Stop 05 of 16
The Collachio
The quarter ordinary people could not enter
Free to hear. You have 3 of three free stops left, on any tours.
Guide to The Collachio
The Collachio is the handful of streets the Order reserved for itself in Birgu. The auberges here are not the baroque palaces of Valletta but plain adapted houses in a medieval street plan — and for forty years the Maltese who had lived here for centuries were shut out of them at certain hours.
Eight langues, smaller premises
Each of the Order's eight langues needed an auberge to serve as inn, mess and headquarters. In Valletta they built new ones on wide streets. Here they took what Birgu already had, which is why the Auberge of France, the Auberge of Italy and the Auberge of England read as large houses rather than palaces.
The one to seek out is the Auberge d'Angleterre. Henry VIII's break with Rome brought the English langue to an end, so the house outlived the branch of the Order that had barely finished settling into it. A clinic occupied it afterwards, and it is now a public library.
A quarter, not just a set of buildings
What made this a district was the rule attached to it. The Collachio was reserved to the Knights, and at certain hours Birgu's Maltese residents were excluded from streets their families had lived on for generations.
It is worth remembering when the Order is being romanticised. To the people already on this island, the Knights were a foreign aristocratic garrison that arrived without asking and rearranged the town around itself.
What to look at
- The Auberge d’Angleterre — a langue abolished almost as soon as it settled here
- Doorways far too grand for the streets they open onto
- Medieval window openings surviving in later facades
Practical
- Navigation
- This is the easiest place in the Three Cities to get lost. That is not the worst outcome.
Walk to stop 06 · The Norman House
Follow North Street a short way further into the Collachio. The Norman House is the small house with the two-light window on the first floor; stand across the lane from it.
About 2 min · 75 m
Feedback
How did this stop go?