Features of the interior include former court halls, a chapel, prison cells, a statue of Lady Justice at the main staircase and an ornate fountain in the courtyard.

From the late 18th to the early 19th century, the building was also known by a number of names, including the Palazzo del Tribunale, the Palais de Justice and the Gran Corte della Valletta.

[6][7] The institution was established in Malta on 5 September 1533 after the arrival of the Order,[8] during the magistracy of Grandmaster Philippe de L'Isle-Adam[9][10] and it is sometimes distinguishably known as the Magnæ Curiæ Caſtellaniæ Melitenſis.

[52] In the late eighteenth century, under Grand Master de Rohan, Giovanni Niccolò Muscat has triggered significant controversy over his views on church-state separation in matters which are not religious in nature.

[46] The first Castellania of Valletta was demolished in the mid-18th century on orders of Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca,[93][94] as he despised its austere architecture and wanted a symbolic building of his absolutism.

[95] Pinto continued on similar steps of his predecessor, Grand Master Wignacourt, by taking several initiatives and make stately projects, and a new Castellania was one of the main prospects.

[97] Knights Giacomo de Blacas d'Aups and the Giorgio Valperga di Masino were given monopoly rights for four decades over the use of wind-power machines for the production of marble, metals, limestone and timber in Malta by Pinto in 1752.

[129] As a general rule, by the Officio delle Case (Officium Commissariorum Domorum), the buildings in Valletta were required to be ready within three-years period from start to completion.

[b] A craftsman who worked on the decorative sculpture of the Castellania's façade's central-piece[140] and chapel was Maestro Giovanni Vito,[141][142] the Puglisi (from Pùglia), a Neapolitan buonavoglia (a rower on the galleys[143][144]).

[145][146] With the remodelling of the edifice, Pinto has ubiquitously besprinkled[147] his heraldic symbolic couchant crescents,[148] in the interior and exterior of the architecture of the building, to convey a message of his absolutism and opulence.

[45] Some judges of the Castellania, such as Vincenzo Bonavita (1752–1829), served during four different periods- firstly during the Order of St John, then during French occupation, the British protectorate and finally under the Crown Colony period.

[176] In 1777, Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc introduced the Supremum Justitiæ Magistratum (Collegiate Tribunal of the Jury's Supreme Magistrate) in order to establish more separation of powers in judicial decisions.

[183] During his magistracy, Grand Master de Rohan sentenced the Castellan, allegedly for practicing conflict of interest considering his position, to a life in prison but was allowed to escape and lived in exile.

[184] Giuseppe Elia Pace, an advocate and close friend of Mikiel Anton Vassalli, was found guilty of treason during the reign of de Rohan and was sentenced for flogging in Valletta followed by a permanent exile out of Malta.

[190] The French reformed the legal system with the country being divided into provinces for roughly each 3,000 inhabitants, all with their own civil and criminal jurisdiction for the Justice of Peace:[191] this included the use of the Castellania.

[239][240] Though Maltese has always remained in use throughout the Knights period among all classes of society, the Councillor of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice Francesco Saverio Farrugia implied that Italian was considered as the maternal language which connects the country with the rest of Europe.

[240] Efforts by the British to spread the usage of English during the protectorate and the early period of direct Crown control over Malta failed, mostly due to the unwillingness by the educated minority to adopt it.

[253] During carnival celebrations, cross-dressing males could be arrested, and those caught by police were held overnight at the Castellania "to study for a night manners more comporting with the modest of the sex.

[259] Individuals or groups could petition at the Castellania through a supplica; common cases were from practitioners needing a license to perform their occupation[2][260] and the poor requesting social benefits.

[265] Those galleys coming from non-European ports or from places subjected to possible disease were withheld in quarantine for days and only given permission to mix with the rest of the people once a Pratica was issued by the Commission of Public Health.

[278] The building was no longer regarded as being adequate to function as a courthouse by 1840, during the Government of Sir Henry Bouverie, and that year the Civil Courts were moved to Auberge d'Auvergne.

[109] The restored cell appears on the front cover of the book Kissing the Gallows: A Cultural History of Crime, Torture and Punishment in Malta, 1600–1798, authored by William Zammit.

[348] In December 2019, messages related to Government corruption in Malta and the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia were left attached to the door of the Castellania, together with symbolic coal on the doorstep.

[230] A large allegorical statue representing Lady Justice or Astraea wearing a blindfold and holding weighing scales stands at the staircase which lead to the former courtrooms.

[418] In 1970 a copy of a painting by Mattia Preti, portraying two Saints of Health Cosmas and Damian, was transferred from St Luke's Hospital chapel to the hall at the Castellania.

(meaning, Here are the law courts, the seat of lawyers andpleaders, set up by Prince Pinto for his love of equity) The chapel was dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows (also called the Madonna di Pietà or Mater Dolorosa).

[115][421] After being deconsecrated in the late 19th century, the room was used for other purposes,[293] and only the limestone frame, where used to be the titular painting[422] which was retrieved during restoration works in 1991,[109] still remains from the chapel's original interior.

[17] Other convicts were those who refused to bake bread in Valletta which were jailed for a roughly a week[260][427] and those found guilty of stealing to eat despite their social situation which were imprisoned up to three months.

[156] There were attempts to re-criminalize gambling during the late magistracy of Pinto as such activity led to undesirable financial consequences to participants but the widespread practice was instead strictly regulated, on fears that if banned it may be of benefit to the underground community.

[431] The minor inmates at the Castellania were the ones who took care of the general maintenance, cleaning and repair works of the building, while guards were responsible for the allocation of tasks and observing their performance.