It was built in 1571 to house knights of the Order of Saint John from the langue of Aragon, Navarre and Catalonia.

It is the only surviving auberge in Valletta which retains its original Mannerist design by the architect Girolamo Cassar.

[a] In the early 19th century, the building was requisitioned by the British military, and in 1842 it was leased to Bishop George Tomlinson, being renamed Gibraltar House.

At this point, a neoclassical portico was added to the façade, by then the major addition to the exterior since the 16th century.

[5] In 1674, the Langue of Aragon built the Church of Our Lady of Pilar adjacent to the auberge.

[11] The only major alteration to the auberge, a Doric portico leading to the main doorway, was probably built at this point.

[4] On 16 January 1951, Prime Minister George Borg Olivier presented a small bronze model of Les Gavroches, created by artist Antonio Sciortino, to Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II) in a ceremony held at the building.

[4] The building subsequently housed the Ministry of Education and Culture, which was then led by Minister Agatha Barbara, who later became President of Malta.

After the 1987 elections, Parliamentary Secretary for Industry John Dalli took up his offices in the auberge, and he also used it later as the Ministry for Economic Affairs.

[9] In March 2004, the auberge became the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs.

During restoration works carried out in 2019, an early 18th century bakery oven, some wells and water canals were discovered buried under debris in an underground part of the auberge.

It is rather plain, with its decorative emphasis being the continuous cornice along roof level and the rusticated corners.