Archbishop's Palace, Mdina

Archbishop's Palace
Archbishop's Palace
Il-Palazz tal-Arċisqof
	Façade of the Archbishop's Palace in 2013
Former names	Bishop's Palace
General information
Status	Intact
Type	Palace
Location	Mdina, Malta
Coordinates	35°53′10.2″N 14°24′15.4″E
Construction started	1718
Completed	1720
Owner	Archdiocese of Malta
Technical details
Material	Limestone
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Lorenzo Gafà

The Archbishop's Palace (Maltese: Il-Palazz tal-Arċisqof), known prior to 1944 as the Bishop's Palace (Maltese: Il-Palazz tal-Isqof),[lower-alpha 1] is a palatial building in Mdina, Malta which is a residence of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Malta. It was constructed in the early 18th century, and it is located close to St Paul's Cathedral and the Mdina Cathedral Museum.

History

A bishop's residence existed in Mdina in 1445, and amongst other functions it housed the diocese's archives (Archivum Archiepiscopalis Melitensis, AAM). The residence and administrative seat moved from Mdina to a second Bishop's Palace in the capital city of Valletta in the mid-1630s.[2]

The present building was constructed between 1718 and 1720 according to the designs of architect Lorenzo Gafà, shortly after the reconstruction of the adjacent St Paul's Cathedral.[3]

On 10 June 1798, during the French invasion of Malta, the palace hosted a council meeting during which city officials decided to surrender Mdina to the French without a fight. The capitulation document was signed within the palace, and on the same day French general Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois and his staff were invited to dine with Bishop Vincenzo Labini.[4]

Architecture

The palace is built within a restricted site in Archbishop's Square directly adjacent to the Cathedral and the city's fortifications. Its exterior gives an impression of importance and elegance despite being dominated by the cathedral, and the ground floor consists of small, undecorated rooms while the upper floor is more imposing.[3]

Notes

Malta was a Diocese headed by a Bishop prior to being elevated to an Archdiocese headed by an Archbishop by Pope Pius XII on 1 January 1944.[1]

References

Doublet, Nicholas Joseph (29 March 2015). "First solemn entry of the Archbishop of Malta into Mdina Cathedral in 1944". Times of Malta. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022.
Bezzina, Joseph. "The Four Foremost Ecclesiastical Archives of Malta" (PDF). archivaecclesiae.org. pp. 81–103. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 June 2022.
"Palaces". localgovernment.gov.mt. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022.
Hardman, William (1909). A history of Malta during the period of the French and British occupations, 1798–1815. London: Longmans, Green & Co. pp. 51–52.

External links

Media related to Archbishop's Palace (Mdina) at Wikimedia Commons

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[2] Malta was a Diocese headed by a Bishop prior to being elevated to an Archdiocese headed by an Archbishop by Pope Pius XII on 1 January 1944.[1]

[1] Doublet, Nicholas Joseph (29 March 2015). "First solemn entry of the Archbishop of Malta into Mdina Cathedral in 1944". Times of Malta. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022.

[archivaecclesiae-3] Bezzina, Joseph. "The Four Foremost Ecclesiastical Archives of Malta" (PDF). archivaecclesiae.org. pp. 81–103. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 June 2022.

[localgovernment-4] "Palaces". localgovernment.gov.mt. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022.

[5] Hardman, William (1909). A history of Malta during the period of the French and British occupations, 1798–1815. London: Longmans, Green & Co. pp. 51–52.