Heritage Malta restored a wing of the Old University buildings in Valletta to serve as its Head Office. The building is a fitting site for the new organisation. It is not only a heritage building in need of restoration, it also played a major role in education on the Islands. Today, education is a key component of our work in raising awareness of the value of Malta's cultural heritage.

The Head Office provides administrative space for Heritage Malta as well as exhibition areas, a visitor info point, and seminar rooms which will also be available to other organisations for hire.

The building itself traces its origins to the founding of the Collegium Melitense which was set up through direct Papal intervention in 1592. The college was run by the Jesuit Order on the lines of other colleges in Europe catering for non-Jesuit students. It was known as the Collegia Externium. By a papal bull of Pope Pius IV in August 1561, subsequently confirmed by a papal bull of Pope Gregory XIII in May 1578, the Jesuits were empowered to confirm degrees of Magister Philosophiae and Doctor Divinitatis. The foundation deed of the University in Malta however specified that in addition to Philosophy and Theology, the institution could teach subjects such as grammar and the humanities.

The Old University had a chequered history as the Jesuits fell in and out of favour with the regime of the Knights of St John, and the Pope. The building itself was subject to the ravages of time – earthquakes and continuous changes of use from the time of Napaleon and to the British era. Parts were leased to the merchant community and to the Anglo-Maltese Bank. Finally, in 1833, the British Governor, worried by the ‘discreditable’ standard of education in Malta, requisitioned the ground floor of the building from the University in order to host what was to become Malta’s leading secondary school – the Lyceum. The upper floors continued to be used as a university throughout. But in the 1960s, the building became inadequate for the needs of the University of Malta which is now sited in a modern campus at Msida.

Restoration work included

• Removal of cement rendering from all rooms; re-plastering with hydraulic-lime and painting with a lime-based paint
• Replacing of recently laid concrete roof with stone slabs and restoration of old arches supporting the ceiling
• Refurbishment of all external wooden apertures and internal doors
• Removal of 40cm thick concrete floor to bring Training Room level with Corridor.
• Removal and replacement of the entire electrical installation
• Replacement of old mosaic flooring in all rooms with terrazzo tiles
• Conservation of Wall Painting by MCR
  

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