Young royal couple’s Malta home to become museum
A DILAPIDATED town house in Malta where a young Prince Philip lived with the then Princess Elizabeth is undergoing a multi-million pound restoration with a view to turning it into a museum.
Villa Guardamangia, on the outskirts of the capital Valletta, is to be returned to its state when it was home to the royal couple in what they said was one of the happiest periods of their lives.
The restoration is expected to take at least five years, after which the house will eventually be opened as a museum.
The ground floor of the 18th-century limestone villa will contain exhibitions depicting the relationship between Britain and Malta, which gained independence in 1964, while the first floor will feature a reconstruction of how the house looked when it was home to the young couple from 1949 to 1951.
At the time, the Duke of Edinburgh was serving on board HMS Magpie, part of the Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet.
The couple’s time on the island was one of their few opportunities to savour a relatively normal life. All that would change when the princess’s father, George VI, died in 1952 and she was crowned Queen a year later.
The 18-room town house was acquired by the Maltese government last June and is undergoing an extensive restoration.
“It’s in a very dilapidated state,” said Kenneth Gambin from Heritage Malta, the national agency for museums and cultural heritage.
“We’ve had to prop up the façade because it was threatening to collapse in places. We will have to replace some walls. It needs extensive work, it’s been falling to pieces for the last few decades,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“We calculate it will cost somewhere between €5million and €10million [£4.3million to £8.7mllion], and I would say it will be closer to the higher figure.”
Heritage Malta describes the property as “a national treasure” and “a bluechip player in British colonial Malta”.
Britain and the Royal family are regarded with affection by many Maltese. “There is still a feeling of attachment and nostalgia, especially among the older generation,” said Mr Gambin.