Auberge in Valletta, Malta
The
Auberge d'Auvergne
(
Maltese
:
Ber?a ta' Alvernja
) was an auberge in
Valletta
,
Malta
. It was built in the 16th century to house knights of the
Order of Saint John
from the
langue
of
Auvergne
. It became a
courthouse
in the 19th century, and it remained so until it was destroyed by aerial bombardment in 1941. The site is now occupied by the
Courts of Justice building
, which was constructed in the 1960s.
History
[
edit
]
Auberge d'Auvergne was located in
Great Siege
Square within
Strada San Giorgio
(now known as Republic Street), facing the nave of
St. John's Co-Cathedral
. The langue of Auvergne received the authorization to construct the auberge on 8 June 1570, and construction started either in 1571 or 1574. It was completed in around 1583, and the building was constructed to a design of the Maltese architect
Girolamo Cassar
.
[1]
Auberge d'Auvergne was enlarged in 1783, when part of an adjacent 16th-century palace called Casa Caccia was incorporated into the building.
[2]
[3]
The auberge continued to house the langue of Auvergne until 1798, when the Order left Malta due to the
French occupation
.
In the 19th century it started to be used as for tribunals and court cases, and became at some point it became known as the "Palace of the Courts of Justice".
[4]
From 1825 onwards, the auberge housed the
Tribunale di Pirateria
and the
Corte di Fallimento
, while Governor Sir
Henry Bouverie
moved the Civil Courts from the
Castellania
to Auberge d'Auvergne in 1840.
[1]
[5]
The courts of criminal jurisdiction and the office of Police were also moved to the auberge in 1853, and a number of alterations were made to the building under the direction of Superintendent of Government Works William Lamb Arrowsmith.
[5]
[6]
In 1886 an earthquake caused significant damage to the building, rendering it partially unsafe.
[7]
The ground floor of the building was occupied by a number of shops, and in the early 20th century part of it housed the Alhambra Cinema.
[8]
The building was included on the Antiquities List of 1925 together with the other auberges in Valletta.
[9]
On 23 May 1930, an assassination attempt occurred in the auberge, when ?anni Miller fired three shots at Prime Minister
Lord Strickland
.
[10]
On 30 April 1941, during
World War II
, the auberge and the adjacent Casa Caccia were hit by a German
parachute mine
, and they were severely damaged.
[2]
The law courts subsequently moved to another location outside Valletta, in
Balzan
at Palazzo Testaferrata and at a seminary in
Floriana
,
[12]
[13]
but in 1943 they returned to the part of the auberge which was still standing. They remained there until 1956, when the premises had to be vacated due to their dilapidated state.
[6]
From 1956, the Magistrates' Court was situated at
Casa Brunet
at 107 Old Bakery Street.
[14]
[15]
The ruins were subsequently demolished,
[16]
and
a new courthouse
with a
neoclassical
design began to be built on the site on 5 May 1965.
[6]
It was inaugurated on 9 January 1971.
[1]
The site of the portico is scheduled at grade 3, according to a 2006 decision, as some remains of the auberge may remain below ground.
[17]
Architecture
[
edit
]
Auberge d'Auvergne was built in the
Mannerist
style, typical of its architect
Girolamo Cassar
. The building originally had a square plan with a central
courtyard
, and it had a somewhat plain facade
[18]
containing an ornate doorway flanked by three windows on either side. The
quoins
of the building had
rustications
similar to those found at
Auberge d'Aragon
.
[3]
After the 1783 enlargement, three further windows were added on the left side of the building, and its facade was no longer symmetrical.
[2]
Further reading
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"The Courts"
.
The Judiciary of Malta
. Archived from
the original
on 6 January 2015.
- ^
a
b
c
Denaro, Victor F. (1959).
"Houses in Kingsway and Old Bakery Street, Valletta"
.
Melita Historica
.
2
(4): 203?204. Archived from
the original
on 17 November 2015.
- ^
a
b
"The Auberge d'Auvergne"
.
angelfire.com
. Archived from
the original
on 1 August 2015.
- ^
1853 ordinance VI, updated by 1854 ordinance I.
Malta Police Force (1857).
"Civil Establishment"
(PDF)
.
Civil Establishment of Malta - For the Year 1856
. Blue Books. pp. 79, 190. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 22 June 2019.
- ^
a
b
Cauchi, Jacqueline Azzopardi; Knepper, Paul (1 February 2009). "The Empire, the police, and the introduction of fingerprint technology in Malta".
Criminology & Criminal Justice
.
9
(1).
London
: Sage: 78.
CiteSeerX
10.1.1.896.3771
.
doi
:
10.1177/1748895808099181
.
ISSN
1748-8958
.
OCLC
746934116
.
S2CID
146525063
.
- ^
a
b
c
Ganado, Albert (28 March 1966). "Law Courts in Valletta".
Times of Malta
. pp. 39?40.
- ^
Galea, Pauline (2007).
"Seismic history of the Maltese islands and considerations on seismic risk: Earthquakes in Malta"
.
Annals of Geophysics
.
50
(6): 734.
- ^
Cini, George (5 August 2015).
"Let's go to the movies"
.
Times of Malta
. Archived from
the original
on 25 January 2016.
- ^
"Protection of Antiquities Regulations 21st November, 1932 Government Notice 402 of 1932, as Amended by Government Notices 127 of 1935 and 338 of 1939"
.
Malta Environment and Planning Authority
.
Archived
from the original on 19 April 2016.
- ^
Attard, Eddie (10 June 2012).
"1930 attempt on Lord Strickland's life"
.
Times of Malta
. Archived from
the original
on 22 September 2012.
- ^
"Info"
(PDF)
. www.um.edu.mt
. Retrieved
29 January
2020
.
- ^
Testone, Aldo (September 2010).
"The Courts of Justice of Malta"
.
Commonwealth Law Bulletin
.
36
(3).
Routledge
: 469?478.
doi
:
10.1080/03050718.2010.500839
.
ISSN
0305-0718
.
OCLC
1799322
.
S2CID
144426149
. Archived from
the original
on 18 December 2016.
- ^
Balzan Local Council
Archived
1 August 2018 at the
Wayback Machine
.
- ^
Bonni?i, Arthur (4 March 1978).
"Inkomplu bit-tibdil fil-Belt"
(PDF)
.
Leħen is-Sewwa
(in Maltese). p. 7.
- ^
"Houses Of The French Knights In Valletta"
(PDF)
: 153.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
Bonnici, Joseph; Cassar, Michael (2004).
A Chronicle of Twentieth Century Malta
.
Malta
: Book Distributors Limited. p. 308.
ISBN
9789990972276
.
- ^
"Replacemen and Restoration of the Portico Column Bases at the Courts of Justice, Valletta"
(PDF)
. Ministry for Justice, Culture and Local Government. 2012. p. 59 (2). Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 24 December 2016.
- ^
Badger, George Percy (1838).
Description of Malta and Gozo
.
Malta
: M. Weiss. p. 150.
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