Museums in Malta: war, art, archaeology and historic houses

What museums in Malta cover

The islands have been a stage for Phoenicians, Romans, Knights, the French and the British, and the museums show it. A visit can run from a cave where dwarf elephants left their bones to a Second World War tunnel where Allied commanders worked under bombardment. This hub covers twenty-seven places, from large national museums to small historic houses, and from places seen in an hour to ones that deserve a morning.

The range is wider than a first glance suggests. Some are collections in palaces, others are experiences built around reconstructions, and a few are museums more by courtesy than by label, such as a shelter or a windmill.

Valletta: the main concentration

Most of the museums sit in the capital, which makes it easy to build a day around two or three.

For the Knights, begin with the Grandmaster’s Palace, the Grand Masters’ residence and later the British governor’s, and the neighbouring Palace Armoury, one of the finest surviving collections of arms and armour. The Knights Hospitallers tells the story of the Order through reconstructed rooms in part of the Sacra Infermeria.

For the war, Lascaris War Rooms are tunnels beneath Lascaris Bastion that served as Allied headquarters, and the National War Museum fills Fort St Elmo with aircraft, uniforms and torpedoes.

For art and archaeology, the National Museum of Archaeology in the Auberge de Provence holds Malta’s main collection of finds, and the National Museum of Fine Arts has the largest collection of Mattia Preti’s paintings. Smaller options include the Malta Postal Museum, the Manoel Theatre, opened in 1732 and still working, and Casa Rocca Piccola, a palace lived in by the de Piro family.

Birgu and the south

Across the harbour, the Malta at War Museum in Vittoriosa has original air-raid shelters and film footage of the Blitz. The Inquisitors Palace was the Inquisitors’ residence and tribunal and now houses the National Museum of Ethnography, and the Malta Maritime Museum covers seafaring in the former Royal Naval Bakery. In the south, Ghar Dalam Museum holds Ice Age animal remains from Malta’s oldest known site.

Mdina, Rabat and the countryside

Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum is a medieval palace in Mdina filled by a collector, with silver, rugs, paintings and armour. The National Museum of Natural History fills Vilhena Palace at the Mdina entrance. In Rabat, Domvs Romana preserves a Roman townhouse with mosaic floors, and the Wignacourt Museum leads down to St Paul’s Grotto, catacombs and wartime tunnels.

The Malta Aviation Museum at Ta’ Qali, with its rebuilt Spitfire, and Palazzo Parisio Gardens in Naxxar, a stately home on the main square, round out the countryside.

Gozo

Inside the Cittadella, the Gozo Museum of Archaeology traces the island’s story from the first settlers, the Gozo Old Prison has walls covered in graffiti of ships and crosses, and the Gran Castello Historic House shows folklore in medieval houses. On the other side of the island, Malta Windmills includes Ta’ Kola in Xagħra.

Shelters, libraries and curiosities

A few museums are best described by what they hold. The National Library of Malta is the Bibliotheca on Old Treasury Street in Valletta, built in 1796 for the Knights and home to around 300,000 books. In Mellieħa, the Mellieha Air Raid Shelter is a hand-dug Second World War shelter of more than 500 metres, with family rooms and a maternity section. It is a good wet-weather stop on a beach trip, and it stays cool in summer.

At the lighter end, the Classic Car Collection Museum in Qawra shows more than a hundred classic cars and motorbikes, set among jukeboxes, slot machines and gramophones. It suits a family that has already done the aquarium nearby, and an hour is enough for most visitors.

Two windmills from the Knights’ period survive, Ta’ Kola in Xagħra on Gozo and Xarolla in Żurrieq on Malta, each with a small museum. Xarolla fits naturally into a south-coast day with the temples and the Blue Grotto.

Planning museum days

Choose a theme rather than visiting at random: the Knights, the war, prehistory or art. Two or three museums fill a day comfortably, with a garden or a harbour walk between them. Mornings are best in summer, when the streets are hot, and wet winter days suit underground sites such as the war rooms and shelters.

Opening hours differ between sites and seasons, and some stop admitting visitors well before closing, so check current times for each. A few require booking or timed tours, and allow time at the door for security checks and queues. Pair a museum with a nearby site, for example the National War Museum with the harbour walk to the Upper Barrakka Gardens.