Palazzo Parisio
The Palazzo Parisio is a palace in the old town of Valletta , Malta . It was built by Domenico Sceberras in the 1740s . After several changes of ownership between influential Maltese families, it was finally acquired by the Maltese government and housed the main post office from 1886 to 1973. Since then it has been the seat of the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs . The adjacent Auberge de Castille is the seat of the Prime Minister of Malta .
history
At the location of today's palazzo there were previously two town houses, one of which was Chev. Fra Michel Fonterne dit la Chiesa, the other to Francesco This. Both were acquired by Fra Giovanni di Ventimiglia and from 1608 formed a usufruct that all members of his family who served in the Maltese order in Malta could access .
In 1717 both houses were handed over to Donna Maria Sceberras in exchange for two other houses in the city, after whose death her son Domenico Sceberras, the then titular bishop of Epiphany , inherited the two properties. In the 1740s, Sceberras had the two Ventimiglia houses demolished and the Palazzo Parisio built on the same spot.
After the death of Sceberras, the house became the property of the Muscati family. In the late 18th century, the house was owned by Paolo Parisio-Muscati, who named the building Palazzo Parisio . The house remained in the possession of the Muscati family until the French occupation in 1798. Napoleon Bonaparte entered Malta on June 13th and first moved into the Banca Giuratale on Merchants Street , but found his quarters unsuitable and moved into the palazzo the next day Parisio around. He stayed there until June 20, before setting off on his Egyptian expedition .
After Malta became a British protectorate in 1800 , the palazzo was inhabited again by Paolo Parisio-Muscati and his family and was used as accommodation by Ralph Abercromby on his way to Egypt that same year . In 1841 Baron Lynedoch was a guest as a personal Parisio-Muscatis. In the same year Paolo Parisio-Muscati died on December 10th and was buried with a state funeral in the cemetery of the Ta 'Ġieżu church. As a result, the palazzo went through several owners until it was finally acquired by the British colonial government. The purchase was preceded by the building's decline until the 1880s, before the postmaster at the time, Ferdinand Inglott, was able to repair the Palazzo as the post office's headquarters in 1886.
A second floor was added during World War I to house government auditing . During the Second World War , the building was bombed on April 24, 1942 and partially destroyed. After the war, the facade was restored, but most of the interior was lost. In 1973 the post office moved to the Auberge d'Italie across the street and the Maltese Foreign Ministry moved into the newly restored premises of the palazzo.
architecture
The building is an example of Maltese baroque architecture , as it was typical for this period in Malta under Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca in the mid-18th century. It consists of three blocks that are laid out around an inner courtyard. The strict facade on the street side is the only symmetrical element, with an unloaded main entrance, which is framed by two free-standing columns that support the wooden balcony above. The main entrance is surrounded on both sides by three windows with a semicircular ledge above the window. The corners of the building were also decorated. The windows on the first floor are decorated, while the windows on the second floor are relatively small and square.
Inside, the walls and ceilings have been painted with frescoes by the Maltese painter Antonaci Grech , some of which were destroyed in the Second World War. The walls are also decorated with paintings, those by Mattia Preti are also older than the building itself.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Victor F. Denaro: Houses in Merchants Street, Valletta . In: Melita Historica . 2, No. 3, 1958, pp. 158-159.
- ↑ Epiphany in Syria , entry on the titular seat of Epiphany in Syria on catholic-hierarchy.org , accessed on March 21, 2020
- ↑ a b Palazzo Parisio , website of the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accessed on March 22, 2020
- ↑ a b Maltapost privatization latest red-letter day in postal history , Times of Malta article from January 21, 2008, accessed on March 22, 2020
- ↑ Denis De Lucca: The city-fortress of Valletta in the Baroque age . In: Baroque Routes . No. 9, December 2013, p. 16.
- ↑ Database entry of the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands from December 28, 2012, accessed on March 26, 2020
- ^ Keith Sciberras: Baroque Painting in Malta . Midsea Books, 2009, ISBN 9789993272496 , p. 407.
Web links
Coordinates: 35 ° 54 ′ 13.7 ″ N , 14 ° 26 ′ 53 ″ E