10/4/24: Valetta's Grand Masters' Palace!

The Order of St. John was founded in Jerusalem after the First Crusade, 1096-1099, to administer aid and provide an armed escort to pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The Knights descended from Euope's noble families from Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, and other cities. Pope Paschal confirmed the Order in 1113. The Knights, who wore loose red robes over their armor emblazoned with a white cross, built a series of strongholds. When they had to leave the Holy Land in 1291, they established themselves in Cyprus until 1309 and then in Rhodes until they were expelled in 1523. Seven homeless years followed until the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, gifted Malta and Tripoli to the Order with an annual perpetual symbolic fief of a falcon. Remember this later!

French-born Grand Master Jean Parisot de Vallette was born in 1498 and joined the Order of St. John in the Langue (a division) de Provence in 1518. He and his fellow Knights were defeated by the Turkish Suleiman the Magnificent on Rhodes in 1523. After several subsequent military victories, de Vallette was chosen as the 49th Knights Grand Master in 1557.

On March 18th, 1565, Suleiman, 200 ships from the Turkish navy, and an estimated force of 50,000 were sighted off the coast of Malta. Suleiman planned to siege Malta because he wanted the Order annihilated and the island used as a landing base to attack Europe. However, in the following three months, Vallette, 700 fellow Knights, and 8,500 Maltese and European mercenaries led the Order to victory in the Great Siege of Malta against what was, and still is, considered almost impossible odds. De Vallette, the Order, Malta, and the Maltese gained acknowledgment and support from Catholic and Protestant Europe. Aid in all forms was showered over Malta, especially by Pope Pius V, 1566-72.

The Grand Masters' Palace was constructed by the Order of St. John from the 1560s onwards as a residence and office for the Grand Master. From that time until the 17th century, it grew from a modest house to a palace with several additions and modifications, including a tower, stables, and armory. In the late 17th century, work began on a closed loggia, clock tower, new portals, and a new wing to include the library and mint. The latter project was halted by the occupation of French Republican forces from 1798 to 1800.

View of the Palace at the end of the 17th century:

View of the Palace with the addition of the library and mint in the early 19th century:

Other alterations were made during Malta's British Period, which lasted from 1800 to 1939. The main changes were the enlarged dining room and the addition of accommodation for the Governor's entourage. Portraits of British monarchs and other paintings were installed in the Palace. 

Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, presided over a ceremony in the Palace in 1967. Malta was declared a republic in December 1974.

From Malta's independence until 2015, the Palace was the seat of Malta's parliament before it moved into the new Parliament Building I included in the previous post. The Palace's austere exterior belied its sumptuous interior! 

Our self-guided tour of the Palace started in the Armory, which was once the Grand Masters' stables. Originally, the Knights' weapons and armor were stored in the Great Hall until a Knight's death, when they became the property of the Order. Though there was still an impressive collection of more than 7,000 suits of 16th- to 18th-century armor, the collection had numbered 25,000 until light-fingered Napoleon, general neglect, and "over-enthusiastic housekeeping by the British" decreased the collection's size.

The Order governed Rhodes, which effectively served as its first island state from 1310 until 1522. They brought a significant quantity of arms and armor to Malta, but only a few survived. These two mail shirts are among the oldest pieces in the collection, likely dating from the late 15th century. 

    

Early 16th-century armor was characterized by the rising dominance of Italian styles of dress, as featured in this heavily decorated and more fitted breastplate. 

The decorated Rotella was a shield that was used by the Knights to express their taste and status.

Cabassets were the most popular open-faced helmets from 1550 to 1570. Simple yet elegant, they were identifiable by their tall shape and narrow, flat brim. A leather lining inside the helmet not only kept it securely suspended on the soldier's head but also absorbed some of the shock from blows to the head. 

Grand Master Jean Parisot de Vallette's armor dates to the Great Siege period.

Grand Master Alof de Wigancourt's parade armor was the finest exhibit in the Palace Armory collection. Its rich ornamentation consisted of horizontal bands crossed by straps of arabesque scrollwork, and it was made of steel inlaid with pure gold and silver!

These pieces of reinforced armor had noticeable bullet holes. The development of guns marked the beginning of the end for armor.

Although the Armory's principal function was always that of a military storehouse, it soon gained a secondary function as a showpiece. It became a symbolic extension of the Order's past crusading heritage and present military might. Although it is now only a fraction of its original splendor, the Armory ranks among the world's foremost arms and armor collections. 

