Visit to Vittoriosa and the Inquisitor's Palace

Wednesday March 14 was our last full day in Valletta.  A mix of sun and cloud with a high of 18C.  We put on lots of sunscreen today.

For some reason, the streets seemed busier than we had seen them before our visit to Gozo.  It turned out this was a day when a number of groups of students were taking tours of Valletta.

Busy Republic Street

There are lots of shops with Maltese pastizzi, the diamond-shaped pastries with different fillings such as peas or ricotta.  The ones below looked very appetizing.  Many Maltese grab these to eat any time of the day.  Tourists too!

Pastizzi

We stopped for our last morning coffee at Lot Sixty One.  It's a small coffee shop with a small outdoor section where we drank our coffee.

Alain getting his macchiato to take outside

We were going to visit the Palace State Rooms of the Grand Master's Palace which have a series of Gobelins tapestries.  Unfortunately, they were being used and were not open to the public.  The Grand Master's Palace dates back to the 16th century.  It has an austere exterior and apparently a sumptuous interior.  This was once the residence of the Grand Masters of the Knights of St. John.  From Malta's independence in 1964 until 2015, the building was the seat of Malta's parliament before it moved into the new Renzo Piano Parliament Building.

Grand Master's Palace garden

Fountain (is that another Maltese Falcon?)

We decided to check out a few stores on nearby St. Paul Street.

St. Paul street with the wonderful Maltese balconies-- a view of the water in the distance 

Another view

We stopped at one of the very few interesting clothing stores in Valletta.

Kir Royal- men's clothing store

Alain bought a nice T-shirt and we chatted with Ludwig, who had opened his store two years ago.  He was helpful in recommending a good local restaurant a few doors away.

Ludwig and Alain

We stopped by Dimitri Café/Bistro/Wine Bar and made a reservation for dinner.

Where we went for dinner

We then headed to the Ferry terminal to go to Vittoriosa, a nearby city with a population of around 2700.  It is only 800m long and 400m at its widest.  There are a number of interesting sights to explore.

Upper Barrakka Gardens-- we took the lift down to the Ferry dock

View of Fort Angelo from Valletta

View of Vittoriosa from Valletta

Canyons below the Gardens in Valletta

The Ferry only takes 10 minutes.

Landing at Vittoriosa

A very large rosemary planting

Quiet narrow street in Vittoriosa

We stopped for lunch at Café Brazil.  Alain and I shared a Maltese ftira (sandwich with tuna, beans, capers on great Maltese bread).  They always seem to serve these with potato chips.

With the Maltese Ftira

We visited the Inquisitor's Palace.  The Palace was built during the Norman times to serve as Law Courts.  However, from 1574-1798, it was the seat of the Inquisition in Malta.  There were 62 inquisitors that resided there during that period.  Two became Popes and 22 were made cardinals.  The Palace was enlarged to its present size in 1767.  The Inquisition ended when Napoleon captured Malta in 1798.

                           Plaque outside Inquisitor's Palace

The outside of the building below.

There were three separate Inquisition Tribunals; the Medieval, the Spanish and the Roman.  Malta was part of the Roman Inquisition, established in 1542.  Its main aim was to oppose the spread of Protestant ideas, and consolidate faith in Catholic countries.  Typical crimes included blasphemy, magical beliefs, bigamy etc.  Most of the sentences were of a spiritual nature, including fasting and prayer.  Physical punishments included public flogging or rowing on the galleys.  Surprisingly, conditions in the prisons were humane.  Torture was used rarely and there were very few executions. 

The Palace portion of the building where the Inquisitors lived was lavishly decorated.  The palace had not initially been built as a residence for the inquisitors.  It served as Courts of Law from the 1530s to the 1570s.  In 1574, the first general inquisitor took up residence there.  

On the first level-- imposing ceiling

Pope Paul III (1534-49) who in 1542 established the Inquisition

The history of the building was set out on one wall.  Interestingly, the Palace was occupied by Dominican Friars during WWII, after their church in Vittoriosa was destroyed by bombs.

Stairway to private rooms

There was some filming going on when we were there-- someone in costume descending the stairs

One hall had mural paintings of the coats of arms of all the inquisitors.

Some of the murals of the Inquisitors' coats of arms

There was also information about the Inquisitors (they were all Italians on the way up the Church hierarchy).  Most served for just a few years in Malta and then went on to higher appointments.

One of a number of Inquisitors who later became a Cardinal

Some of a list of terms from the Inquisition

There were documents from a number of the trials held before the Tribunal.

Case against forty witches before Inquisitor Onorato Visconti (1625-27), manuscript volume

The Prison Warden was a layman chosen at the discretion of the Inquisitor.  He was sworn to secrecy and had one of the lowest salaries among Inquisition officials.  He had a number of set duties and had to live an exemplary life by avoiding any kind of unethical behaviour.

Prison Warden's room

The Tribunal room was the most important room of the Inquisitor's Palace.  It was there that people were brought for trial after being reported, and sentences were pronounced.

Tribunal room

We then entered the prison part of the Palace.  There were a number of cells and a Torture Room.  Apparently, torture was not used indiscriminately.  There were three kinds of torture, one involving tying the hands of the accused behind his back and then being pulled up and let down a number of times.  Torture was said to be "part of the procedure to establish truth, not part of the sentence".

The Torture Cell

In the prison section of the building, there were small individual cells, communal cells, and the prison yard.  Apparently, prison sentences were often short and escapes often occured.

Single cell for convicted persons

Looking up from the small prison yard

Communal cells for those who were still awaiting trial

It was fascinating visiting the Palace, where one got an idea of the life of both the Inquisitors and those accused.

We caught the 4:30 ferry back to Valletta.  This time we sat in the open top level and were able to take some nice photos.

Leaving Vittoriosa for Valletta

View of Vittoriosa

Passing Fort Angelo.  The large boat is called "Plan B".

Close to Valletta

We took the lift from the waterfront back up to the Upper Barrakka Gardens.

The lift in the background

View up from the waterfront

We stopped at a small jewellery store called Que where the artist specialized in plexiglass.  I bought two single earrings.  The woman working in the store had the artist drop by (her studio was very close) to see if I could purchase a single earring (I only have one pierced ear).  She came by and we chatted.  The store had been recommended by Ludwig at Kir Royal.  She has had pieces shown in British Vogue.

Enrique the artist, me and Mira (salesperson)

We went back to the apartment to rest and then went for dinner at Dimitri's.  There were only four tables on the main floor and few others upstairs.  They had a blackboard menu featuring fish that were caught locally.  Alain and I both had sea bream which came with a big plate of vegetables.  The local wine is also very good.  We chatted with the Chef who told us that lots of Maltese have relatives in Toronto. 

At Dimitri's

Alain with his sea bream (one piece with capers and olives and the other with tomatoes)

We headed back to the apartment to finish our packing.  We have a travel day on Thursday so the next post of the blog will be either the evening of Friday March 16 or Saturday morning from Positano, Italy.