Stop 05 of 25
Auberge d’Italie & MUŻA
The Italian knights’ house, now the national art museum
Free to hear. You have 3 of three free stops left, on any tours.
Guide to Auberge d’Italie & MUŻA
The auberge of the Italian knights fronts Merchants Street beside Jean de Valette Square, under a bronze bust of Grand Master Gregorio Carafa from the rebuilding of the 1680s. Since 2018 it has housed MUŻA, the national museum of art, with the Calabrian painter Mattia Preti at the centre of the collection.
Whose house it was
The Italian langue was one of the largest in the Order and by custom provided its admiral: the head of the Italian knights commanded the fleet. This auberge therefore housed the men who ran the galleys, which for two centuries were the Order’s reason for existing.
The building underneath is one of the first auberges of the new city, from the 1570s. The front on Merchants Street, with the bust of Carafa and its trophy of arms, belongs to his rebuilding of the 1680s.
The square in front
The church with the ornate front across the square is St Catherine of Italy, the Italian knights’ own church. The bronze figure in the square is Jean de Valette, the Grand Master who founded the city; the statue was only unveiled in 2012.
From post office to museum
After the Knights the auberge went through the usual hands: the national museum in the early twentieth century, then a post office, then offices for the tourism authority. Since 2018 it has been MUŻA, the national art museum; the name plays on muża, the Maltese for muse, and on the initials of the museum’s Maltese title.
At the centre of a Maltese and Mediterranean collection is Mattia Preti, the Calabrian painter who settled on the island for the last decades of his life and painted the vault of St John’s Co-Cathedral. His large canvases here explain where that ceiling came from.
What to look at
- The bust of Carafa over the door, with the carved trophy of arms piled around it
- The plainer 1570s masonry along the side of the building, older than the front
- The Jean de Valette statue in the square, unveiled in 2012
Practical
- Museum
- MUŻA charges admission; the courtyard café can be visited without a ticket.
- Terrain
- Level, on a pedestrianised street.
Walk to stop 06 · Auberge de Castille
Follow Merchants Street into Castille Place. Stand in the open square with the palace across the top of it.
About 3 min · 167 m
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