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 A crumbling villa near Malta's
capital, Valletta, where the heir to the English
throne lived between 1949 and 1951, is about 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, paint 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.
Now that the government of Malta has finally
acquired the Villa Guardamangia after years of
trying, it hopes to restore it to its former
state when it was a charming, if relatively
modest home for the future British queen.
The renovation could cost as much as 10 million
euros, said Heritage Malta curator Kenneth
Gambin during a recent walk-through to show off
the dilapidated property.
"We are planning to invite anyone who remembers
the royal couple when they lived in Malta to
meet us, share their memories and possibly their
photos," he said.
SWEEPING VIEWS
Princess Elizabeth was in the first years of her
marriage at the time, and moved to Malta when
her husband, Philip, was based there in command
of a Royal Navy frigate.
The villa stands proudly in a narrow street at
the top of Guardamangia Hill, and at the time
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 then a bustling British colony and a
key naval base in the middle of the
Mediterranean and on the route to India.
Guardamangia Hill itself was named after a "guardia"
or guard, which Maltese and British troops
jointly mounted as they trapped French
Napoleonic forces for almost two years in
Valletta, a siege that led the British to take
over Malta at the islanders' invitation in 1800.
MOUNTBATTEN'S OFFER
The property was rented in 1929 to Lord Louis
Mountbatten, Philip's uncle, who made it
available to the royal couple.
It featured six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a
grand hall, servants' quarters on the ground
floor and, unusually for Malta, a fireplace in
most rooms. The main 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 around in a humble Morris Minor.
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 Newspapers chronicled people
turning up at the villa to hand her oranges.
They reported her going to the cinema and a
local hairdresser, enjoying picnics in the
countryside and swimming at Sliema beach, three
miles from her home. Pictures
show the princess chatting with locals,
including an old lady weaving traditional lace.
She hosted parties for service wives at the
villa.
The royal couple left Malta in 1950 for the
birth of Elizabeth's second child, Princess
Anne, in August 1950, but they were back by
Christmas.
They never again set foot in the villa after
their departure in 1951, despite returning to
Malta several times in later 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 property fell into disrepair, but repeated
government attempts to buy it from the owners
were rebuffed until earlier this year.
It was finally acquired by Heritage 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 floor tiling – which the
princess reportedly found 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 anteroom and a
bathroom," said curator Gambin.
The plan is not just to restore the villa to the
way it looked several decades ago, but also to
turn it into a museum of Malta's history as a
British colony until independence in 1964, and
the links with the British royal family.
Despite the hefty price tag, the restored
property could prove a major attraction 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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