Bighi Complex (Kalkara) (Kalkara)

It was Lord Nelson himself who suggested to Their Lordships at the Admiralty in London that Bighi would make a good hospital. In 1827, during the Battle of Navarino, many injured from the British and Russian fleets were transferred to Malta. It was King George IV who gave permission to the Admiralty so that a hospital could be then constructed for the fleet's requirements. Thus the site was taken over, including Villa Bichi. Then on March 23rd, 1830, when Major General Fred Cavendish Ponsoby was Governor of Malta, Vice Admiral Sir P. Malcolm laid the foundation stone of the new hospital at Bighi. The design of Bighi Hospital is generally attributed to Colonel (later Major General) Sir George Whitmore (1775 - 1862) who headed the Royal Engineers between 1811 and 1829 but with a long break in Corfu in between.

It is difficult to sort out with certainty who did what at Bighi but the combined efforts of Whitmore, Salvatore and Gaetano Xerri and perhaps others have produced a very pleasing ensemble which has graced our Grand Harbour for over a century and a half. An engraving by Brocktorff in 1840 shows the complex at it's best, before the site was cluttered by a number of other buildings, with the San Salvatore Church still showing on the horizon to the left.

Bighi Hospital contributed to the nursing and medical care of casualties whenever hostilities occurred in the Mediterranean, making Malta "the nurse of the Mediterranean ". During the First World War (1914 - 1918) , Bighi Hospital accommodated a very large number of causalities from the Daradanelles, the patients being bedded down in corridors and ditches. During the Second World War, the Hospital was well within the target area of the heavy bombing since it was surrounded by military establishments. A number of it's buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the x-ray theatre, the East and West Wings, the Villa and the Cot Lift from the Bighi Jetty to the Hospital.

Various sections of the building on site were practically left abandoned for many years and thus new efforts have been addressed at restoring them to their original state.

 militaryinteresting place