Palazzo Parisio, formerly known as Scicluna Palace, Palazzo Scicluna, and officially Palazzo Parisio and Gardens, is a 20th-century

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

Naxxar Naxxar ( mt, In-Naxxar) is a small city in the Northern Region of Malta, with a population of 14,891 people as of March 2014. The Naxxar Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victories. The annual village feast is celebrated on 8 September. Naxx ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. On site was a hunting lodge built in 1733 by Paolo Parisio, and was used as a summer or permanent residence, barracks and a college, before being acquired by the Marquis Scicluna in 1898. The marquis modified the building between 1900 and 1907 with the appearance visible today. Its architecture is composed of a

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

front and back façades and a

Sicilian Baroque Sicilian Baroque is the distinctive form of Baroque architecture which evolved on the island of Sicily, off the southern coast of Italy, in the , when it was part of the Spanish Empire. The style is recognisable not only by its typical Baroque c ...

interior. Today, Palazzo Parisio and its surrounding gardens are in good condition and are open to the public.

History

Hunting lodge

A hunting lodge was built on site in 1733 by Grand Master

António Manoel de Vilhena António Manoel de Vilhena (28 May 1663 – 10 December 1736) was a Portuguese nobleman who was the 66th Prince and Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from 19 June 1722 to his death in 1736. Unlike a number of the other Grand Ma ...

. After his death, the building was taken over by the

Order of St. John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

, and it eventually passed into the hands of the Parisio family, who used it as a summer residence. It eventually became the permanent residence of Paolo Parisio Muscati. In 1798, the hunting lodge briefly served as a

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

during the

French occupation of Malta The French occupation of Malta lasted from 1798 to 1800. It was established when the Order of Saint John surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte following the French landing in June 1798. In Malta, the French established a constitutional tradition in M ...

College

In 1856, the building passed into the hands of the Micallef family. They rented the property to the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

in 1880, who used it as a college. The Jesuits made plans for purchasing the building, but the agreement was never reached and the building was acquired by Marquis Giuseppe Scicluna on 12 June 1898 for a sum of £1500.

Scicluna Palace

The Marquis approached Architect Annibale Lupi (born 1869) to design and built on site an

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

. He commissioned a team of Italian architects, sculptors and painters, led by (born 1855), to embellish the interior and garden with

architecture and Pompeiian art.Bonaci, Giuseppe Schembri (5 January 2015)
"PALAZZO PARISIO (and a mug of tea around the corner)"

The Malta Independent ''The Malta Independent'' is a national newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide v ...

. Work began in 1900, and was largely complete by 1906, when the marquis and his family moved into the palace. Scicluna died on 14 February 1907, before the refurbishment was fully completed, and his family moved back to their original residence in San Pawl tat-Tarġa. The marble were sculpted and laid by Sicilian workers in 1902, as directed by Giuseppe Valenti.Catania, Paul (2010)
"A village at the turn of the twentieth century - Naxxar"
Melita Historica, Volume XV, no. 3:303-326, ISSN 1021-6952, p. 310. Among the workers were Baldassare Armato, his son Domenico Armato, Francesco Bondin and Andrea De Stefano.Catania, Paul (2010)
"A village at the turn of the twentieth century - Naxxar"
Melita Historica, Volume XV, no. 3:303-326, ISSN 1021-6952, p. 321. The main ceilings' frescoes were carried by Giacomo Olzai and Filippo Fortunato Venuti, both from Rome and completed by 1902. Other decorators included Giulio Moschetti and Vincenzo Cardona. During the two world wars, the palace was handed over to the British Government to use it for public needs. It was also used as a R.A.F. Office, and hosted soldiers and their families.

Palazzo Parisio

In the 21st century, Marie Christianne Scicluna who partially owns the palace has took the initiative to renovate and revive the property. The palace and its gardens are now open to the public named as ‘’Palazzo Parisio and Gardens’’, and are rented for wedding venues. Two restaurants are also located within the palace. The palace is scheduled as a Grade 1 property by the

Malta Environment and Planning Authority The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA, mt, L-Awtorità ta' Malta dwar l-Ambjent u l-Ippjanar) was the national agency responsible for the environment and planning in Malta. It was established to regulate the environment and planning ...

