The Grandmaster's Palace; State Rooms and Armoury

The Grandmaster’s Palace in Valletta was built between the 16th and 18th centuries as the palace of the Grand Master of the Order of St. John. Over the years, the palace became the Governor’s Palace and it currently houses the Office of the President of Malta.

The history of the palace began with Grand Master Pierre de Monte, who in 1571 moved the Order’s headquarters to Valletta, and he himself lived in his nephew’s house. The Council of the Order subsequently purchased this house, and in 1574 it began to be enlarged into a palace for the Grand Master. The palace was modified by other Grand Masters, which gave the building a Baroque character. In 1724 Grandmaster António Manoel de Vilhena commissioned Nicolau Nasoni to decorate the main corridors with frescoes, while Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca made extensive alterations to the building including its present configuration and a clock tower in one of the courtyards. Its architect, Girolamo Cassar designed the palace around two courtyards which are now known today as Neptune’s Courtyard and Prince Alfred’s Courtyard. 

The palace beauty is its interior. The state rooms depict cycle of frescos by Matteo Perez d’Aleccio representing various episodes of the Great Siege of Malta. On the wall behind the minstrels gallery, Giuseppe Cali painted the coat-of-arms of Grand Master Jean de Valette, the hero of the Great Siege. The palace’s former stables now house the armour. The armoury includes many suits of armour, including those worn by the Grandmasters, lances, swords, cannons, as well as Ottoman weapons captured during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.