The town of Rabat is often considered the lesser-known sister of the more impressive city of Mdina, so a lot of people visiting Malta tend to skip it, which is a shame. Francophiles who decide to make the trip, though, are in for a refreshing surprise: the Casa Bernard palace, once home to a French doctor from the 18th century. As you’ll see, this palace wasn’t just the residence of a Frenchman, it also holds quite a few French treasures.
The History of Casa Bernard
Most of the palace was built during the 16th century (with additions made in the 18th century), but parts of it are much older. The palace itself likely stands on the remains of a Roman villa, of which only the well survives, found in one of the rooms on the ground floor.
Beyond that, the palace also has a courtyard with a 13th-century watchtower. The tower’s purpose was to warn of pirates. As it turns out, until the second half of the 16th century, Malta suffered quite a bit from pirates who came from North Africa to kidnap farmers working the fields and sell them into slavery. Whoever stood at the top of the tower could spot the pirates landing on Malta’s southern shores, ring the alarm bells, and give the farmers time to hide behind the walls of Mdina.
In 1723, a French doctor named Salvadore Bernard arrived in Malta hoping to become the personal physician of the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of Malta, António Manoel de Vilhena. In exchange for his services, Dr. Bernard received the house, and from then until the end of the first half of the 20th century, it belonged to him and his family. That’s why the house carries the doctor’s name.
In 1993, the building was bought by Mr. and Mrs. Magri, who put in a great deal of effort and investment to restore the charming building and its contents. Since the cost of maintaining the building is high, the couple decided to open it to tourists, so now you can walk through it and enjoy its beauty too.
A Paradise for Francophiles
When you step into Casa Bernard, you quickly realize you haven’t come to just another museum, but to a house that’s still alive and breathing. At the entrance, you’ll be greeted by none other than the charming owners themselves. Together with the guide (a retired teacher who lives across the street), they’re happy to share all the house’s secrets with you. Honestly, you get the feeling during the tour that the guides enjoy it here just as much as the visitors do (especially if the visitors happen to be history and art lovers).
During the tour, you’ll discover several guest and sleeping rooms, each one filled with a good number of impressive works of art. There’s no question the owners have excellent taste, and with it they’ve managed to gather quite a collection of paintings and art objects, most of them from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
After taking in quite a few Italian paintings (including some from the workshop of Caravaggio, 1571-1610), you’ll start running into a number of pieces tied to French culture. One example is a portrait of the famous actress Rachel (Élisa Rachel Félix), which you can see in the photo above. She was one of the most celebrated actresses in 19th-century Paris, painted here in the role of Shulamith. On the wall next to it, you’ll find another portrait, this time of Esmeralda, one of the key characters in Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”
But all of that is just an appetizer for the real thing. In one of the rooms on the second floor, I came across nothing less than an original painting by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842), who painted, among others, portraits of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793). This discovery genuinely moved me, and I was thrilled to find a small piece of France tucked away somewhere in Malta.
The tour lasts close to an hour, and over the course of it we learned not only about the house’s remarkable art pieces but also about everyday life for Malta’s residents back then (what they wore, what they ate, and how they managed to get rid of pesky guests who showed up uninvited). I stumbled onto this house completely by accident, and I was absolutely delighted by both the house itself and the lovely guided tour.
So I highly recommend a visit to this house on your next trip to Malta.
Information About the House
Address: 46 Triq San Pawl, Ir-Rabat
Opening hours: Open Monday through Saturday, 10:00-16:00.
For more information, feel free to visit the house’s website.
Looking for More to Do in Malta?
As you’ve probably already discovered (and if not, you will soon), there’s so much to do in Malta that it’s hard to choose among the many attractions and activities. But don’t worry, I’ve done the work for you and put together the best attractions and activities around. You can find them in the article What to Do in Malta?
Looking for a Hotel in Malta?
I’ve gathered a few recommended hotels for you to help you avoid any unpleasant surprises. But before I give you my recommendations, there’s one important question to answer first: where in Malta should you stay? You can find the answer to that question, along with my hotel recommendations for Malta, in the article Where Should You Look for a Hotel in Malta.
Related reading