Valletta Soup Kitchen wins European Citizen’s Prize

Our warmest congratulations go out to Father Marcellino, as well as to the team of devoted volunteers and sponsors, whose collective efforts have played an instrumental role in bringing this wonderful project to its successful fruition.
– Anuschka von der Heyden

Valletta Soup Kitchen wins European Citizen’s Prize

‘Let’s all spread goodness through simple acts of service and open hearts’: soup kitchen director

The Valletta Soup Kitchen has been awarded the European Citizen’s Prize, an annual prize awarded to projects that make outstanding contributions to the promotion of common values and fundamental rights.

The Soup Kitchen, which is run by the Franciscan Friars, offers meals, bathroom facilities and access to healthcare and social workers to materially deprived people.

The prize is awarded by the European Parliament every year, to an individual or entity in each EU member state. Malta’s winner in 2022 was The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation.

Accepting the prize in a ceremony on Friday, Soup Kitchen director Fr Marcellino Micallef said that the project acts as a safe harbour where those in need can find an ear that listens and an open heart.

“Every day we meet our brothers who have their good and bad qualities, as we all do, and more importantly we strive to form a personal relationship with every single one of them,” Micallef said.

“We try to achieve this by giving these people a voice, hearing their stories, learning from their experiences, understanding their needs, becoming their friends and receiving the mysterious wisdom that God wished to impart through them.”

Micallef said that all in society should strive to “spread goodness” through acts of service and do their best to keep their arms open for those struggling to keep their heads above the water.

He also thanked the “army” of volunteers who show up daily to make the soup kitchen a reality as well as the benefactors who make running the project possible.

The soup kitchen, Micallef continued, is home to people of all beliefs and also those with no beliefs, because compassion for humanity transcends differences.

“The number of people in our society who discard the poor is not little,” Micallef said.

“Every day you hear stories of people who ended up without a roof over their head and are living on the streets, sleeping in their cars or squatting in some abandoned place.”

“The only thing that these people need is love and care. I wish for everyone to have a proper roof over their heads, the hundreds who sleep outdoors and the thousands who are living in a garage. Till yesterday I was still dreaming, but today the dream is slowly becoming a reality.”

PN MEP David Casa, who nominated the project for the prize, congratulated the Soup Kitchen on their win.

“I congratulate Fr Marcellino for the well-deserved recognition of his efforts during these past challenging years. Through his work, the Soup Kitchen upheld the dignity of those who found themselves in a vulnerable situation when they had nowhere else to turn,” Casa said.

However, Casa continued, the fact that the safety net of the Soup Kitchen has become a societal need is a clear sign of policy failure.

“Nobody should need to rely on soup kitchens to feed their children,” he said.

“Poverty needs to be addressed effectively, and the need for soup kitchens is a sign that the system has failed.”

While noting the need to enact policy with a much stronger social conscience, Casa commended Fr Marcellino for ensuring that “indifference did not trump solidarity”.

Source: Times of Malta

Watch: A luxury Vittoriosa hotel with a ghost story to tell

Palazzo Bettina was home to a murder mystery legend. Now it’s a hotel

Tucked away in the central courtyard of a newly restored palazzo in Vittoriosa is a small archway that was once the opening into an old baker’s oven and the source of a ghostly legend.

For centuries, locals passed down the story of a young boy, the son of a wealthy baron, who they say was killed in the early 1700s by greedy relatives for his inheritance and pushed into the oven.

Many have, over the years, told and retold ghost stories about the building, which spent decades in a state of abandonment.

Now, the palazzo has been painstakingly restored into a four-star luxury boutique hotel, Palazzo Bettina, which forms part of the IBB Hotel collection.

The building has a rich history. It was owned and lived in by a lady-in-waiting to the queen of Naples before it became a convent, a British military hospital and a property used by Malta’s first saint Dun Ġorġ Preca.

A murder mystery

But as tourist guide Mario Cacciottolo of Dark Malta Tours explains, it is perhaps best known among locals for the legend of the young boy.

“The story goes that there was a baron, Joseph Gauci from Mdina, and he had a son who was his only heir. His relatives lived in the palazzo and they knew they would be next in line with the boy gone.

“They invite the boy to spend the weekend at their home. The boy goes. On arrival, he ties his donkey in the Vittoriosa square, goes to St Lawrence church and prays and goes to the palazzo,” Cacciottolo recounts.

But the weekend passed and the boy never returned home, as planned. The baron sent his servants to check and the family informed them the boy had not arrived. The area was searched. The donkey was found still tied in the square. But the boy was never found.

