VERDALA CASTLE

With its four square towers, this presidential summer palace is the major building in the Buskett area. What was, in the early days of the knights, a modest hunting hut has become a sumptuous manor house under the leadership of Grand Master Loubenx de Verdalle. The latter clearly has a taste for comfort and well-being that is not compatible with his office and the morality imposed by the Order. He used the advantageous position of these groves (Buskett Forest) as a pretext to build a sort of defensive fort (high walls, bastions with towers), but fitted out internally with a search for luxury that would make it more likely to be used for trifling purposes. Thus, above one of the doors, one can read caedant curae loco, that is to say "the worries stop here". It was the architect of Valletta, Gerolamo Cassar, who drew the plans, without ever seeing the work completed since he died at the beginning of the work. It is an example of Renaissance style architecture that may have been influenced by the Villa Farnese in Caprarola. Loubenx de Verdalle accumulated many artistic treasures in his castle, which he eventually bequeathed to the Order. In the Baroque period, the building was endowed by the Grand Master Manoël de Vilhena with new elements, including the inevitable balustrade.

The Verdala Castle Gardens, the Buskett Gardens, are the site of the island's biggest folk festival, L-Imnarja, in honour of Saints Peter and Paul, on 28 and especially 29 June. Close to the small cave and basin.