Ten years since restoration of Mdina’s Palazzo de Piro

Mdina landmark now being offered for a fresh concession

It has been ten years since the completion of the restoration works which returned Palazzo de Piro in Mdina to its original splendour. Now, The Mdina Metropolitan Chapter, the owners of the imposing 17th century palace in the shadow of Mdina’s cathedral, is looking for a new tenant who can give this landmark a new lease of life through a new longterm concession

“Palazzo de Piro has a long history of succession, ownership, and character in fact the site of the present building was originally occupied by three separate houses that were the residence of the Falca family with its earliest known member being a certain Marciano, who by 1429, served as a jury,” explains monsigneur Salvinu Micallef from the Metropolitan Chapter.

“If we recall the famous historical account of when the Maltese inhabitants had to buy back the Maltese Islands from Gonsalvo Monroy, we learn that Marciano himself had intervened to settle part of this debt,” added Mgr Micallef.

The palazzo’s architectural features indicate that this edifice is presumed to have been built under the supervision of Girolamo Cassar or his oeuvre.

During the 19th century the palazzo fell into the possession of Cavaliere Giovanni Parisio Muscati. Later on, Alexander De Piro D’Amico Inguanez and his new wife Orsola took up residence here soon after their marriage in 1868 where they raised a family of seven boys and two girls. One of these was the renowned Monsignor Giuseppe De Piro, founder of the ‘Missionary Society of St Paul’.

After World War II Palazzo De Piro was sold by Orsola’s heirs to the Dorothean nuns who converted the property into a girls’ school. It was in 2005 that the Metropolitan

Chapter acquired the palazzo and invested substantially in restoring and renovating this historical gem to its former glory.

“The Cathedral Chapter is now inviting entrepreneurs seeking an investment opportunity, to submit their ideas and proposals for another long-term concession of one of the major and rarest landmarks inside Mdina,” concluded Mgr Micallef.