A bronze bust of Grand Master Pinto crowns the door of Valletta's most theatrical Baroque front, the Prime Minister's office, and you can study it from the square below.
Landmark, Valletta. Meridian Dispatch.
Not as a rule. The building is the working Office of the Prime Minister, and visitor guides list it as not open to the public. Parts of the interior have opened on rare open days, such as some editions of Notte Bianca, so do not plan a trip around one.
Girolamo Cassar, the architect of early Valletta, designed the original auberge, built in the Mannerist style in 1573 to 1574. The present building replaced it in a Spanish Baroque rebuild of 1741 to 1744, to designs of Andrea Belli.
It stands on Castille Place, with its address on Merchants Street, close to St James Cavalier and the Malta Stock Exchange. Upper Barrakka Gardens is also near.
The Spanish Baroque front is laid out symmetrically, with pilasters, trophies of arms and flags carved in limestone on either side of the central doorway. A stately staircase climbs to the entrance, where columns carry a further trophy.
The building was rebuilt in the 1740s under Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca. Look for his coat of arms among the heraldic emblems on the front.
Each national langue of the Order of St John housed its knights in an auberge, and the powerful langue of Castile, León and Portugal was given a commanding site on high ground. From that raised position the building looks out over Floriana towards the Grand Harbour.
The auberge is about a 10-minute walk from City Gate, at the top of Castille Hill. Take in the full width of the front, staircase included, from the open square before it.
From the square, look up at the entrance for the carving round the doorway and the columns either side of it.
The building sits directly on the route between City Gate and Upper Barrakka Gardens, with the gardens just beyond it, so you can fold the two into one walking loop.
Stay in Valletta and two harbours are a short walk from your bed: the Barrakka Lift takes you down to the Grand Harbour for the ferry to the Three Cities, and on the other side of the city the Sliema ferry crosses Marsamxett.
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