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With reference to our discussion of building prohibition in the Grand Harbour LJ, my daughter tells me that permission has been given to build an Hotel in that Doric columned complex of buildings opposite our apartment. These buildings, once the Villa Bighu, were used as the British Naval Hospital until 1970.

Ex British Naval Hospital

By consent of the Knights of St. John, the British navy used the Malta Grand Harbour, and the hospital of the Knights in Armeria, Vittoriosa, at intervals between 1674 and 1679...

When Henry Teonge, then chaplain of the Assistance, visited the Knight´s hospital on 2nd August 1675, he was much impressed by the scale of the great ward where:

"Tis so broade that 12 men may with ease walke a brast to the midst of it; and the bedds are on each syd, standing on 4 yron pillars, with white curtens and vallands, and covering, exceedinge neate, and kept cleanr and sweete: the sick served with all in sylver plate, and it contains above 200 bedde below, besyds many spacious rooms in other quadrangles within; for the chiefs cavaliers and Knights, with pleasant walkes and gardens; and a stately house for the chiefe doctor and other his attendants".

The buildings of the Villa Bighu were refurbished and allotted to the Royal Navy in 1822 when the various government properties were re-distributed. As a right, for the surrender of that area, the British authorities paid £1,6s,3d annually to the parish priest of Our Savior Chapel...

The Villa Bichi, renamed by the British, Villa Bighi because of its location, had a checkered pre-British history with strong naval traditions. It was originally built on the design of Lorenzo Gafa in 1675 as the country villa of Bali Fra Giovanni Bichi, an Italian knight of the Order of St. John who was the nephew of Pope Alexander VII. Fra Bichi was employed in the naval service of the Order, eventually gaining command of the Papal Fleet. He died of the plague epidemic in 1676 and was buried in San Salvatore Church close to the villa...

Regarding the Naval Hospital, I particularly like the approval of one of the patients of the hospital as he praised a nurse who:

"was a generous kindhearted creature, and very fit to be a nurse to sailors as she was not overburdened with delicacy, and, being of a pleasing disposition, she could accommodate herself to the healthy as well as the sick".

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