Villa Guardamangia, where the future Queen Elizabeth II lived in Malta

Some houses are worth visiting for their architecture and others for who lived in them. Villa Guardamangia is the second kind, though you can’t go inside yet. In this 18th-century house on Guardamangia Hill in Pietà, Prince Philip and the then Princess Elizabeth lived from 1949 while he was posted to Malta. It was bought in 2020 and Heritage Malta is restoring it to open as a house museum, and when it does, I expect it to be one of the most sought-after visits for British travellers.

A country retreat with many owners

The villa started life as a retreat away from the walled cities of the Grand Harbour, at a time when wealthy families wanted an estate with a garden and the middle classes settled for a smaller house. Its first mention comes from the 18th century, in the dowry for the marriage of Lorenzo Fontani and Giovanna Crespi, both very close to Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc.

It then passed through well-known hands. In 1866 Marquis Emmanuel Scicluna, nicknamed iċ-Ċisk, bought it as a summer house. In the early 20th century it belonged to the merchant Giovanni Battista Borda and later to Antonio Cassar Torregiani. In 1935 Augustus Bartolo bought it, one of pre-war Malta’s political giants, who argued for English and Maltese as official languages and lived there until his death in 1937. His heirs sold it to Joseph Schembri, a businessman and politician from Ħamrun.

How did the future Queen end up here?

The royal chapter began in 1948, when Lord Louis Mountbatten commanded a cruiser squadron based in Malta. Schembri, hearing he was looking for a house, wasted no time offering it. Shortly afterwards Prince Philip was posted to HMS Chequers, of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla, also based in Malta. He arrived in 1949 and Mountbatten offered the house to his nephew.

Princess Elizabeth came out to see her husband and stayed with him at Villa Guardamangia whenever he wasn’t at sea. Both the Mountbattens and the royal couple attended national and social events, and Heritage Malta describes them as Britain’s envoys at a time when decolonisation dominated politics. I cover those years in the history of Malta.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Villa Guardamangia on GetYourGuide.

What you’ll see when it opens

Funding comes from an EU regional development grant of €10.2 million. Beforehand, Heritage Malta shored up two stretches of façade over the hill, cleared the garden, removed furniture for treatment and uncovered wall paintings. On its page it spoke of a cost of around €10 million and works of at least five years from 2022.

The plan is for visitor facilities and a display on Malta and Britain on the ground floor, and for the first floor to be recreated as it was when the royal couple lived there, centred on their life on the island. I’d check the opening date before going, because there are no visits today. In the meantime, also in Pietà, you can see Villa Frere, which does open one Sunday a month.

If you would rather go at your own pace, see the car hire deals in Valletta: the earlier you book, the more cars are left to choose from.

Before you fix your dates, compare tickets to Malta: the same journey can cost very different amounts from one day to the next.