Valletta contains a great number of palaces, as befits its Renaissance nickname, Superbissima (The proudest, the most illustrious). Some of these palaces served as the auberge for a particular langue of Knights, although some knights also had their own private residences. Other palaces were built by members of the Maltese nobility or foreign aristocracy.
The Magisterial Palace of the Grandmaster currently houses the House of Representatives of Malta and the office of the President of Malta. The palace is built around two courtyards, one of which is dominated by a statue of Neptune. There are two entrances in the front and one entrance from Piazza Regina just west of the National Library. The Armoury, housing one of the finest collections of Medieval and Renaissance weapons in all of Europe, runs the width of the back of the palace. The palace also features Gobelin tapestries and frescos by Matteo Perez d'Aleccio (a student of Michelangelo) amongst other treasures.
The Grandmaster's Palace
The Auberge de Castille was the official seat of the knights of the Langue of Castille, Léon and Portugal – one of the most powerful of the Order, its Head being the Grand Chancellor. The Knights of this Langue were responsible for the defence of part of the fortifications of Valletta known as the St Barbara Bastion. The original Auberge was built by the renowned Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar in 1574. It was extensively re-modelled and virtually rebuilt in 1741, the present plan of the imposing structure attributed to Andrea Belli.
The Auberge d'Aragon is a palace also designed by Girolamo Cassar, in 1571 five years after the establishment of the city. The residents of the palace were initially knights of Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia. The Auberge de Provence is another of Cassar's masterpieces of Renaissance architecture, built between 1571-75. The Auberge was the residence of the Langue de Provence, its Head, the “Gran Commandeur” being the Treasurer of the Order. From 1824 to 1954 the building housed the British officers’ Union Club, and is now the National Museum of Archeology.
Construction for the Auberge d’Italie was begun in 1574. The building was constructed around an arcaded courtyard and received considerable alteration in the 17th century. Situated in the upper part of Merchants street and in front of another notable building, Palazzo Parisio, it has a fine facade designed by Romano Carapecchia. It now houses the Malta Tourism Authority.
Opposite the Jews' Sally Port (Maltese: Il-Fossa) in Valletta is the Auberge de Bavière built in 1696). Originally intended as a private palace, from 1784 on it was used to accommodate Bavarian and English knights. It now houses Malta's Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs.
Casa Rocca Grande was built by Fra Pietro La Rocca, Prior of Santo Stefano, towards the end of the 16th century and formed part of a magnificent palace with double entrances in the style of the Grandmaster's Palace. It was later divided into two palaces, Palazzo Marina and Messina Palace. For a short time the palace used by the Maltese Government as the Department of Education and later as the Ministry of Education. Messina Palace was leased to the German-Maltese Circle in 1975 until it was purchased by the Circle with the financial assistance of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1989.
Casa Rocca Piccola is one of the last remaining unconverted palaces in which members of the Maltese nobility still live, in the case the de Piro family. The palace is open to the public; it is the only occupied aristocratic residence in Valletta open to the public.
Opposite the ruins of the Royal Opera House stands Palazzo Ferreria. Its façade resembles a Venetian palace. Popularly known as Palazzo Francia, surname of the family that built and owned it, it originally housed the Knights' foundry - hence the name Ferreria. It today houses a number of offices and retail outlets.
In the early 18th century Bishop Sceberras built the Palazzo Parisio, Valletta on the site of two former houses in Merchants' Street, then known as Strada San Giacomo. Palazzo Parisio consists of three elements, each two storeys high, enclosing a central courtyard, all in a Neo-Classical style.
Napoleon Bonaparte stayed there briefly after taking Valletta on June 11, 1798. He made it his headquarters for five days during his brief plundering stay en route to the Egyptian campaign. Left dilapidated by the late 19th century, it was sold to the Government and fully restored and refurbished. Palazzo Parisio formally opened its doors to the public under the British on 8 May 1886, as Malta’s General Post Office. Today it holds the Ministry of Commonwealth and Foreign Affairs. This palace is not to be confused with Palazzo Parisio in Naxxar, a private property owned by the Barony of Tabria.
Palazzo Castellania is also located along Merchants' Street and was begun to the designs of Maltese architect Francesco Zerafa in 1748. It replaced an earlier building and housed the Civil and Criminal Courts. Zerafa died in 1758 and Giusseppe Bonici was called in to complete the building, which he did by 1760. The building's centrepiece shows stone figures of Justice and Truth. It is now the Ministry of Social Policy.
The National Museum of Fine Arts is housed within an elegant palace in South Street. It was known as Admiralty House when it became the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Mediterranean fleet. The building dates back to the late 1570s. The palace was the private residence of a succession of knights of the Order of St John. It was opened as a museum in 1974, as a repository of Malta's permanent national art collection.
Museums
The National Museum of Fine Arts is home to works of art that were originally displayed in buildings of the Order, such as the Grand Master's palaces and churches, as well as paintings by Mattia Preti and J. M. W. Turner. Prior to its conversion into a museum, it was a residence. The Order acquired the building in the mid-18th century and transformed it into a Rococo palace. After the departure of the Order from Malta in 1798, the State took over the administration of the building and its contents.