, while its elevated pathway is a Grade 2. It is also listed on the

National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands The National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands (NICPMI) is a heritage register listing the cultural property of Malta. The inventory includes properties such as archaeological sites, fortifications, religious buildings, mon ...

Architecture

Palace

Palazzo Parisio's façade contains a large doorway flanked by a column on each side. The columns support an open balcony, and the latter's doorway contains the Scicluna coat of arms. The interior is richly decorated with frescoes, statues, columns, chandeliers and other works of art. The ballroom is

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

, and it is considered to be unique in Malta. The palace has been described as "a miniature

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

Gardens

The palace originally had very large gardens, but their size was reduced to make way for part of the former trade fair grounds. The Italian gardens near the palace still exist, and are now a tourist attraction and wedding venue. The remaining gardens of the palace contain over 60 species of plants, including

Ceiba speciosa ''Ceiba speciosa'', the floss silk tree (formerly ''Chorisia speciosa''), is a species of deciduous tree that is native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South America. It has several local common names, such as ''palo borracho'' (in S ...

Erythrina crista-galli ''Erythrina crista-galli'', often known as the cockspur coral tree, is a flowering tree in the family Fabaceae, native to Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil and Paraguay. It is widely planted as a street or garden tree in other countries, not ...

Jacaranda ''Jacaranda'' is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. The generic name is also used as the common name. The species ''Jacaranda mimosifolia'' has achie ...

and

Sapindus ''Sapindus'' is a genus of about five to twelve species of shrubs and small trees in the lychee family, Sapindaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. The genus includes both deciduous and evergreen species. Members of ...

La Taverna Del Marchese

La Taverna Del Marchese is named after

Marquis A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

(Marchese) Giuseppe Scicluna. It is the underground of Palazzo Parisio. The

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...

was designed to be a wine store, when Naxxar was largely dependent on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

bringing high income to farmers. The Tavern went through

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...

as the Marqui opened the Tavern to the public during WWII to have shelter from air bombing. Being designed as a wine storage, unlike war shelters, the tavern is wider than usual private shelters such as the shelters at Palazzo Nasciaro. During the war period, the shelter at Palazzo Nasciaro served as a maternity

underground hospital An underground hospital is a hospital that is constructed underground to protect patients and staff from attack during war. They were often used during World War II but very few now remain operational. History Medieval Ceppo Hospital of Pistoia ...

, while the tavern at Palazzo Parisio served as a general underground hospital catering for

region and British soldiers. Similarly the Marquis opened the

Dragonara Palace Dragonara Palace ( mt, Il-Palazz tad-Dragunara), also known as Palazzo Dragonara or Villa Dragonara, is a palace in St. Julian's, Malta. It was built in 1870 as a summer residence for the Scicluna family, and it is now a casino called Dragonara ...

to be used as a hospital. Today the tavern was named in the commemoration of the Marquis. Large sections of the tavern are open to public, and some armoury are displayed in the form of a museum, while other sections are used as a kitchen for the palace's restaurants.

Filming scenes

The palace was used as a filming location in a variety of movies, including

Cutthroat Island ''Cutthroat Island'' is a 1995 adventure swashbuckler film directed by Renny Harlin and written by Robert King and Marc Norman from a story by Michael Frost Beckner, James Gorman, Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon. It stars Geena Davis, Matthew ...

and

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 film) ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' is a 2002 American historical adventure film, which is an adaptation of the 1844 novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, produced by Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, and Jonathan Glickman, and directed by Kevin Reyn ...

The palace features in the music video of

Olivia Lewis Olivia Lewis (born 18 October 1978) is a singer from Qormi, Malta. She has competed in the Malta Song For Eurovision festival, which selects the country's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest several times. At her 11th attempt she finally wo ...

called '

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

', that was part of the 2007

Eurovision song contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

References

External links

{{commons category, Palazzo Parisio (Naxxar)
Official websiteNational Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands
Naxxar Buildings and structures completed in 1907 Hunting lodges in Malta Parisio Gardens in Malta Barracks in Malta Limestone buildings in Malta National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands Defunct hospitals in Malta Defunct schools in Malta Restaurants in Malta Art Nouveau architecture in Malta Baroque architecture in Malta Historic house museums in Malta