We then proceeded to the 'grand' State Apartments! First up was the La Vecchia Ucceliera or Republic Hall where exotic and rare songbirds, owls, and other animals were once kept as a pastime. The Uccelliera was where the annual donation of a Peregrine falcon, better known as a Maltese falcon, was kept and prepared as a gift.

The Palace's corridors were a delight to walk down. They featured magnificent mid-19th-century polychrome marble floors, walls, arches, and trompe l'oeil soffits painted by an Italian decorator from 1723-25. 

As the Grand Masters' Palace has remained the official residence of the Maltese president, we anticipated that some of the rooms would be closed. We were relieved to discover that only the State Dining Room and the Gobelin-rich tapestries in the Council Chamber were closed. We were extremely fortunate that the Grand Masters' Sala, or sitting room and study, was open when we visited last fall. Because it has been decorated with portraits of popes for over 150 years, it has been nicknamed the Popes' Room!

I was drawn to these Chinese figures but didn't see any reference to them in the room. 

The Pages' Room, also called the Yellow State Room, was used by the Grand Masters' 16 attendants. The British also used it as an office for the Governor's staff and an anteroom for the Ambassador's Hall next door. 

The Ambassadors' Room, also called the Red State Room, has been used to present ambassadors' credentials since the Knights' time. Maltese presidents, prime ministers, and ministers take their solemn oaths to adhere to the country's Constitution in this room. Foreign presidents, monarchs, and popes also use it during state visits.

The long Armoury Corridor was decorated with trompe l'oeil paintings, scenes of naval battles, portraits, and shields belonging to Grand Masters. The 16th-century half-suits of armor were part of the Order of St. John's armor collection and were issued to the Order's soldiers. Most were used during the Great Siege of Malta.

The Grand Council Hall hosted audiences presided over by the Grand Master and his Supreme Council. After visiting Malta in the early 20th century, the British redesigned it at the order of King Edward VII. The twelve-scene fresco cycle of the Great Siege portrayed the arrival of the Turkish Armada on May 18th until they fled on September 13th, 1565. 

Near the Palace was Malta's national theater, the Manoel Theater. Built by a Grand Master in 1732 for "the people's honest recreation" after being inspired by the theater in Palermo, Sicily, which we had recently viewed, it is still considered one of Europe's best theaters. 

A sign on the pavement in front of the theater showed we were walking along the Commonwealth Walkway, something I'd never seen in any other Commonwealth nation, including my native Canada.  

Acclaimed English poet and writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge worked here between 1804 and 1805.

It wasn't until we were home that I read on the Gallivance blog, https://gallivance.net, that Maltese law dictated that the corners of buildings must be decorated. Aha - that explained all the religious statues and the wraparound balconies we noticed in Valletta!. 

Growing up in Ottawa, my parish church and elementary school were Our Lady of Mount Carmel. That was why I wanted to see the interior of Valletta's Sanctuary Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Built by the Carmelite Friars in 1570, among the first religious orders to erect a church and a monastery in the new city of Valletta, it was dedicated to Our Lady. After Valletta's aerial bombardment during WW II, this new oval church was constructed and then inaugurated in 1981. 

The ruins of the old Opera House:

Here are two more views of the Renzo Piano-designed Parliament Building we'd initially seen the day before. From these angles, we could see that the two massive stone blocks had been machine-cut to lighten their appearance, reduce solar radiation, and let in daylight. 

As little has changed in Valletta architecturally since the city was established in the 16th and 17th centuries, it wasn't surprising that Piano's stark and dramatic Parliament and City Gate, with their V-shaped sabers, were controversial! Chris Briffa, a renowned Valletta architect, said, "The last time we had something of that scale and detail and that technically advanced was the 18th-century bastions... It's a statement that Valletta is not just a museum city, but it's vibrant and a city of the 21st century."

Next post: Our Valletta tour continues at the intriguing National Museum of Archaeology.

Posted on February 22nd, 2025, from our home in Denver, where arctic temperatures from two days ago have risen hugely and will even reach the 60s in a day or so. As Denver natives say with a nod to Mark Twain, "If you don't like Denver's weather, just wait a few minutes, and it'll change." Wherever you are, please stay warm and take care of yourself and your loved ones.