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

palace A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

Naxxar Naxxar () is a town and local council in the Northern Region of Malta. The population in March 2014 was 14,891. The Naxxar Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victories. The annual village feast is celebrated on 8 September. It formerly hoste ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. 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 an

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

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. After his death, the building was taken over by the Order of St. John, 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 buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

during the

French occupation of Malta The island of Malta was occupied by France from 1798 to 1800. The Knights Hospitaller surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte following the French landing in June 1798. In Malta, the French established a constitutional tradition in Maltese history (as ...

College

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

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), 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 published daily in Malta. It was started in 1992. The paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, ra ...

. 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 Giuseppe Valenti was a Sicilian sculptor who was active in the late 19th century. Valenti was born in Palermo, he was the son of , who was also a sculptor and wood carver. His work includes a seated statue of Saint Publius at St Paul's Cathedr ...

.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 taken 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, ) was the national agency responsible for the environment and planning in Malta. It was established to regulate the environment and planning on the Maltese islands of Malta, Gozo and other small ...

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

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

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,

Erythrina crista-galli ''Erythrina'' is a genus of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 130 species, which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. They are trees, with the larger species growing up to in height. These species ...

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

and

Sapindus ''Sapindus'' is a genus of about thirteen species of shrubs and small trees in the lychee family, Sapindaceae and tribe Sapindeae. It is native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. The genus includes both deciduous and evergree ...

La Taverna Del Marchese

La Taverna Del Marchese is named after

Marquis A marquess (; ) 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 with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...

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

tavern A tavern is a type 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 ...

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

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

bringing high income to farmers. The Tavern went through

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse is the reuse of an existing building for a purpose other than that for which it was originally built or designed. It is also known as recycling and conversion. The adaptive reuse of buildings can be a viable alternative to new con ...

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, 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 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, M ...

and

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

The palace features in the music video of Olivia Lewis called '

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

', that was part of the 2007

Eurovision song contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

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