# Festaval Hotel Mellieha

The Festaval Hotel in Mellieha is a former aparthotel in Malta on Marfa Ridge beneath the Saint Agatha's Tower. It is sometimes wrongly referred to as Festival Hotel. The site also lies on the border of the Natura 2000 nature preserve which is located south of it.

## History
### Design

Commissioned in the late 1970s, the aparthotel was designed by Richard England. It featured 31 self-catering apartments terraced into the hillside, with each rooftop serving as the terrace for the unit above. This was based on Richard England's 1985 philosophy, joint between building and site. He drew inspiration for the aparthotel from Malta's drystone wall. The triangular layout follows the land's natural contours, while a clubhouse and pool at the summit offered panoramic views of the Mellieha bay and Ghadira nature reserve.

### Structural Challenges and Abandonment

Construction halted in the early 1980s when the hillside began subsiding, destabilizing the foundation before the hotel opened. Geological surveys at the time reportedly underestimated the slopes' instability, a miscalculation that rendered the structure unsafe. By 1993, AX Holdings submitted plans to refurbish the site, but these were withdrawn amid growing environmental awareness. The building’s rapid decline into a derelict state prompted the Planning Authority (PA) to issue enforcement notices against Mizzi Estates, the current owners, for “causing injury to amenity” through neglect.

### Protected Status and Regulatory Shifts

The site’s ecological significance gained formal recognition in 2006 when the Maltese government designated it a Level 1 Site of Scientific Interest and Level 2 Area of Ecological Importance under Government Notice GN 491/06. This classification placed the hotel within the buffer zone of the Natura 2000 network. The adjacent Foresta 2000 project, launched in 2003, further transformed the area into a rehabilitated Mediterranean woodland managed by BirdLife Malta and Din l-Art Ħelwa.

### 2022 Redevelopment Proposal

In August 2022, Mizzi Estates submitted application PA4933/22, seeking to demolish the existing structure and reconstruct a five-story hotel with 160 rooms, a spa, restaurants, and parking facilities. While the plans claimed to replicate England’s original footprint “in line with today’s standards,” critics noted the proposal exceeded the original scale and introduced new amenities incompatible with the protected status. The Mellieħa Local Council, represented by architect Carmel Cacopardo, filed a decisive objection, arguing that GN 491/06 legally mandates full demolition and ecological restoration rather than reconstruction

## Current State
### Culture
#### Urban Exploration

Despite safety hazards—collapsing ceilings, exposed rebar, and unstable floors—the Festaval ruins have become a magnet for urban explorers and street artists.

#### Ecological Reclamation

Botanical surveys indicate that 63% of the site’s surface area has been recolonized by native species, including Maltese spurge (Euphorbia melitensis) and Mediterranean thyme (Thymbra capitata). This spontaneous rewilding, accelerated by the Foresta 2000’s afforestation efforts, has effectively integrated the ruins into the surrounding habitat—a process architects term “non-human design.”