San Anton Palace Gardens

Malta, the land of honey is famous for its roses and for its beautiful gardens. Most of them are hidden away behind high stone walls. But the loveliest gardens of them all, are surely those at San Anton Palace, Fra. Antoine de Paule's country villa, four miles from Valletta. There are the famous orange groves, magnificent specimen trees, fragrant roses and honeysuckle and vibrant beds of colour provided by massed plantings of pelagoniums and rampant climbers plumbago and bougainvillea.

While still the Prior of Saint-Gilles, Fra. Antoine de Paule had built himself a country villa at Attard. On assuming the magistry in 1623 he set about enlarging his house into a palace for entertaining his friends and guests. He bought more land and set about planting groves of orange, lemon and other fruit trees which he imported from France, Sicily, Spain and Italy.

He built fountains and pools stocked with fish from Sicily and laid out his lovely gardens, a plan of which, it is said, was sent by the Bailiff de Vendome to Louis XIV of France to serve as a model for the gardens at Versailles.

By 1625 most of the improvements at San Anton were completed, giving the palace the appearance it has today, although there were additional alterations and embellishments which have continued down to the present day. The palace has roughly the shape of a cross, with the four arms approximating to the four points of the compass. On the south east is the large courtyard that leads to the palace entrance. The spaces between the arms of the cross on the North east and North West and South West are the three private gardens.

The garden most often used for entertaining is the South West Garden divided into lower and upper sections by a stone colonnade. Here well watered lawns, a rarity in scorching Malta are shaded by magnificent tree specimens, some of which are hundreds of years old. A number of these trees have been planted by distinguished visitors over the years and are still flourishing. These include a Sapindus Indica planted by King Edward VII in !903. Araucarias were planted by Queen Alexandra in 1907, by the Duke of Coburg and Gotha in 1910 and by the Duchess of Cornwall and York in 1901. A Quericus Robur was planted by the Dowager Empress Marie of Russia during her stay at San Anton breaking her voyage into exile in 1919.An Accacia Farnesiana was planted by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh to the commemorate the birth of their daughter, Princess Victoria Melita "which occurred in the Palace Antonio on 25th November 1876" has long since died, but the marble plaque remains to record the event.

The private garden to the North West is another lovely garden with flowers, fish ponds and majestic trees. Here there is a tree that was planted by the German Emperor Wilhelm II in 1904. Taking a walk through the gardens on Saturday 26th April 1919 the Empress Marie of Russia caught sight of the tree and jabbed at it with her parasol saying, "Why do you keep a tree planted by the Kaiser - horrid man - why don't you pull it up?" With the reply that it wasn't the tree's fault, H.I.M. just laughed and turned away.A high wall separates this garden from the orange and lemon groves beyond. Two oaks close to the tennis court were planted by Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1954.  The tennis court was installed during the time of Governor Bonham-Carter (1936-40)

A small door in the boundary wall, locked since time immemorial is reputed to have been used by Flamina Valenti, mistress of Fra. Antoine de Paule. The lady had been installed in a lovely old house in St. Anthony Street, that had a common garden wall with San Anton. Her assignations in the lovely gardens with the grand master drew the mounting disapproval of the Inquisitor Fabio Chigi (later Pope Alexander VII). Their none too discreet affair was reported to the Vatican on several occasions, she was described in one letter to Cardinal Barbineri as the 'Grand Master's prostitute.' On more than four occasions renowned beauty Miss Valenti entered the Convent of the Repented in Valletta, but only after Fra. Antoine died in 1636 did she become a nun.

The oranges grown at San Anton have long had the reputation as the finest fruit grown on the island. Whenever the grand master wished to pay a complement to a friendly power he usually sent a gift of San Anton oranges. The tradition continued during the British era when the governor usually sent a couple of crates of the fruit to reach London for Christmas. Grand Master de Rohan bought more adjoining land to increase the size of the orange groves.

It was in 1882 that an earlier governor Sir Arthur Bortor gave over the larger part of the gardens for the recreation of the public, including the menagerie and the aviaries that housed among other birds gorgeous Golden  Pheasants

 The kitchen gardens are aid out on the far side of St. Anthony Street at the western extremity of the gardens.The reservoir constructed in 1766, was later used a swimming pool, until 1970.

San Anton Palace

In Malta Grand Master Fra. Antoine de Paule is best remembered for his country house. San Anton or the palace of San Antonio is at the village of Attard, four miles from Valletta. A Frenchman from Provence Fra. Antoine de Paule ruled  the Order of St. John, and Malta from 1623 until 1636. While Prior of Saint Gilles he had already bought the land and built himself a modest villa, named after his patron saint. On assuming the magistry  de Paule enlarged his country retreat into a palatial residence, for entertaining his friends and guests in the princely style to which he became, rapidly, accustomed. Verdala Castle the old summer residence of the grand masters was too distant and far too austere to meet Antoine de Paule's desire for a convenient, retreat  from pressing affairs of state. On the day of his installation as grand master, 24th April 1623, Fra. Antoine  entertained 600 guests to a lavish lunch at San Anton.

