All the President’s Rooms
President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca today gets ready to welcome scores of Maltese eager to catch an exclusive glimpse of San Anton Palace’s newly-redecorated rooms.
Iggy Fenech interviews Keith Pillow, The man behind the design project.
It’s not every day one gets a private tour at San Anton Palace, the residence of all the Presidents of the Republic since 1974.
But, then again, it’s not every day that a whole wing within this 17th century palace laden with history gets a complete overhaul.
Walking up the grand staircase that leads from the entrance in the internal courtyard to the piano nobile, it’s easy to forget just how many stories have been played out here. After all, since Knight Fra Antione De Paul, the Palace has served as a summer residence for the Grand Masters of the Knights of St John, as the headquarters of the rebel National Assembly when Napoleon annexed Malta, and as the residence of the Governors of Malta under the British rule.
Today, the Palace is also one of our national facades, welcoming everyone from Her Majesty (HM) Queen Elizabeth II to dignitaries, Prime Ministers, and religious leaders. Yet, as is often the case with such old and grand buildings, some gilded rooms lead to dilapidated ones.
When President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca took over, however, one of the things she wanted to do was give back seven rooms that had been systematically repurposed, starting from the Music Room.
“When Her Excellency’s team first got in touch, the idea was to refurbish the Music Room for the Queen’s visit for CHOGM,” Keith Pillow, director of Daaa Haus and man in charge of redecorating the rooms, tell me. “There were only five months before deadline, however and, while the job was big it was also a delicate one. The biggest chunk of the time was spent researching and sourcing the right pieces, materials, fabrics and paints rather than doing the actual alterations.”
With just two months to carry out actual work on the room, architects Joe Bondin from Bondin & Associates and William Soler from DeMicoli & Associates, and the team from Daaa Haus (made up of Keith, Lisa Carson and Stefania Mercieca) had little time to rest on their laurels. But the Music Room was completed and Keith proudly shows me a picture of President Coleiro Preca in it.
“The first time I showed off the red paint I thought the Music Room should be painted in, there was a bit of a shock”, Keith recounts. “But we were adamant that we needed a colour that was both bold and calming, and that particular shade of warm red would contrast perfectly with the turquoise curtains we had in mind. She loved the idea in the end, and she has mentioned before that it is one of her favourite rooms in the Palace, which is quite the honour!”
So pleased was the President with the work, that she asked the team to help refurbish the wing designed by Architect Sir G Whitmore and built during British rule. What they found, however, shocked them: what were once Stately Rooms had been stripped of their grandeur and turned into offices for the Palace’s personnel.
“They were exactly like you’d imagine 1980s Governmental offices to be,” Keith sighs. “There was ducting everywhere, the floor had been stripped, the walls bare and yellowed. There was literally nothing worth salvaging as anything historically important had already been removed or destroyed.”
Excited, but grounded by the responsibility of the project ahead, Keith and his partners started by poring over the records of San Anton. Nothing turned up in their months-long search as, for a long period of time, no information was kept about the Palace. There weren’t even plans or surveys of the wing, with only some documents specifying the use of the rooms turning up as they dug deeper and deeper into the archives.
“You need references for a job like this. You need records, something to help you bring the palace back to its former glory. Si we took another approach. We checked dinner invitations from the 1870s onwards to pinpoint grand houses and old families that may have information about the rooms within their archive,” Keith tells me.
Although they manged to trace some of these families and homes, which led to places like the home of Marquis Nicholas De Piro, Casa Rocca Picola in Valletta, the information was sparing and not detailed. Even so, the project had to begin and they decided to use logic, rather than historical notes, to pick which room would have had which purpose.
Today, the wing is once again comprised of a library (now named Librerija Anton Buttigieg), a cigar room (Sala Ugo Mifsud Bonnici), a drawing room (Sala Pawlu Xuereb), a suite (Suite tal-Mistednin Statali Mikiel Anton Vassalli), a vaulted conference room (Sala Antione De Paule) and a grand salon (Sala Censu Tabone). Their new names join those of the Drawing Room, the Dining Room, the Grandmaster’s Hall and the Music Room, which had already been renamed to Sala Guido de Marco, Sala Edward Fenech Adami, Sala George Abela and Sala Agatha Barbara respectively.
“We’d like to assume that the rooms we chose for each purpose now is what they were built for originally. However, with so little information, we cannot possibly be sure,” Keith says. “But we are more confident about the actual decorations and techniques used to refurbish these rooms as these are, indeed, as close to those of the late 19th century as possible.”
In fact, from the fabrics sourced from companies all over the world who owned the patent to certain designs, to the wood cladding imported from Venice (the latter of which was the subject of a public tender), no detail has been left to chance.
Each room now has its own very distinct use and character, but bar the Music Room, it is Sala Censu Tabone that truly captures the old spirit of San Anton and the modern aesthetic of Malta. Upon entering, in fact, your gaze is directed to the ceiling, where a fresco of the sky is framed by Maltese lace motifs and depictions of the moth (‘Bahrija’) which all point towards a monumental and dramatic antique Murano glass chandelier.
At eye level, the room offers a pastel scene of the Maltese countryside with indigenous flora and fauna painted on fabric towering over you. Created by Dutch artist Peter Korver, who spent a month researching and a month prepping before actually creating them in the Netherlands, the scenes bring the famous San Anton Gardens into the heart of San Anton Palace.
“The furniture and the fireplaces here are also as authentic as possible to the time and style these were built,” adds Keith. “They were sourced from various places, including auctions and antique boutiques in the UK and France, and the store at Verdala Palace, which was full of old, unused furniture.”
Strolling through these new State Rooms, which were inaugurated by the President just a few weeks ago, makes you feel like you’ve gone back in time – a feat in itself for something that is so modern. Yet, from the names given to them to the details in the decoration, it is clear that they are our generation’s contribution to the Palace.
The services given to the President on the Republic for San Anton Palace by the local parties mentioned above were offered bro bono.
The new state rooms will be open to the public for the first time during Festa Palazz.
