Grandmaster's Palace
Knights' palace on St George's Square, with State Rooms, tapestries and a vast armoury.
Begun in 1571 to designs attributed to Girolamo Cassar, the palace was the residence of the Grand Masters of the Order of St John and later the seat of the British governor. It occupies an entire city block behind a long, restrained façade that was remodelled in the eighteenth century, and is arranged around two planted courtyards, Neptune's Court and Prince Alfred's Court. Today it houses the Office of the President of Malta while the historic interiors are managed as a museum by Heritage Malta.
Visitors follow a route through the corridors and State Rooms, whose walls carry painted friezes of the Order's history and a celebrated set of Gobelins tapestries known as Les Tentures des Indes. The former stables on the ground floor hold the Palace Armoury, one of the largest surviving collections of arms and armour still in its original building, assembled from the Order's arsenal. Because the palace remains in official use, room access can change at short notice, and the Throne Room is currently closed.
Highlights
- Palace Armoury with thousands of pieces of Hospitaller arms and armour
- Gobelins tapestries known as Les Tentures des Indes
- Painted friezes recording the Great Siege of 1565
- Neptune's Court and Prince Alfred's Court, with the 1745 clock tower
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