The Malta Maritime Museum, shut while it reinvents itself

I’d rather say this plainly up front. At the end of September 2026 the Malta Maritime Museum is closed. Heritage Malta has it shut for a complete transformation and gives no date for its return, so if it’s on an itinerary you’ve been sent, cross it off.

That said, the place deserves a few paragraphs, because the building is still there and says a lot about Birgu.

From galley arsenal to Royal Navy bakery

The museum sits in a building with several lives behind it. Under the Order of St John this was the galley arsenal, where the Knights built and maintained the ships they used to defend the island and project power across the Mediterranean. Who those Knights were and what they left behind is covered in the Knights of Malta.

When the British arrived in the early 19th century, the site changed purpose. In 1844 the architect William Scamp, known for his naval engineering work, designed and oversaw the Royal Naval Bakery, a vast operation that supplied bread and provisions to the Mediterranean Fleet. Heritage Malta holds it up as a prime example of British military architecture in Malta.

It later served as the Dockyard Constabulary headquarters. When the British forces left an independent Malta in 1979, the building was freed up, and in 1992 it officially opened as the Malta Maritime Museum, with artefacts, ship models and documents covering the islands’ relationship with the sea, from ancient seafaring to the 20th century.

Why is it closed, and when will it reopen?

Heritage Malta says the museum is closing to be redesigned from top to bottom around a new idea, the story of a seafaring island and its people, with the aim of creating a world-class cultural and educational space. It publishes no works schedule and no reopening date. For a building that has already been an arsenal, a bakery and a police headquarters, one more reinvention feels entirely in character.

My advice is simple. Don’t plan anything around this museum until Heritage Malta changes its page, and be wary of any tour that still includes it as standard. When it does reopen, the official page will be the first place to say so.

What to do in Birgu if you came for the sea

Birgu’s maritime side is still on show, just from the outside. The waterfront promenade runs past the old naval bakery, marina boats in front, and on to the tip where Fort St Angelo in Birgu stands. That fort was a Royal Navy shore base, first as HMS Egmont and from 1933 as HMS St Angelo, so it’s the closest thing to a naval museum you’ll find open in town.

The other good fit is the Malta at War Museum in Birgu, which tells how this side of the harbour was punished in the Second World War, precisely because of its naval role. Wirt Artna says almost half of Birgu was destroyed.

And one idea for seeing the harbour from the water. The Valletta to Cospicua ferry crosses the Grand Harbour for €3, and from the deck you see the quays and bastions of the Three Cities as arriving ships once did. Times and fares are on the Valletta ferries page.

The maritime heritage that is open

With the museum shut, the other big window onto Malta’s naval past is underwater. Heritage Malta has an underwater cultural heritage unit and 18 submerged sites that can be visited through licensed dive centres, including submarines, Second World War aircraft and the Xlendi Underwater Archaeological Park off Gozo. One of them, the submarine HMS Olympus, lies about seven miles off Valletta’s harbour.

It isn’t for everyone, since you need to be a qualified diver and book with an authorised centre. But if the sea is your thing, I think it’s the best substitute for the visit you can’t make. The MTA notes that at the boot Düsseldorf Dive Awards, in January 2025, the islands won the prize for best diving destination anywhere, with more than 40 dive centres, and I’ve covered the wrecks properly in Malta wreck diving.

Getting to the building

The museum is on the Birgu Waterfront, and Heritage Malta says there’s a bus stop five minutes’ walk away. From Valletta terminus, bus 2 heads to Birgu. For everything else in the area, start with Birgu (Vittoriosa).