Signs in the City project

Walking in a new city in a new country that you do not know, often offers you the chance to meet new people, get acquainted with new customs and lifestyle, taste new flavours and learn a bit of the country's language.

This project co-funded by the LINGUA programme of the European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture, is about the signs found in the city.

City signs help you travel through the language and history of the city that you are visiting, they invite you to become an explorer of the city's language and become familiar with the city's history, heritage and people.

About a year ago, representatives of the city of Dobrich, main leaders of this project, accompanied by other partners in this project, together with representatives from the University of Malta, Architects Mr. Chris and Joseph Spiteri, visited our beloved city and introduced the concept of this city to the Mayor Mr. John Boxall and it was then unanimously agreed by the members of the Council that the city of Birgu will be a partner in this project together with the city of Nafplio in Greece, the city of Gdansk in Poland, the city of Alcala de Henares in Spain and the city of Dobrich in Bulgaria. These representatives chose the city of Birgu from all the villages in Malta to be part of this project as they believed in this city's potentiality to achieve the results wanted.

During their visit, guided by the staff of the Birgu Local Council, these represntatives took a great amount of photos portraying the signs found in Vittoriosa as well as the historical buildings that are in our city.

This project consisted of the preparation of several promotional material which portray both our city as well as the maltese language. Infact, the Birgu Local Council together with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Dobrich are currently finalizing the Signs in the City products which include :-

• a Signs in the City phrase book
• Signs in the City website
• and an interactive Signs in the City CD-ROM

The Signs in the City project will be launched in Dobrich in Bulgaria between the 23rd and 25th May 2007, where in this event the results of the Signs in the City project will be presented to the local public and guests during the Bulgarian national celebrations of the day of the Cyrillic Alphabet. For this event, Mr. John Boxall, Mayor of Birgu was personally invited by the Mayor of Dobrich, Ms. Detelina Nikolova, and will attend together with Mr. Ivan Peresso, Councillor.

www.signsinthecity.net