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Ministry of Health

On the corner of Merchants and St John’s Street, the Castellania originally housed the law courts. It was completed in 1760 during Grand Master Pinto’s reign, and includes a florid stone-work and his crescent emblem. The figures either side of the first floor balcony represent Justice and Truth. There is a pillory stone in the apex of the building’s corner, for those convicted and sentenced to death after the Priest’s Revolt of 1775. Above this is a hook, which was either used to hoist up the bells of St John’s or to suspend convicts sentenced to imprisonment in a cage.

In 1896 the building became the office of the Health Department and it was here that the physician and prominent archeologist Sir Themistocles Zammit discovered the Mediterranean strain of brucellosis in 1905.