RNH Bighi

Royal Naval Hospital Bighi
Bighi Hospital as seen from the Grand Harbour
Geography
Location	Kalkara, Malta
Coordinates	35°53′35.1″N 14°31′28.2″E / 35.893083°N 14.524500°E / 35.893083; 14.524500Coordinates: 35°53′35.1″N 14°31′28.2″E / 35.893083°N 14.524500°E / 35.893083; 14.524500
Organisation
Hospital type	Military
Services
Beds	250
History
Founded	1832
Closed	1970
Links
Lists	Hospitals in Malta

Royal Naval Hospital Bighi (RNH Bighi) also known as Bighi Hospital, was a major naval hospital located in the small town of Kalkara on the island of Malta. It was built on the site of the gardens of Palazzo Bichi, that was periodically known as Palazzo Salvatore. RNH Bighi served the eastern Mediterranean in the 19th and 20th centuries and, in conjunction with the RN Memorial Hospital at Imtarfa, contributed to the nursing and medical care of casualties whenever hostilities occurred in the Mediterranean. The building is now known as Villa Bighi and it houses a restoration unit.

On the site of the current building is Palazzo Bichi (now Palazzo Bighi) also known as Villa Bichi, built in 1675 during the Order of St. John by Fra Giovanni Bichi on the designs of Lorenzo Gafa. Fra Giovanni Bichi was the nephew of Pope Alexander VII. The palace passed to his nephew Fra Mario Bichi, a member of the Order, even before it was finished as Fra Giovanni Bichi had died. He sold it to Bailiff Fra Giovanni Sigismondo, who was the Count of Schaesberg, in 1712. It was then known as Palazzo Salvatore and Gardens because of the hill being named Salvatore Hill.

The palace became known again as Palazzo Bichi after it was bought by another Fra Giovanni Bichi in 1712 and remained his until his death in 1740. The palace is said to have housed Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 before his entry in Valletta but this is disputed. Since the arrival of the British military in Malta it started to be known (since 1799) as Villa Bighi particularly because of the references to it by Sir Alexander Ball. Most palaces in Malta built by the Order started to be referred to as Villas by the British, and particularly the word Bichi of Villa Bichi was corrupted to Villa Bighi. Even before his arrival, the site was chosen by Nelson to build a naval hospital since 1803. The palace, or villa, and its garden become a public building of the Civil Government during the British Protectorate but was left to dilapidate. It was only with the intervention of King George IV in 1827 when it was granted permission to develop the site of the gardens, and turn them in the present Bighi Hospital. This happened on the request of the Maltese governor Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby. The original villa, Villa Bichi, is today housing an educational center known as MCST. Palazzo Bichi is scheduled as a Grade 1 national monument by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.