Restoration works on Villa Guardamangia, former royal residence, pick up

Villa Guardamangia, the Malta residence of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, will be opened as a museum within three years once extensive restoration is completed, Heritage Malta said on Wednesday.

During a tour of the villa, Heritage Malta’s Chief Operating Officer, Kenneth Gambin, said the museum will focus on the history of the building and how it was rented to the royal couple who lived in the property between 1949 and 1951, before Elizabeth became queen.

The villa was acquired by the government in 2019, and since then, Heritage Malta has been conducting research, studies, and restoration works to bring it back to life. 

Practically nothing has survived the time Elizabeth lived in the villa, except part of the heating system. The research has focused on how the villa looked at the time and how it was furnished and decorated. 

Now that sufficient studies have been conducted, major infrastructural works can commence to transform the site into a museum, Gambin said. The works include rebuilding the iconic, much-photographed walkway that stretched over the garden.

The project will cost over €12 million, with €10 million coming from the European Regional Development Fund.

The garden and ongoing works to reconstruct the walkway. Photo: Antoine Farrugia Lauri

'The museum will reflect the history of Malta in the 1950s'

Heritage Minister Owen Bonnici said the museum would not only be a place to recall Princess Elizabeth in Malta, but it would also reflect life in Malta in the 1950s.

The minister said that the museum would include sections which showed what Malta was like in 1950, and the challenges that it faced. The museum will also include the voices of descendants of people who used to work here.

“We will narrate, not only the story of the royal couple, but also the story of the Maltese who were working here,” Bonnici said.

Princess Elizabeth and her husband on the walkway above the garden at Villa Guardamangia.

Gambin said that visitors would enter from the main entrance, and the museum would start from the former dining room where a film explaining the historical context of the building will be screened.

What used to be used as the dining room. Photo: Antoine Farrugia Lauri

Also on display, on the first floor, will be the separate former private quarters of the then princess and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Designs uncovered under the paint. Photo: Antoine Farrugia Lauri