Turner's depiction of the Grand Harbour, National Museum of Fine Arts
Paintings and sculptures were brought together in the early years of the 20th century and formed the core of the Fine Arts Collection within the National Museum by 1922. Subsequently, individuals and organisations made important donations and bequests to the collection, in addition to acquisitions made throughout the years. The highlight of the 19th century collection is a watercolour by J. M. W. Turner of the Grand Harbour. A number of Old Master works, including as drawings by Pietro Perugino (1450-1523), Vittore Carpaccio (1465-1526) and Mattia Preti (1613-1699), may be viewed under controlled lighting.
The Grandmaster's Palace Armoury Museum exhibits a collection of full suits of armour, arms and guns dating back to the 15th century. During the 1850s, the British Government intended to remove the collection to London. Although they removed some items, local opposition blocked the complete looting of the collection. Instead, in 1860 the Armory was officially opened as Malta’s first public museum. The collection of Renaissance weapons and armour is unique and includes suits of armor that belonged to grandmasters Fra Martin Garzes and Fra Alof de Wignacourt, as well as suits of parade armour that expert armourers had created. The museum displays Italian, German, French and Spanish arms and a number of ornate bronze cannons.
The National War Museum is located within Fort Saint Elmo, a focal point during the Great Siege that rose to prominence once again during World War II. The Museums Department and the National War Museum Association established the museum, which opened to the public in 1975; the museum reopened in 2008 after having been closed for more than a year for refurbishment. The museum building was originally a powder magazine; during the Second World War anti-aircraft gun crews trained there. The Museum highlights Malta’s military role in the post-1800 period under British rule, and memorializes especially the suffering and the heroism that characterised Malta during the Second World War.
The museum offers a walking tour through history, from World War One to the Inter-Wars period, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942 and so on. It includes a Memorial area, with photographic panels that depict the conditions that prevailed in Malta during the War years 1940-1943. These photographs show the hardships the civilian population endured, the extent of war damage, the unhealthy living conditions within underground shelters and above all, the people who withstood the siege.
The museum's main hall has several World War II relics: an Italian E-Boat, a Bofors anti-aircraft gun, the Willys Jeep ‘Husky’, and the Gloster Gladiator ‘Faith’. Also on display are the George Cross, awarded to the people of Malta by King George VI, the Book of Remembrance of civilians and servicemen killed during the years 1940-43 and the illuminated Scroll that President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented to the “People and Defenders of Malta” in 1943. Also on display are awards and decorations to individual Maltese servicemen and civilians during the War for their acts of bravery and sacrifice above and beyond the call of duty.
The 3,000 year old "Sleeping Lady" of Hal Saflieni
The Auberge De Provence houses the National Museum of Archaeology. This palace once served knights from the langue of Provence. The Museum features artifacts from Malta's Neolithic culture, displaying objects collected from the first free-standing structures built on Earth, 5,500 years ago.
The National Museum of Archaeology displays an exceptional array of artifacts from Malta’s prehistoric periods starting with the first arrival of man in the Ghar Dalam phase (5200 BC) and running up to the Tarxien phase (2500 BC). The collection includes obsidian cores and the Red Skorba figurines, which are predecessors of temple period objects and statuary, as well as pottery, worked flint, beads and other ornaments.
The museum's main hall is devoted to temple carvings, in particular the giant statue and altar blocks from the Neolithic Tarxien Temples. The collection continues with representations of animals, temple models and human figures. There are statuettes of the "Sleeping Lady" (Maltese: Mara Rieqda) found in the Hypogeum, and the "Venus" (Maltese: Venere) of Hagar Qim. There is also a large top floor salon with painted walls and a wooden beamed ceiling, currently displaying plans by Renzo Piano for the renovation of the entrance to Valletta. The building was inaugurated as the National Museum in 1958.
The nearby Manoel Theatre Museum presents the history of Valletta's first playhouse, one of the oldest in Europe. It traces the history of theatre on the Maltese Islands through displays of memorabilia assembled from a wide range of sources, both public and private, including donations from private collectors. Works in the Maltese language are also displayed.
The Domus Pauli Museum is located within an extension of the Chapter Hall of the Collegiate Church of St. Paul’s Shipwreck. The museum, in St Paul’s Street, exhibits antique and precious items from St Paul's Shipwreck Church, including relics of St Paul.
St John's Co-Cathedral Museum adjoins the Co-Cathedral and contains Medieval and Renaissance art objects, together with ecclesiastical artifacts. Amongst the contents of the museum are the tapestries of Grandmaster Fra Ramon Perellos de Roccaful, portraits of Grandmasters Fra Jean de la Cassiere, Fra Nicolas Cotoner and Fra Manuel Pinto da Fonseca and paintings that were once kept in the Co-Cathedral's many side chapels such as "St George killing the Dragon" by Francesco Potenzano.
The museum displays a number of bronze and plaster sculptures by the Maltese artist Antonio Sciortino (1879-1947) and paintings by Edward Caruana Dingli (1876-1950). There is also a display of Maltese silverware from the national collection, including liturgical artifacts from churches that formerly belonged to the Order, as well as a collection of silver snuffboxes amongst other silverware. There are various other displays and exhibits.
Valletta's Toy Museum contains an extensive collection of Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox cars. Its three floors house other Maltese and international toys, from the 1950s onward.
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