The iconic Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta has been “given back to the public” after around five years of closure for intense restoration that has more than doubled its accessibility to visitors.

No stone has been left unturned in a mammoth task that has seen “the centre of power” for over four and a half centuries return to its former “dignity”.

Following its inauguration on Friday night, the Grand Master’s Palace will greet the public with a new visitor centre on the ground floor, occupying what were formerly the offices of the Attorney General, with access to Prince Alfred’s Courtyard, the Orangerie and the Armoury that has been reinstated to its original location now that parliament has left the building.

The €40 million project, of which €18 million was co-funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the rest coming from the government, has been a decade in the making, and the first scaffolding was erected in the palace corridor in 2019.

“That is when we found the ceiling was collapsing and we had to go to the government for money to restore it,” recalled project leader David Zahra from Heritage Malta. “Until then, no one had touched anything, and it is only then that you know what is going on.”

Heritage Malta had been “dreaming” of the restoration project for ages. At the first opportunity of EU funding, the first phase kicked off. Then the government started investing more money and it grew to what it is today.

Previously, the public could visit only around four of the 17 State Rooms, as well as access to the Armoury at ground floor, the main staircase and parts of the corridor. Since 2019, however, even these were shut off for works, barring some open days to see the progress.

Now, visitors can walk through the three Piano Nobile corridors around the courtyards of the palace; enter meticulously restored State Rooms they had never seen because they were used for Parliament’s administration; and visit the Uccelleria, which was the Speaker’s office and had been subdivided into smaller spaces.

One of the halls has now been dedicated to the Republic of Malta, with portraits of all the presidents.

Within the coming weeks and months, 85 per cent of the palace footprint will be accessible to the public, and Heritage Malta is also in the process of finalising the restoration of its turret and Pinto’s clocktower in Prince Alfred’s Courtyard, which was not part of the already extensive brief.

The restoration of every timber balcony has been added to the project too.

Only two halls remain to be restored – the Throne Room and the Tapestry Chamber, which are considered projects in their own right. They will be carried out over the next two years and will also involve the reconstruction and restoration of the only pitched roofs in the palace. The soffits and roofs of every other State Room have already been redone.

Described as the “embodiment of a nation for us”, the Grand Master’s Palace in St George’s Square is expected to be the biggest crowd-puller, bang in the heart of Valletta, said Zahra.

A conservation architect, who is also head of projects at Heritage Malta, he sees the job as part of a holistic approach to the city too.

The Grand Master’s Palace is the most visited site in Heri­tage Malta’s portfolio, welcoming around 200,000 annual visitors. Now, it aims to up that figure by another 100,000 yearly.

“The palace’s significance is sometimes underestimated. Because it has been used for so long as a workplace, we forget what important treasures and artistic significance it houses within its walls,” said Zahra, who has been living and breathing the building for the last five years and feels “synonymous with the palace”.

It has been a journey of discovery: from finding decorated walls behind the paintwork, dating back from the Knights’ period, when the offices were emptied out, to unearthing painted lunettes no one knew about when working on the corridors.

In the AG’s area, one of the oldest floors in Valletta was discovered for all to see; pipework was found dating back to the Knights; while recycled old capi­tals were unearthed in the foundation stones of the existing building.

All this was at once exciting and daunting for Zahra, who wears the hats of both project manager and conservation architect. Every new find was “painful” because it meant more time and money. On the other hand, it was exhilarating as more information about the 450-year-old building emerged and it grew in significance.

“This was a historian’s playground and a project manager’s nightmare,” he said as plans were constantly adapted to accommodate the many surprise discoveries.

Accretions were demolished to expose more significant architectural elements, and delicate decisions on interventions were made with the input of various experts, including its curator Manoel Magro Conti, and supported by research, detailed documentation, old plans and archaeological digs.

“The building is its own book and we had to be careful not to tear off a page as it would not make sense anymore,” Zahra said about the laborious process.

But perhaps one of the bigger challenges was the infrastructural works, which required creativity, ingenuity and “surgical” precision.

“In a room with painted walls, marble floors and historical soffits, how do you pass all services to upgrade it, including Wi-Fi, air conditioners and dehumidifiers, fire, security and lighting everywhere? It has to function as a modern museum, not a mummy,” Zahra said.

Walking in the footsteps of queens and popes

“People feel a connection with this building,” Zahra believed. Its balcony was the link, from where the crowds were addressed. But now the barriers have broken down, he said, taking a philosophical approach to the project.

“The decisions made inside these walls affected the people outside. Now, the doors have been opened and visitors can walk in the footsteps of queens and popes, presidents and ambassadors…”

Built by the Knights of St John in the 1570s, the Grand Master’s Palace is the “theatre where our nation was born”. The first building to be constructed in the new capital city and enlarged over the years, it was a State within a building. During the British period, it served as the Governor’s Palace and was the seat of Malta’s first constitutional parliament in 1921. Today, it is the seat of the Office of the President.

The opportunity for a conservation architect to work on one of the most important buildings in Malta has meant the project is Zahra’s “pride and joy”.

He also built a “love-hate relationship” with the place,” he admitted, describing it as a “ġennata” (madness) looking back.

Credit was given to President George Vella for his unwavering support of the restoration works that meant he had to leave his office and operate from San Anton Palace for the last five years.

“He had to choose between working from the palace or the project, and he chose the project,” Zahra said of the President’s initiative and the legacy he was leaving the country. Vella took a keen interest, visiting regularly and spending the day following the works. “He was the father figure of the project.”

The Grand Master’s Palace may have been inaugurated on Friday, and officially opened yesterday, but the interventions are not final and definitive, Zahra insisted. They are part of a “continuum of care”. The investment in the palace will have to be maintained to the dignity it merits, he said, stressing on the importance of valuing buildings, which is what saves them from demolition.