The Inquisitor's Palace, home, courtroom and prison of Malta's Inquisition

Say “Inquisition” and most people picture Spain, racks and bonfires. That’s exactly why I rate this palace so highly. The Inquisition that ran here for 224 years was a different institution, and the museum goes out of its way to explain the difference with figures rather than drama.

A palace that began as a civil court

The building went up around the 1530s, just as the Knights were settling in Birgu. In 1543 Grand Master Juan de Homedes installed the Magna Curia Castellania Melitensis here, the Order’s civil court, which stayed until 1572, when it moved to the newly built Valletta.

Two years later, in 1574, Pietro Dusina arrived as Malta’s first inquisitor and apostolic delegate of Pope Gregory XIII. Grand Master Jean de la Cassière offered him this building, and the name has stuck ever since. From then on each inquisitor wore two hats, supreme judge of the Holy Office and representative of the Vatican’s interests on the island. Heritage Malta describes the palace as one of the three centres of power in early modern Malta. For the Knights’ side of that story, see the Knights of Malta.

The French abolished the Inquisition as soon as they arrived in 1798. The building went on to serve the French and the British, and for a while after the Second World War it passed to the Dominicans.

What do you see inside the Inquisitor’s Palace?

The visit falls into three parts, and I like taking them in order. On the ground floor is the domestic area with the historic kitchen. Upstairs is the piano nobile, with official halls and private quarters over two floors, where the inquisitor was a polished diplomat. Then come the rooms of the Holy Office itself, with the tribunal chamber, the torture chamber and the prison complex.

Heritage Malta sums up the contrast well. The palace was designed to inspire awe towards a powerful churchman in a sophisticated residence, and at the same time reverence and repentance through a courtroom with an austere prison attached. Today it works as both a historic house museum and the national museum of ethnography, looking at the Inquisition’s effect on Maltese society and the role of religion in daily life. It also houses the National Textiles Collection.

Not the Spanish Inquisition

This is the bit that grabs me. In its FAQs, Heritage Malta explains that the Spanish Inquisition, set up in 1478, was under the direct control of the Spanish crown, used harsh torture and made wide use of the death penalty. The Roman Inquisition, set up in 1542, was highly centralised, focused mainly on countering Protestant ideas and was much more lenient.

On torture, the museum gives a number. The Roman Inquisition in Malta used it in less than 1% of cases, never as a punishment and only as a last resort, usually after guidance from Rome. The old, weak, disabled, sick and pregnant women were spared. I’m not asking you to take that on trust, just to walk into the tribunal chamber with the figure in mind.

Then there are two legends. The pit of knives, the bir tas-skieken, has no documentary or archaeological evidence behind it; the museum thinks it was a tale to stop children wandering in unaccompanied. As for ghosts, the official answer is that it’s a highly subjective question, which made me smile.

Tickets, hours and fitting it in

Adults pay €6, concessions €4.50 and 6 to 11-year-olds €3, with the Multisite Pass also valid. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00, until 3 January 2027; from 4 January to 28 February it also closes on Wednesdays. Heritage Malta flags uneven floors, low lighting and low doorways, so anyone with limited mobility will find it hard going.

One more thing. Heritage Malta backs the visit with a busy programme of events and educational sessions, and its 2026 calendar lists workshops and talks here, some of them in Maltese. If one lines up with your trip it can add a lot, so I’d glance at the calendar before fixing the day.

I’d give it an hour and a half and slot it in after Fort St Angelo in Birgu, which opens earlier and needs more time. With both done, the Malta at War Museum in Birgu rounds off the day, or you can carry on round the rest of Birgu (Vittoriosa).