Porte des Bombes

Porte des Bombes, Floriana, Malta

"A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate." Emile M.Cioran

This gate, which is situated right in the center of a main street is one of the main landmarks in Malta. Porte des Bombes (which literally means door to bombs) is nowadays an ornamental gate, but in the past it formed part of the outer defensive walls of Valletta. 

It was constructed in Baroque style between 1697 and 1720 during the reign of Fra Ramon Perellos who was the 64th Grandmaster of the Knights of Malta. During the 19th century, the British government dramatically altered the original design of the gate by adding a second archway to accommodate increasingly heavy traffic in the Grand Harbor area. A marble plaque was affixed to the newer arch, with the following inscription: "Ad majorem popoli accomodatum".

I originally wanted to stand right in the center but it's too dangerous as there is only a very narrow central strip that you can stand on. So I had to settle for a side picture which actually brought out the texture of the gate even more.

This black and white photograph was captured on my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app. Some minor editing was done in PS CS4. Settings for Hipstamatic were BlacKeys B&W/Lucifer IV