
The
extensive edifice of the Sacra Infermeria (Holy Infirmary) occupies
a large site which overlooks the Grand Harbour, very near Fort St. Elmo.
This hospital, one of the first buildings of Valletta, started to function
in 1574 under Grand Master Jean de la Cassiere.
Originally,
it consisted of a large ward. Under the rule of Grand Master Nicholas
Cottoner (1663 - 80), the hall was enlarged; and in 1712 Grand Master
Perellos commissioned a new building alongside Merchants Street, which
included a chapel and a pharmacy. The infirmary provided about 900 beds
for male patients who included knights, soldiers, sailors and foreigners.
Maltese
patients and slaves were accommodated in another large hall below the
Main Ward. In 1676, a school of anatomy and surgery was set up in the
building. The administration of the Sacra Infermeria was entrusted to
knights of the French Langue, under the headship of the Grand Hospitaller.
When the Knights were forced to leave the Island in 1798,
Napoleons’
troops used the hospital for their own personnel. The British, who took
over Malta’s government in 1800, renamed the Infirmary ‘Station Hospital’,
and used it as such until the end of the First World War. In 1920, the
building was used as the Police Headquarters until the outbreak of World
War II, when the police had to evacuate the building which was badly
damaged by air raids.
Reconstruction
and conversion started in earnest in 1977, and in February 1979, the
grand old edifice was inaugurated as a first-class Conference Centre.
It now consists of the main conference room which accommodates about
1,400 persons, and five other halls of varying sizes, all equipped with
facilities for simultaneous translation.
The
complex has been renamed ‘The Mediterranean Conference Centre’. What
used to be the main hospital ward, measuring 151 metres, is now used
as "the lobby" when conferences are in session. The Lower Ward houses
a restaurant with a capacity of 1,000 covers.
Several
offices, staff and rest rooms and a cafeteria are also provided. Early
in 1987, a fire totally destroyed the Main Conference Room and other
parts of the complex. These have now been reconstructed, and in 1990
the Centre was re-opened for conferences and conventions. ‘The Malta
Experience’, is also within the complex.
Text courtesy of the National Tourism Organisation - Malta.
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