebook on Tuesday as he blasted government for failing to learn from the public outrage seen a few years ago. "This church has just been restored and what's going to happen will be the equiva- lent of it being brought down." Castillo said that he will present a parliamentary petition so that he could, "stop this madness." In 2022, MaltaToday had report- ed that, the Curia had had dropped its earlier objections to the devel- opment following "an understand- ing" reached with the developer. In fact in 2018, an architect rep- resenting the Curia had warned that the new building will "over- power" and "engulf" the chapel and the open space around it. The architect had also described the design as being "blank and dull." However, the case officer report referred to a second letter from the Archdiocese of Malta stating that following changes to plans "it finds no objections to the current proposal." Similarly, the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had origi- nally expressed concern on the demolition of vernacular struc- tures on the site and the "ex- tensive development abutting a significant chapel, which would have a negative impact on views of the chapel and may cause ma- terial damage." But after analysing a 3-D image of the proposal which was never published on the PA's public in- formation system, the SCH gave its go-ahead, after concluding that the proposed development will in- tegrate the facade of the old build- ing, while the proposed volumes were "terraced so as to mitigate visual impact on the chapel". Photo: Ivan Castillo