Palazzo Nasciaro

Palazzo Nasciaro
Front façade of Palazzo Nasciaro
Location within Malta
Former names	Casa Nasciaro (Lieutenant's House), Naxxar School, Naxxar Police Headquarters, Naxxar Police Station
General information
Status	Intact
Type	Residential Townhouse
Architectural style	Baroque
Location	Naxxar, Malta
Coordinates	35°54′49.25″N 14°26′42.24″E / 35.9136806°N 14.4450667°E / 35.9136806; 14.4450667
Named for	Naxxar Town
Completed	18th century
Renovated	2007-2014
Owner	Paul Golding
Technical details
Material	Limestone
Floor count	3
Floor area	700 sq. m indoors, 500 sq. m outdoors and 115 sq. m in shelter/underground
Design and construction
Architect	Franceso Sammut, Giovanni Sammut
Renovating team
Architect	Joseph Micallef (restorer)
Website
www.palazzonasciaro.com

Palazzo Nasciaro, also known as Casa Nasciar, is an 18th-century townhouse in Naxxar (Casal Nasciaro), Malta, built during the Order of St. John. The townhouse date back to before the 18th century when it was as a family residence. The building went through different adaptive reuse in its history reflecting the needs of the locals.

It was purposely built to served as the official house, and sometimes as a country home of the architects who designed it themselves. The palace served as the Lieutenant's House (Dar -il Kmand), during the British period, serving a post for the administration of regions in Malta. Eventually it became the first police station in Naxxar and the first police headquarters of the region. Then the building became the first primary school of Naxxar when the population was very sparse at the time. It also consists of a World War II shelter that was utilised by the local community when Malta was bombarded and it hosted a maternity underground hospital.

The recent renaming of the townhouse as Palazzo Nasciaro could be misleading as its layout shows it is not a palace. The renaming is probably used for romanticism. The townhouse is claimed to have rococo architecture but it actually has baroque architecture.

Palazzo Nasciaro was built on a strategic place, a hill, overlooking the three villages of Malta being Attard, Balzan and Lija. However the surroundings are today developed, and the villages are now towns. The building is found in the nearby proximity of the core of Naxxar close to the main piazza, Victory Square. The building's street is named Main Street (Triq il-Kbira) but back then was named Strada Reale before Lord Gerald Strickland started to Anglicanise Maltese street names. The street including Palazzo Nasciaro already existed in the 1720s. In modern-day the street still leads directly to the main piazza but it is no longer the main street leading directly to Valletta as there was several building developments. It is found next to the house of the Naxxar parish priest. Naxxar is a village on a hill, while at the same time the palace is elevated from the street. It is built on two floor with a large underlying shelter. It originally looked over the three villages.