PA approves boutique hotel just 13 metres from Rabat catacombs

The Planning Authority has approved a new 10-room boutique hotel just 13 metres from the protected St Paul’s Catacombs, in Rabat, despite calls for the locality to be afforded the same level of protection as neighbouring Mdina.
The project, anonymously approved by the Planning Commission, will see the conversion of a restaurant into a hotel, with the addition of floors overlooking Wignacourt Museum.
Through application PA0167/20, Michael Mizzi will convert Grapes Restaurant, in Triq il-Katakombi, into a boutique hotel, with several internal alterations and an extension by joining two buildings.
The original proposal was for the hotel to have 19 suites but has since been downsized to 11 suites and further to 10 rooms just before approval.
The site is located in Rabat’s urban conservation area and within the area of archaeological importance of Rabat and Mdina.
It abuts a scheduled area and is just a few metres away from St Paul’s Catacombs, scheduled as Class A.

The site consists of a building now used as a restaurant, an adjoining building of vernacular value that appears dilapidated and a third building further up the street.
The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage did not...