BIRGU INQUISITOR'S PALACE

It is located in the old town of Birgu. It is a unique building that housed the Inquisitor and the Apostolic Delegate for over two centuries, as Malta presented a singular scene in which the Inquisitors assumed their dual role as supreme judges of the Holy Office and Apostolic Delegates representing the Vatican's interests in Malta. Between 1574 and 1798, this palace served as the perfect theater for an ecclesiastical diplomat, a sophisticated residence and a court with an austere penitentiary complex for the inquisitor. Today, it is the only inquisitor's palace still open to the public. The building's origins can be traced back to the Knights of the Order of St. John, who, when settling in Birgu, adapted the existing buildings to establish their administrative center, including the former Magna Curia Castellania, in the north-western quarter of the present site. Following the Order's move to the new city of Valletta, the Castellania passed to the Inquisition, triggering an organic growth that spread into adjacent buildings until it reached its current footprint in the 1650s. Various Inquisitors undertook embellishment projects to transform the building into a palazzo romano typical of the dignitaries of Baroque Rome. This culminated in a major project undertaken by Inquisitor Francesco Stoppani in 1733 and 1734 to plans by the resident high-Baroque architect Romano Carapecchia. From then on, the stage was set and subsequent changes were mainly associated with use brought in by the new residents. Administered by Heritage Malta, the site is both a historic house museum and a national museum of ethnography.
The current experience is constantly being improved, but one can still enjoy a walk through three distinct sections, the domestic space and kitchen on the first floor, and the piano nobile, which includes both formal rooms and private quarters spanning two floors. The third part of the visitor experience concerns the spaces belonging to the Holy Office itself, including the tribunal room, the torture chamber and the penitentiary complex. The museum experience is rounded off by an emphasis on an outreach program packed with events and educational sessions, themselves linked to the religious ethnographic exhibits.