Pietà, two villas and a princess on Marsamxett Harbour

Pietà is a small, densely built council tucked against Msida, and almost nobody puts it on an itinerary. As a rule, neither would I. But it holds two houses with two very different British stories, and one of them opens its gardens on a single Sunday a month.

Villa Frere, a garden half saved

Heritage Malta tells how John Hookham Frere, an English scholar, politician, poet and diplomat, retired to Malta in 1821 with his ailing wife and his sister. A year later he took a 99-year lease from the nuns of St Catherine on a waterfront property in Pietà, which became Villa Frere and its grand gardens.

What followed is the story of a garden nibbled away by the city. When the lease ended, the government built St Luke’s Hospital, wartime bombing caused damage, a primary school went up on the Japanese garden and a helipad replaced the upper terraces. Only a third survives. Volunteers founded the Friends of Villa Frere in 2013 and, working with Heritage Malta, saw it scheduled as a Grade 1 national monument in 2020.

I like this story more than many a pristine villa, because it explains how the Northern Harbour grew. For another chapter of the same story, Floriana, just outside Valletta, is a short ride away.

When you can see Villa Frere

Heritage Malta opens it from 09:30 to 16:30 on the first Sunday of each month, according to its official opening hours image valid until 31 October 2026, and it was closed from July to September. The 2026 calendar lists special openings on 4 October, 1 November and 6 December; the winter images give no times for the last two, so I’d check before going. Entry is €5 for adults, youths, seniors and students, and free for under-12s.

You go in through St Luke’s Hospital. Heritage Malta advises parking inside the grounds, behind Karen Grech Hospital, and following the signs from the gate. It’s not the most romantic approach, but it’s part of the story.

Villa Guardamangia, a princess’s house

The other villa sits halfway up Guardamangia Hill. Heritage Malta calls it one of the earliest surviving residences in Pietà, dating from the 18th century. In 1948 Lord Mountbatten rented it, and in 1949, when Prince Philip was posted to Malta aboard HMS Chequers, he offered it to his nephew. The then Princess Elizabeth stayed there with her husband whenever he wasn’t away at sea.

Heritage Malta bought it in 2020 to open as a mid-20th-century historic house, and is restoring it with €10.2 million from the European Regional Development Fund. It’s closed for now, so you can only see it from the street. For the wider British chapter of the island, see the history of Malta.

Staying and getting there

The MTA register lists no hotels in Pietà, only holiday lets. It has 7,383 residents, with foreign nationals outnumbering Maltese, and it runs straight into Msida and its yacht marina, with Mater Dei Hospital and frequent buses. To sleep, I’d look at Valletta or Sliema and come to Pietà only on the Sunday Villa Frere opens.