Malta - a story
painted in stone
For over 7,000 years, Malta has been a crossroads of civilisations. Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Knights of St John, the British. Each era left its mark in the limestone streets, baroque churches, and painted wooden balconies.
Cynthia's paintings are acts of preservation - a record of Mediterranean life, of feasts and fishing boats, of an island that survived everything and remained, impossibly, beautiful.
Older than Stonehenge. Malta's first civilisation carved its story in limestone that still stands.
The Knights of St John built Valletta - a fortress city that became one of Europe's most beautiful capitals.
Malta held under the heaviest WWII bombing. Awarded the George Cross. The Opera House fell silent.
In the festa fireworks, the painted balconies, the golden lamplight - Malta endures and shines.
The Royal Opera House
1866 - 1942
Bombed April 7, 1942Designed by Edward Middleton Barry - architect of London's Royal Opera House - this was one of the finest theatres in the Mediterranean. Families gathered on its steps on warm Valletta evenings.
On April 7th 1942, a German bomb reduced it to rubble. Cynthia paints it as it was: alive, luminous, a world before the bomb fell.
