Auberge d'Italie

Auberge d'Italie
Berġa tal-Italja
Bust of Grandmaster Gregorio Carafa on the facade of the Auberge
General information
Status	Intact
Architectural style	Baroque
Address	Merchants Street
Town or city	Valletta
Country	Malta
Construction started	1574
Completed	1595
Opening	September 1579
Renovated	1683
Design and construction
Architect	Girolamo Cassar Francesco Antrini

Auberge d'Italie

A pillar box outside Auberge d'Italie. The royal cypher was removed after Malta became a republic in 1974.

The Auberge d'Italie (Maltese: Berġa tal-Italja) is one of the auberges built in Valletta, Malta, for the langues of the knights of the Order of Saint John. It housed the langue of Italy until the French occupation of Malta in 1798.

History

This was the second Auberge d'Italie to be built. The first one was built in 1570 and was situated in Saint George's Square. It was integrated into the Grandmaster's Palace a year after it was built in 1571. The second Auberge was built in Strada San Giacomo (now Merchants Street). Construction on Girolamo Cassar's plans started in 1574 and the building was originally one-storeyed. No actual documentation about its construction has survived so little details are known. The Italian knights moved into the Auberge in 1579 but three years later in August 1582 construction resumed when another storey was added to the building. Construction was supervised by the engineer Francesco Antrini and some other masons and engineers, and the second storey and other refurbishments were ready in 1595. In the early seventeenth century there was some damage to the structure which was restored by Alessandro Stafrace. In the 1680s the facade was extensively refurbished in Baroque style. A bust of Gregorio Carafa was added in 1683.

When the French occupied the islands in 1798, the Auberge became the French Military Command. It was later used by the British as the Corps Headquarters and Officers Mess, and it remained so until the 1920s. In the nineteenth century, John Davy spent some time in Malta with the Army Medical Staff. During his stay in Malta, he created the first public dispensary at the Auberge for the treatment of the poor. Its successor, the Government Polyclinics service, is still referred to as il-Berġa (the Auberge) due to its impact on the Maltese people.

In the 1920s it became a Museum of Archaeology curated by Sir Themistocles Zammit. The Auberge suffered extensive damage during World War II but the damage was later rebuilt in the years after the war. In March 1956 the Auberge became a School of Art. It was temporarily used as the law courts, and in 1971 it was vacated following the law courts' new building on the site of the former Auberge d'Auvergne (which had been completely destroyed in the war). In August of that year, the Posts and Telephones Department acquired the Auberge and it was extensively renovated by the installing of electric lights and better plumbing, masonry and decoration. The Auberge opened as Malta's GPO in October 1974. Since then, the Water and Electricity Department, the Agricultural Department and the Central Office of Statistics have also used the Auberge.

In 1997 it was decided that the Auberge be used as the Ministry of Tourism. The Auberge was once again renovated, and on 18 February 2002, the Ministry moved to the former Auberge. About two weeks later, the Malta Tourism Authority also moved there on 1 March 2002 where it remains to this day.^[1]

In 2012, there was a proposal to move the National Museum of Fine Arts to this Auberge. This move was reversed by the government in late 2013.^[2]

See Also

• Auberge de Castille
• Auberge de Provence
• Auberge de Bavière
• Auberge d'Aragon

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Auberge d'Italie.