Carapecchia's intervention at the Inquisitor's Palace, 1733-34

Abstract

The Inquisitor's Palace, sited in the heart of the historical city of Vittoriosa, is one of the very few surviving palaces of its kind which in the early modern period could be found all over Europe and South America. Many simply succumbed to the ravages of time or else were victims of the reactionary power unleashed by the French Revolution. Fortunately, the Maltese Inquisitor's Palace, throughout its five centuries of history, always hosted high-ranking officials representing the main powers on the island, who ensured its survival. The Palace also managed to survive through the ordeal of the Second World War and the threat of modern development, and although much has been changed in its structure by its successive occupants, it is today an architectural gem, representative of the chequered history of the Maltese islands. Yet, until now, our knowledge of the Palace arid its history remained very incomplete, and all one can find is small pieces of information scattered here and there in various sources. The history of the Palace received a boost last year with the publication of three previously unknown plans of the building discovered in Rome.1 Yet much still remains to be done in foreign as well as (as in this case) in local archives, in order to fully appreciate the history and vicissitudes of the Inquisitor's Palace, especially when placed in a wider Maltese and European context.