About us

The Malta Maritime Museum is at an exciting crossroads. Within the next few years we will see a completely new museum that collects, displays and interprets the maritime history and culture of our nation. It will provide a space that is both engaging and effective in presenting this material culture to its visitors, whilst serving the needs of its staff and collections.

The Malta Maritime Museum is undergoing this extensive programme of regeneration thanks to €2 million of funding received from the EEA and Norway Grants fund and the government of Malta. Comprising a significant restoration and redesign of the museum site in Birgu waterfront and a large scale digitisation programme headed by the Digitisation Department, this project will see the Malta Maritime Museum and Heritage Malta’s digital activities become industry leading examples of 21st century museum practice.

The EEA and Norway Grants project consists of two parts:

  • Civil Works, which is seeing the existing building undergoing extensive rehabilitation and restoration, and
  • a Digitisation component, which aims to create an accessible database of rich information, knowledge and digital media of Malta’s cultural heritage assets at the Malta Maritime Museum.

Wide ranging civil works are being carried out to repair structural damage and rehabilitate unused areas of the museum in order to create further spaces accessible to the public. The total area of visitors’ facilities, museum and exhibition space at the Malta Maritime Museum will increase to 1,629 sq.m. from the current 1,086 sq.m. The project will take measures to present the museum’s collections in innovative ways and stabilise all of the museum areas, with priority given to works in the silo and central halls. Significant works will be undertaken on the roof and the rear façade, and a new foyer and reception area will be created at ground floor level. The permanent display areas on the first floor will be expanded, as will space for the reserve collection.

On the digital front, approximately 2,600 artefacts from the museum’s collection will be digitised using photography, photogrammetry and laser scanning, including ship models, navigational instruments, local boat builders’ equipment, documents, photographs, and more. With these assets we will create virtual tours, 360’ models, 3D printed artefacts, and other exciting innovations that can be experienced both in the museum, in classrooms, and online.