In Malta, in the footsteps of Prince Philip

Picnics in the open air, fun dance evenings and a wedding that has just begun: the island of Malta it holds a unique and in some respects unusual fragment of the married life of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip; so much so that the island in their first years of married life took on the features of a second home.

Anyone who followed The Crown, he knows it well: on this Mediterranean island – part of a larger archipelago – the two young royals of England spent a carefree period of their life together, the one that precedes Elizabeth’s coronation.

But their presence on the island was rather continuous and right here they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2007.

In Malta, in particular, Philip returned several times both in the company of his wife and alone, also for his role in the British navy, the Royal Navy. And so, a few days after his death, we went in search of the places frequented by the Duke of Edinburgh. An album of places that can become the canvas for a holiday in the warm months, encouraged by the initiative announced by the Maltese Ministry of Tourism which intends to reward – the how, we know, is still being defined – the tourists who decide to book a stay of at least three nights directly on the websites of the hotels participating in the initiative (valid from 1 June).

Philip went to Malta two years after being married as second-in-command of the “HMS Checkers”, leader of the first destroyer flotilla of the Mediterranean fleet stationed here. He was joined a few weeks later by his wife and together they settled in Pietà, in Villa Guardamangia; this building, after years of neglect, is now owned by the Maltese government and in the near future, at the end of a restructuring process that is affecting it, it will become a tourist attraction.

It is located at the gates of Vallettainstead, the palace whose vast hall hosted some of the dances organized by Elisabetta and Filippo. Today the building is accessible to all and has become an accommodation facility, the Phoenicia Hotel.

The travels of the royal couple to Malta continued even after the coronation of 2 June 1953: the first official visit as a reigning couple was in 1954. One of the “fixed stops” of the state visits was the Co-cathedral of San Giovanni in Valletta, a masterpiece of Maltese Baroque.

1964 is a historic date for the archipelago: independence formally begins afterwards 165 years of British rule, and Malta becomes part of the Commonwealth. A political link that has understandably left extensive traces on these islands where red telephone boxes can be seen, an iconic London symbol, and where people still drive on the right. Not only that: in Malta you can find a refined one tea ceremony to English in places like Palazzo Parisio, a nineteenth-century villa that some consider a miniature Versailles for its splendid interiors and Baroque gardens. The Palace of the Grand Master, seat of the President of the Republic of Malta and of the House of Representatives, also sees the portraits of several nobles from across the Channel smiling on its walls.

It was Filippo, alone, who delivered in 1964 to the then Prime Minister of Malta, George Borg Olivier, the documents that sanctioned the independence of the nation, an event that took place in the large square of Floriana, a town adjacent to the capital. But the prince’s individual appearances also include the inauguration of some significant realities for the archipelago, including the Malta Playing Fields Association at the Radio City Opera House in Ħamrun in 1951 and the first children’s playground in 1968. The couple’s last visit dates back to 2015, on the occasion of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

In gallery find pictures of some of the places that hosted the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen of England.

(In the photo Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Malta / © Malta Tourism).