Casa Rocca Piccola

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Casa Rocca Piccola is one of the last remaining unconverted palaces in Malta that is still lived in today by a Maltese noble family.

This is the lived-in home of the de Piro family – an ancient Maltese lineage. The history of Casa Rocca Piccola goes back over 400 years to an era in which the Knights of St John, having successfully fought off the invading Turks in 1565, decided to build themselves a prestigious city to rival European capitals (such as Paris and Venice). Palaces were designed for prestige and aesthetic beauty in most of Valletta’s carefully planned streets, and great bastion walls fortified the new sixteenth-century city.

The house is named after the first owner, Don Pietro La Rocca, admiral of the Order of St John in the Langue of Italy (see more about the Order of St John). It was, in later years, let to a succession of Italian aristocratic knights and was sold to a Maltese nobleman in the second half of the eighteenth century.

It has had tenants since the 16th century. Amongst Casa Rocca Piccola’s tenants have been the following notable figures:-

Monsignor Fra Gaspare Gori Mancini of Siena. Bishop of Malta from 1722 to 1728 during the reign of Grand Master de Vilhena. He is buried in the Conventual Church of St. John (Malta) recently renamed the ‘Co-Cathedral’. The tabernacle door and altar front with a medallion depicting the martyrdom of St. Catherine in the Chapel of Italy of the same Church were donated by him but later stolen by Napoleon.

Gio Francesco 2nd Count Sant. He married Chiara Bonici Platamone Cassia 7th Baroness of Ghariexem and Tabia. Gio Francesco purchased most of the property in this block which included Casa Rocca Grande (now split into two: Palazzo Messina and Palazzo Marina). He led the Maltese aristocracy in the burning of their patents of nobility during the French occupation.

Francesco Sant Cassia, 6th Count Sant. He was only 13 years old when he inherited his father. Commissioned in the King’s Own Malta Regiment of Militia. He married Maria Manduca and then, on her demise, her sister Concettina, both daughters of the Count of Mont’Alto. He also entertained King George V to lunch at his house at St Paul’s Bay. He was one of the first Maltese owner-drivers of a car and he even owned his own bus.

Commendatore Antonio Cassar Torreggiani O.B.E. Founder of The National Bank of Malta. He also commissioned the ‘R.M.S. Knight of Malta’ which, until she was requisitioned for war service, was the principal passenger transport vessel to the Italian mainland.

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