The Inquisitor's Palace: the story of a site unique in the world
Step into the history, architecture, art of a Maltese masterpiece
Ethnographic clay statuettesThe Inquisitor's Palace
In 1992 the ethnography section was set up within the Museums Department under Dr Carmel Cassar who recruited a group of student volunteers.
The palace was chosen as the headquarters of the section and converted into an ethnographic museum focusing on the popular devotions and religious cultural values in Maltese ethnic identity.
The building
Buildings have lives in time, and those lives are interwoven with the lives of the people who use them.
Internal courtyardThe Inquisitor's Palace
Building such as the Inquisitor's Palace are modified and grow in response to the changes in the exigencies of their users and reflect them. The Inquisitor’s Palace was not built at one go.
Inquisitor's Palace KitchenThe Inquisitor's Palace
The kitchen complex at the Inquisitor’s Palace is probably Malta’s best documented early modern kitchen.
Inquisitor's Palace KitchenThe Inquisitor's Palace
Research into numerous 17th and 18th-century inventories reveal an impressive facility.
Inquisitor's Palace KitchenThe Inquisitor's Palace
It is fully equipped to cater for the Inquisitor’s refined tastes and his desire to impress important guests and feed his retinue and inmates.
Inquisitor's bedroom - replicaThe Inquisitor's Palace
The inquisitors preferred to reside in the upper floors of the Piano Nobile.
This was normal practice throughout Europe, first of all for the privacy it afforded, but also because higher levels of humidity precluded the use of the ground floor area as apartments
Inquisitor's Palace main courtyardThe Inquisitor's Palace
Inquisitor Fabio Chigi, later elected as Pope Alexander VII, began to commission work soon after his arrival.
He had a garden built by demolishing some small rooms in the major courtyard, thus opening up a larger internal square.
He surrounded this garden with a high wall to block all vision from nearby houses
Inquisitor's Palace - Prison courtyardThe Inquisitor's Palace
Gio. Battista Gori Pannellini, who purchased the house abutting the palace on its right flank, erected seven prison cells.
Inquisitor's Palace holding cell - GraffitiThe Inquisitor's Palace
Three large ones on one side looked onto the street, while four smaller ones on the other side of a central corridor faced the garden.
Crucifix - Religious ethnographyThe Inquisitor's Palace
Structural repairs and alterations following the earthquake of 1693 had to be undertaken by Tommaso Ruffo (1694-98).
Cuqlajta - Religious ethnographyThe Inquisitor's Palace
He enlarged the edifice by building the upper part of the left wing of the palace – still known as the Ruffo Apartments.
Inquisitor's Palace chapelThe Inquisitor's Palace
The chapel was also completely refurbished in the 1720s during the tenure of office of Antonio Ruffo (1720-28)
Inquisitor's Palace - Camera SecretaThe Inquisitor's Palace
The Camera Secreta was known as the Tribunal Room
Inquisitor's Palace - Camera SecretaThe Inquisitor's Palace
It was the seat wherein the chancellor in the presence of the accused person and two witnesses, usually the marshal and the clerk, reads the sentence to the heretic.