“Furious and heartbroken, the baron accuses the relatives of getting rid of the boy and cuts them out of his inheritance and leaves the building to the Church,” Cacciottolo says.

The story is a popular one on his dark history walking tours of Vittoriosa.

The last person to live there

But for Lawrence Zammit, the building is much more than a historic palazzo with fascinating stories to tell.

One of the rooms, located on the ground floor near the palazzo’s original main entrance, on St George’s Street, was once part of the 78-year-old’s childhood home.

“Our door was number 4. Now there is no number 4 any longer. The door has been turned into a window to a guest room,” says Zammit as he steps into that room for the first time since his family moved out in the 1980s.

“The ceiling is as I remember it,” he says walking towards a window, accompanied by his wife Anna. “This is where I used to study and sleep. I remember seeing the sea reflecting on the ceiling. It was like a waterfall.”

He also remembers hearing stories of ghosts.

“But I never heard or saw anything. I was not scared of ghosts. I was scared that part of the ceiling would fall onto me. I think my family was too noisy to hear ghosts. We probably scared them,” he jokes.

He lived there with his parents and five siblings from the mid-1940s – just after the war – until he was 28 years old and married Anna. His family stayed there until the 1980s. “I think we were the last family to leave,” he says.

After that the building was abandoned. But the locals kept its stories alive through word of mouth.

A beautiful businesswoman

The palazzo is named after Elizabeth Dorell, known as Lady Bettina, who moved into the building after the events of the fabled murder mystery.

A part of high society and lady-in-waiting to the queen of Naples, the beautiful businesswoman owned properties in Gudja and Valletta.

“Legend has it that when Napoleon was in Malta, he courted Bettina,” says Cacciottolo. She was also famous for being the aunt of Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata, one of the most famous Maltese cardinals.

Following her death, in 1829 the palazzo was given as a convent to St Emily de Vialar.

In 1832 she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition and she settled there before the mid-1800s. It is said the nuns left because of the sounds they heard at night.

Sometime later, the building was used as a British Military Hospital.

“One night there was a Scottish soldier in a state of shock on the floor. When he was asked what had happened, he said: ‘I saw a boy climbing out of the oven’,” Cacciottolo says.

The legend was born.

Later, Dun Ġorġ Preca, a Maltese Catholic who was canonised as Malta’s first saint in 2007, made use of the property. It served as one of the seats for the Society of Christian Doctrine, which he founded.

Just before World War II, the building was split into tenements and was damaged during the war, which is how Lawrence remembered it as a boy. Now he is glad to see it restored to the state it is in today. “They did a great job,” he says.

A new life

In 2017 the building was bought by the Sormani family, who have extensive experience in recovering and renovating ancient buildings to return them to their original splendor.

The family bought a crumbling building: with collapsed balconies, broken doors and windows and unsafe ceilings – and brought it back to life.

The result of the investment can be seen in the complete renovation of the building, transformed into a luxury boutique hotel including a rooftop pool overlooking the marina and St Lawrence’s church next door.

Palazzo Bettina is the eighth hotel in the IBB Hotel Collection portfolio, which operates several hotels in Poland and Germany, and the Gran Macina Malta in Senglea. When the hotel opened a few weeks ago, many curious locals turned up to have a look inside the building, says front office agent Charlie Gelaesen.

“It is a small hotel with 13 rooms which allows us to offer a tailored service to guests. Of course, we skip room 13. During the renovation the point was to respect the building and its history – this is one of the values of the company,” she says.

In fact, its extensive history is included on the website of Palazzo Bettina – the backdrop to a legendary murder mystery, the home to an extravagant businesswoman, a place that hosted nuns, wartime casualties, Malta’s first saint…. and now hotel guests.

Source: Times of Malta

Von der Heyden Group pushes for sustainable solutions in hospitality and construction

The Group targets a 40% reduction in emissions in its hospitality operations by 2030.

“With real estate and development being key areas of business for our Group, the pressure on companies like ours in the context of the European Green Deal, evidently, has become higher and from our end, there will be no corner-cutting,” says Anuschka Von Der Heyden, Head of Sustainability at Von Der Heyden Group.

Founded in Germany in 1989 by Sven von der Heyden as a high-quality niche player in the European real estate market and based in Malta for the past ten years, the Group today has operations in real estate investments, development, hospitality, and catering in around 20 cities across Europe.

