Spinola Palace, Maltese palace
Spinola Palace is a three-storey baroque limestone building on St. George's Road in St. Julian's, Malta. Its front facade is covered with carved stonework, and a large clock sits at its center.
The palace was built in 1688 for Fra Paolo Raffaele Spinola and enlarged in 1733 by his nephew Fra Giovanni Battista Spinola. It later served as a hospital for over 60 years, then as a wartime shelter, and finally as a government building until 2021.
The palace takes its name from the Spinola family, one of the most powerful noble families in Malta's history. Visitors walking past today can still see the ornate limestone facade that once signaled the family's standing on the island.
The building sits on St. George's Road and is easy to spot on foot from the street. The cellar is open as a restaurant, and the front garden can be visited at certain times.
The clock on the facade was the first in Malta to be placed on a secular building rather than a church. It disappeared at some point, and was only carefully restored and put back in place in 2012, following the original design.
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