Auberge de Castille

The Auberge de Castille (Berġa ta' Kastilja) is an auberge in Valletta, Malta. The auberge is located at Castile Place, close to Saint James Cavalier, the Malta Stock Exchange, and the Upper Barrakka Gardens. It sits at the highest point of Valletta and overlooks Floriana and the Grand Harbour area. Built in the Baroque style under the magistracy of Manuel Pinto da Fonseca in the 1740s, it replaced a 1574 building erected to house knights of the Order of Saint John from the langue of Castile, León and Portugal. Auberge de Castille was built in 1573–74 to designs of the architect Girolamo Cassar. The original auberge, which took over the role of an earlier Auberge de Castille et Portugal in the former capital Birgu, was built in the Mannerist style, and it was regarded as Cassar's most innovative design. The auberge had a single storey, and its façade had panelled pilasters dividing it into 11 bays. The design of the auberge is known from a late 17th-century painting and an early 18th-century drawing. The original Auberge de Castille was dismantled and completely rebuilt in the Spanish Baroque style between 1741 and 1744, during the magistracy of Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca. The new building was built to designs of Andrea Belli, and construction was supervised by capomastro Domenico Cachia. Some alterations, including the enlargement of the main door, were made in 1791. The Order of St. John was expelled from Malta with the French invasion and occupation in 1798. The auberge subsequently became a headquarters for the French forces, and it later housed a Commission for National Property. The building suffered some damage during the blockade of 1798–1800. In 1800, the British occupied Malta, creating the Malta Protectorate in September of that year. This protectorate was officially ruled by the Kingdom of Sicily, but was in reality part of the British Empire. In 1805, the auberge became the headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Malta. In 1813, Malta officially came under British rule as the Crown Colony of Malta within the British Empire.