The Sacra Infermeria

1 · POSITION

Work on Valletta’s Sacra Infermeria began in 1574 under Grand Master Jean de la Cassière. The hospital of the Order of St John placed the reception and care of the sick within the new capital’s major public buildings. It belongs to the Library through that institutional duty of care, rather than through a claim to have operated as a hotel. [1, 2]

2 · THE SCALE OF THE WARD

The building grew after its foundation. The former Old Ward was extended into the Great Ward during the 1660s. Its exceptional length made care a collective spatial undertaking: a large interior had to accommodate patients and the work around their beds. The surviving hall is evidence of that scale, although the present events venue serves a different purpose. [1]

3 · MEDICINE AND INSTRUCTION

In 1676, a School of Anatomy and Surgery was established at the infirmary. This added formal medical teaching to the treatment carried out there. The hospital’s importance therefore lay in more than the number of people it could receive. It also became a place where practical knowledge was organised and transmitted within the Order’s Maltese establishment. [1]

4 · CHANGES OF USE

The French occupation in 1798 brought a decisive change: the infirmary was taken over for military use. A historical study records the removal of civilian patients. Much later, restoration enabled its conversion into the Mediterranean Conference Centre, inaugurated in 1979. Conferences, performances and banquets now gather people within spaces shaped by the earlier institution. [1–3]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

Its connection with the Hospitallers’ Jerusalem and Acre foundations is an institutional lineage, not continuous operation of one building. Grand claims about Europe’s finest hospital require comparison beyond the evidence used here. The French takeover also shows that admission could narrow sharply: the history of care includes decisions about whom the institution would receive. [1, 2]