A tour of crumbling Malta villa where UK's queen lived in her 20s
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CNA Lifestyle
A tour of crumbling Malta villa where Britain'south queen lived in her 20s
Information technology is the just property exterior of Britain that Queen Elizabeth called domicile.
VALLETTA: It is the only holding exterior of Britain that Queen Elizabeth chosen home.
A crumbling villa almost Republic of malta's uppercase, Valletta, where the heir to the English throne lived betwixt 1949 and 1951, is virtually to get a new lease of life as a museum of the Mediterranean island's links with the United Kingdom and the royal family.
The arcaded, two-storey property is a shadow of its former self. The rooms are bare, pigment is peeling off the walls to reveal old murals beneath, the enclosed garden is overgrown and part of a colonnaded belvedere in it has collapsed.
At present that the government of Malta has finally caused the Villa Guardamangia after years of trying, information technology hopes to restore it to its former country when it was a charming, if relatively small domicile for the futurity British queen.
The renovation could price as much equally ten million euros, said Heritage Malta curator Kenneth Gambin during a recent walk-through to prove off the dilapidated property.
"Nosotros are planning to invite anyone who remembers the royal couple when they lived in Malta to meet us, share their memories and peradventure their photos," he said.
SWEEPING VIEWS
Princess Elizabeth was in the showtime years of her marriage at the time, and moved to Malta when her married man, Philip, was based there in control of a Royal Navy frigate.
The villa stands proudly in a narrow street at the tiptop of Guardamangia Colina, and at the fourth dimension commanded sweeping views of the harbour of Marsamxett and Valletta, where the Navy's frigates were moored.
Much of the structure was built in limestone in the mid-eighteenth century as a summer house.
Additions early in the nineteenth century included a belvedere overlooking a large, enclosed garden that served as a backdrop to one of the most frequently used pictures of the young royal couple on the island.
Malta was and then a humming British colony and a cardinal naval base in the center of the Mediterranean and on the route to Republic of india.
Guardamangia Hill itself was named subsequently a "guardia" or guard, which Maltese and British troops jointly mounted equally they trapped French Napoleonic forces for almost 2 years in Valletta, a siege that led the British to take over Malta at the islanders' invitation in 1800.
MOUNTBATTEN'S Offering
The property was rented in 1929 to Lord Louis Mountbatten, Philip's uncle, who made it available to the majestic couple.
Information technology featured half dozen bedrooms, iii bathrooms, a thou hall, servants' quarters on the ground floor and, unusually for Malta, a fireplace in about rooms. The primary entrance was through a small but elaborately decorated porch accessed by steps on each side.
Those were relatively relaxing times for Elizabeth, then in her early twenties. Security was light and she felt comfortable enough driving herself effectually in a humble Morris Small-scale.
Newspapers chronicled people turning up at the villa to manus her oranges. They reported her going to the movie theater and a local hairdresser, enjoying picnics in the countryside and swimming at Sliema beach, iii miles from her habitation.
Pictures prove the princess chatting with locals, including an erstwhile lady weaving traditional lace. She hosted parties for service wives at the villa.
The royal couple left Republic of malta in 1950 for the nativity of Elizabeth'due south second kid, Princess Anne, in August 1950, merely they were dorsum past Christmas.
They never again prepare foot in the villa after their departure in 1951, despite returning to Malta several times in afterwards years.
On her most recent visit in 2015, the Queen was presented with a painting of her old home by then-Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.
"Oh look, Guardamangia, that's very nice to have," she was reported to have said, adding that the property "looks rather sad now."
HERITAGE MUSEUM
For many years after the royal couple departed, Villa Guardamangia was occupied by a woman who lived alone, using some of the ground floor rooms.
The belongings fell into disrepair, but repeated government attempts to purchase it from the owners were rebuffed until earlier this year.
It was finally caused by Heritage Republic of malta, a government agency, for some five million euros.
There is much work to be done. Pieces of statues that once stood in the garden are piled up in a room, the servants' quarters are derelict, bathrooms are destroyed and traditional patterned Maltese flooring tiling – which the princess reportedly constitute cold to walk on - have faded.
"The villa had separate apartments for the prince and the princess, each including a bedroom, walk-in wardrobe, an foyer and a bathroom," said curator Gambin.
The plan is not just to restore the villa to the fashion information technology looked several decades ago, but also to turn information technology into a museum of Malta'southward history as a British colony until independence in 1964, and the links with the British royal family unit.
Despite the hefty price tag, the restored holding could bear witness a major allure for British tourists who account for a quarter of Malta's tourism arrivals every year.
(Editing by Gavin Jones and Mike Collett-White)
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