National Museum of Natural History

The National Museum of Natural History is situated within Palazzo Vilhena, a landmark structure in the silent city of Mdina. Commissioned in 1724 by Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena , the palace was designed by the French architect Charles François de Mondion in the Parisian Baroque style. Before its conversion into a museum, the building served several distinct roles: it functioned as a temporary hospital during the 1837 cholera outbreak, a sanatorium for British military personnel starting in 1860, and a dedicated tuberculosis clinic until its closure in January 1956. The museum was officially inaugurated on 22 June 1973, marking a shift towards the systematic preservation of Malta’s biological and palaeontological heritage. Its primary mandate involves the acquisition, curation, and conservation of specimens, with a specific focus on the endemic and indigenous flora and fauna of the Maltese archipelago. The current repository houses more than 10,000 mineral and geological items