Housed within the Old Naval bakery, the Malta Maritime Museum charts 7000 years of Malta’s maritime history, from prehistory to the present day. Numerous exhibited artefacts highlight the different epochs of the islands’ history and illustrate the global nature of seafaring and its impact on Maltese society.
The museum manifests also the fascination of the sea within a Mediterranean context, without neglecting the overall global nature of seafaring. Having started from scratch in 1988, with not even one single artefact, today the museum boasts a unique collection of over 20,000 artefacts belonging to Malta’s Maritime past.
This collection was acquired by the constant search for, identification, and acquisition, of artefacts related to the museum’s mission. This task has been aided by the constant donations over these past years by the Maltese general public, foreign individuals, companies, corporate bodies, foreign maritime and naval museums, foreign navies, and Maltese and foreign Ambassadors and High Commissioners.
Visitors of this museum can nowadays enjoy some unique artefacts which include: the largest known roman anchor in the world, the earliest known ex-voto on the island, the largest ship model belonging to the Order of St John, the largest collection of cannons on the island, the Napoleonic figurehead of the 110 gunship HMS Hibernia, a 1950s working marine steam engine, and a collection of more than 60 boats.