The Inquisitor’s Palace

The Inquisitor’s Palace, sited in the heart of Vittoriosa (Birgu), is one of the very few surviving examples of such palaces which could be found all over Europe and South America. Many simply succumbed to the ravages of time or became victims of the reactionary power unleashed by the French Revolution against the ancien regime. The fact that Malta’s palace, throughout its five centuries of history, always hosted high-ranking officials representing the main powers on the island ensured its survival. The palace also survived the Second World War and the threat of modern development. Although much has been changed in the structure of the building by its successive occupants, the Inquisitor’s Palace remains an architectural gem, representative of the checkered history and European heritage of the islands.

The Palazzo del Sant’ Officio was originally erected in the 1530s soon after the arrival of the Hospitaller Order of St John to Malta. The knights settled down and had their first administrative center in Birgu and the building was intended to host the Magna Curia Castellania that is the civil law courts. Traces of this original building are still visible, especially the Gothic ribbed and paneled quadripartite- vaulted courtyard, similar in style to those found in other contemporary buildings in Vittoriosa. Most probably the architect was Fra Diego Perez de Malfriere. Fra Diego was the Order’s engineer at the time and he introduced this out-dated style of construction on the islands. On the left hand side of this pointed arched bay one can also see the original entrance to the palace. Most probably the ground floor rooms on the left hand side of the palace, which have a vaulted ceiling, also formed part of the Castellania. They are in fact practically the only part of the palace that remained virtually untouched through the ages. It is possible that the Castellania was the first building erected on the site in the 1530s.

The Inquisitor’s Palace was not built at one go. Various inquisitors and other subsequent occupants modified sections of the building as they saw fit, sometimes demolishing or altering parts which had been erected by their immediate predecessors and constructing other sections to suit their requirements and tastes. This is the main reason why today the palace is a complicated building with a rather haphazard interior. There is no apparent order since there never was a general master plan for it as a whole, and whenever expansion took place it was basically unprogrammed.

The palace served as the civil law courts until 1571, when Grand Master Pietro del Monte transferred the administrative center of the Order to Valletta as a result of the building of the new city. The Palace remained empty as the occupants were attracted to the better opportunities of defence and employment offered in the new city. The Palace became one of the first symbols of the shift in emphasis on the new city by the Order. The Palace remained empty just till 1574 when Mgr. Pietro Dusina arrived in Malta as representative of the pope. Dusina was the first general inquisitor and apostolic delegate of the islands, and the grand master offered him the unused palace as official residence.

Secrecy was the basic rule on which the entire inquisitorial system was based. Inquisitors and their ministers were bound by very strict oaths of secrecy. If these were not respected, they would have incurred in an excommunication which only the cardinal inquisitors of the Holy Congregation of Rome could have removed. One of the immediate consequences of this precept was the birth of a particularly secure prison system in which to enclose the accused and isolate them from any contact with the outside world. The lack of observation of this rule would have meant the potential collapse of the whole structure of the Inquisition. In reality, however, as a reflection of contemporary attitudes to imprisonment, the availability of adequate prisons was one of the principal problems for the day-to-day proper functioning and administration of Inquisition tribunals across Europe in the early modern period. The Malta Holy Office was no exception.

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