Fra. Antoine de Paule was already an old man of seventy-three when he ascended  the magistral throne. But from the start he was beset by one embarrassment followed by another. He was forced to defend  his personal dignity and the sovereign status of his Order with the greatest vigour from the interference of  Pope Urban VIII and his rapacious nephews, the Cardinals, Barberini.The new grand master faced  serious charges of simony and bribery in obtaining his high office. Added to which, he also a reputation as a libertine and for shameless self-indulgence. In response De Paule sought to shore up his beleaguered authority by the assumption of ever greater luxury and ceremonial than any of his warrior predecessors had presumed. He dined under a crimson canopy and maintained an enormous household.

Grand Master Fra. Antoine de Paule

Elizabeth Schermerhorn catalogued the retinue which was fed and lodged by the grand master,"There was besides the Seneschal of the Palace, who was a Knight, and the Maitre de l'Hotel, the Grand Master's four valets and twelve pages, his five chaplains and two physicians and his confessor. There were twelve grooms and eight chausseurs and the guards of the Palace and of the falcons. And there was the Butler and the Steward, with three cooks and five scullions; there was a coffee-maker and a rat-catcher and a keeper of the storeroom; pantry servants and valets- de- chambres, besides book keepers and three secretaries (one for each of the languages represented in the Order.) There was also a game-keeper who gave our permits for the hunting season, which lasted from the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene to Easter; a fencing master and a teacher of "grammar" for the pages; a man toregulate the clocks, a house carpenter, and the drummers and trumpeters, and but one wig-maker - for the days of voluminous wigs was not yet dawned. Bread always played an important part in the economic life of Latin communities and accordingly we find, in addition to the miller and the man who gave out the corn and the man who pounded it and the six bakers, a whole retinue of people attached to the Palace bakery, solely engaged in the distribution of the bread, not only to the Palace, but to its retainers and to the poor and to certain orders of monks and nuns, to the hunters and gardeners and archers belonging to the Palace, and to the guardians of the Palace slaves; and there was a man who baked the bread for the hunting dogs. Add to this the people of the stables, the coachmen, saddlers, mounted horsemen, blacksmiths, farriers, and the twelve men in livery and twelve stable boys - it will appear that considerable "glosinge" was required  in order to make those vaunted vows of poverty cover the necessary state that waited on a Grand Master of the 17th century.

The new grand master converted his original house into stables and built a sprawling new palace radiating from a central square tower. He bought up more land which he added to the gardens. The palace was completed by 1625, although there have been alterations and additions since then. With the exception of the tower, the palace is built on two storeys. The ground floor accommodates the kitchens, stores and pantries, the offices, stables and guard rooms. The palace's two chapels are also on the ground floor. The palace's main reception rooms, two bedroom wings and the grand master's private apartments  are all on the piano nobile.

The main reception room is the Drawing Room, off the hall at the top of the entrance staircase. Surrounded on three sides by the arched veranda built by Captain Ball at the start of the British occupation the room has views over the surrounding gardens. The Drawing Room is furnished with a mixture of Maltese and English furniture and is used today for small receptions, of up to 150 people, and is the room where guests assemble before going into lunch or dinner.

The hall at the top of the entrance staircase is  used as an additional reception room when the size of the guest list demands it.

The banqueting hall, now known as the dining room is a large airy room with an alcove at one end supported by two columns, and a door at the other end that opens onto a small flight of steps leading down to one of the private gardens. Six full length portraits of grand masters, including Adrien de Wignacourt and Phillipe Villiers de l'Isle Adam line the walls.

The Octagonal Hall  also known as the Marble Hall features four alcoves, two of which are used for the display of a fine collection of Majolica vases manufactured in Caltagirone, Sicily. These vases were used for storing medicines and drugs at the hospital of the Order and were brought to the Palace from the Sacra Infermeria.

Double doors lead from the Octagonal Hall into the room used for official meetings and the signing of treaties and state papers.

The long room is an  informal  drawing room dominated by a full length portrait of de Valette on the battlefield. The room is also furnished with floral paintings, mirrors, an antique Maltese wall clock and two large inlaid Maltese chests of drawers. This  is where the president's guests gather after lunch, prior to  their departure.

De Paule  bequeathed the palace to his Order, its rents to be used for the maintenance of the galley fleet and so San Anton became the principal country residence of his successors. In the colonial era the palace was the official residence of the British Governors and today it is the residence of the head of state, the President of Malta.