Located in the beautiful Auberge de Provence, Malta’s National Museum of Archaeology is every archaeologist’s dream, with myriad artefacts dating back to Malta’s pre-historic times.  

Interestingly, this much-loved museum is actually Malta’s first official national museum. Even though it was first founded in 1903, it wasn’t until 24th May 1904 when tourists and locals alike could visit and appreciate the rare and precious collection. 

According to the museum’s Facebook page, this notable collection included ‘coins and medals, Phoenician and Roman Pottery, objects in connection with the Order of St John, and a collection of Egyptian antiquities’. 

Even though you may have visited the museum during a visit to Valletta, when it first opened, the museum was actually located at The Xara Palace in Mdina. However, the collection soon grew too large, after many donations and even excavations of artefacts from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum and the Tarxien Temples. These discoveries came with a price, and in 1922, the large collection had to be moved to the Auberge d'Italie in Valletta.

If you’re wondering why it didn’t move to the Auberge de Provence at that time, that’s a fair point! After contacting the Museum, they reveal that the Auberge, which now houses the collection, used to serve as The Union Club. They noted that the state didn’t acquire the building until 1955. After this, it was decided that the National Museum should be moved to its new, and current, location. The Museum at the Auberge de Provence was then inaugurated in January 1958, and has been open to the public ever since. 

 Thankfully, these moves took place before the Xara Palace was hit by an aerial bomb and destroyed on 22nd February 1942.

National Museum of Arcaheology, Malta / Facebook