The Group is currently engaged with the fourth development phase of its Anders Square project in the city of Poznań in Poland, a 26-storey A-class office tower which is expected to be completed by 2026.

The company has just published its latest ESG report, with which it aims to position itself as one of the first Malta-based firms to share extensive details on its efforts to reach EU-wide sustainability targets.

“In our latest report, we outline how the Group aims to reduce emissions in its hospitality operations by 40% by 2030,” states Ms Von der Heyden.

She explains how since its inception, the Group always sought to uphold the highest standards in investments and operations, especially in terms of its social and governance commitments.

“Amid unprecedented global carbon emissions, it is crucial for all stakeholders involved to reduce their carbon footprints and this principle remains central to our commitment to sustainability,” she added.

For the first time, data released by Von der Heyden Group not only relates to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, which essentially consist of the firms’ direct and indirect activity, but also shared details of Scope 3 emissions which cover the activity across its value chain, including its hospitality suppliers.

“Reporting about Scope 3 was crucial not only because it prompted us to engage with our suppliers and stakeholders but it has fostered better relationships and improved processes upstream and downstream. In turn, this has also helped us create shared value through collaboration and enhanced our environmental efficiency,” explained Ms Von der Heyden.

Sustainability and Construction

And while construction and sustainability rarely feature hand in hand in Maltese discourse, Ms Von der Heyden is keen to highlight how things can be done differently in a way that also yields financial benefits.

“The company has for several years focused on developing A class LEED certification compliant buildings and our ambition is to take this way of doing things into the future with all our new developments. In fact, all our Anders Square project developments have been built using the most modern energy-efficient solutions, long before certification in this area became a standard.”

“We did this because we truly wanted to create places that take care of the well-being of their users and are sustainable for the environment and the local community. Malta too, would do well to seek these high international standards to upgrade its unique proposition, especially in terms of its tourism industry,” added Anuschka Von der Heyden, while highlighting how such practices are increasingly sought after by large institutional investors when selecting assets to invest in.

Von der Heyden Group’s AND2 building in Poznań features some of the latest and most innovative sustainable solutions, including environmental quality, location, water efficiency, energy and atmospheric use, as well as materials and resources.

In addition, consideration is being given to the inclusivity and accessibility of spaces according to universal design principles and the impact on surrounding areas.

“We are well aware of our obligations towards the community hosting our projects, and in addition to modern office spaces designed to reflect social trends and the evolving needs of the workforce, each property also includes areas accessible to the wider community. For example, the AND2 building will feature a modern medical facility and a private kindergarten with a public gym for children,” notes Ms Von der Heyden.

Is it always a question of money?

“Our ESG considerations are factored in from the moment we start thinking about a new development project. More investors are increasingly looking to invest in energy-efficient buildings and projects with sustainability certifications and as a result, the Group will keep setting aside budgets to make its projects more water and energy-efficient and when feasible, to purchase on-site renewable energy sources,” she adds.

Reducing energy consumption is being targeted also in the company’s hospitality business the firm is intent on achieving its targets in this regard too.

“This is not just about direct costs but about attracting the conscientious guest who cares about the environment and society and who seeks entertainment and leisure destinations that actively lessen their negative impact on the community around us.”

This approach is now also central to the Group’s future strategy for its IBB Hotel & Cugó Gran Hotel Collections which already operate two in Malta, IBB Hotel Palazzo Bettina and the Cugó Gran Macina, with a third one opening soon.

And despite its plans for the eventual addition of new properties which will potentially raise total emissions, the company has presented a plan to reduce the overall carbon footprint per square metre which will require the Group to invest in higher quality, more eco-friendly buildings and spaces.

According to Anuschka von der Heyden, the company’s ESG report outlined how its hospitality operations will see the biggest effort to improve sustainability.

“This is why it is important to have reliable data at hand. We know that hospitality is one of our most carbon-intensive activities, so we are putting an extra effort to find solutions and implement measures to reduce our carbon footprint on that front.”

“We have made sustainability one of Cugó Gran Hotel Collection’s key pillars because the Group’s future lies in sustainable luxury tourism,” she concluded.

Source: The Malta Independent

Von der Heyden Group pushes for sustainable solutions in hospitality and construction

The Group targets a 40% reduction in emissions in its hospitality operations by 2030.

“With real estate and development being key areas of business for our Group, the pressure on companies like ours in the context of the European Green Deal, evidently, has become higher and from our end, there will be no corner-cutting,” says ANUSCHKA VON DER HEYDEN, Head of Sustainability at Von Der Heyden Group.