MUŻA, Malta's art museum in the Auberge d'Italie

MUŻA is the museum I’d send you to if you come out of St John’s wanting more. There you see the Baroque in its natural home, a church; here you see it laid out, with names, dates and the story of why so many European painters ended up working for such a small island.

What it is, and where the name comes from

MUŻA comes from the Maltese word for muse. It’s the National Community Art Museum, it opened in late 2018, and it succeeded the old National Museum of Fine Arts, which used to be at Admiralty House. Its home now is the Auberge d’Italie on Merchants Street, a late 16th-century building put up for the Order of St John’s Italian knights.

To me the building is half the visit. It’s one of the auberges UNESCO names among Valletta’s monuments, and walking in is the easiest way to see how the Order organised itself by nationality, or langue. For the background, there’s my guide to the Order of Malta, from Rhodes to Valletta.

How the museum is laid out

The route follows a sequence of styles that tells the story of art in Malta. It starts upstairs with Neolithic, Punic, Roman, Arab and early medieval pieces, then moves into the Renaissance, much of it arriving via Sicily, with which Malta shared political and artistic ties.

The Order’s arrival in 1530 opens the Baroque chapter, and that’s the part that fills most of the galleries. Heritage Malta names Filippo Paladini, Mattia Preti, Guido Reni, Valentin de Boulogne, Jusepe de Ribera, Melchiorre Cafà, Antoine Favray and Giuseppe Grech. I enjoy Preti more here, at eye level, than high up on a church wall.

Then comes the British period, up to independence in 1964, with portraits, landscapes and everyday scenes, including the Turner watercolour on loan from HSBC. British visitors will spot familiar names in this section, Edward Lear among them. The ground floor covers the 20th century, with Edward Caruana Dingli, Anton Inglott, Giorgio Borg and the sculptor Antonio Sciortino, and the work that followed the war and independence. Heritage Malta singles out the British abstract pioneer Victor Pasmore as a turning point for the island’s art.

The word “Community” in the name isn’t decoration. Heritage Malta describes MUŻA as a museum that works with schools, artists and community organisations, and the later rooms show it, with Maltese artists from Emvin Cremona and Victor Diacono to Gabriel Caruana and Alfred Chircop pushing towards a language of their own. I find that last stretch the most revealing part of the building, because it’s the work you’re least likely to come across outside Malta.

Tickets, hours and how long to allow

Tickets are €10 for adults, €7.50 on the concession rate and €5.50 for children aged 6 to 11, and Heritage Malta’s pass includes it. Until the end of October 2026 the daily hours are 10:00 to 18:00; from 1 November it opens earlier and closes earlier, 09:00 to 17:00, through to the end of February, and you need to be in thirty minutes before closing.

Heritage Malta suggests around an hour and a quarter. There’s a shop, seating, lockers and baby-changing facilities. For a guided tour you need to email the museum, which sends the details. Heritage Malta’s 2026 calendar also listed an Edward Caruana Dingli exhibition running from August to October.

I think the €10 is well spent if you like painting, and even more so on the Multisite Pass, when it’s effectively thrown in. If you only have one day in Valletta and art isn’t your thing, I’d put it behind St John’s, the Palace and Fort St Elmo. This isn’t a museum to rush, and in under an hour you’d leave feeling you’d only half seen it.

MUŻA and Underground Valletta

There’s a practical reason not to leave MUŻA until last. Underground Valletta tours meet here, 30 minutes before the booked time. If you’ve reserved the tunnels, I’d go round the museum first and make the wait count. Remember the tunnels are separate, cost €15 and aren’t in the Multisite Pass.

If you fancy prehistory afterwards, the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta is a few minutes away on Republic Street, and €5 gets you the Venus of Malta and the Sleeping Lady. Together they make a well-rounded morning.