It is presently open to the public as a house-museum with seventeen rooms of historic domestic belongings and a number of antique collections.

During the rule of the Order of St. John, the building might have received Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, the first Grand Master in Malta.

Palazzo Falson was acquired by Olof Frederick Gollcher in the 20th century, and he restored and altered parts of the building.

[4] According to Quentin Hughes, the ground floor of the present building was built in around 1495, probably incorporating parts of the synagogue.

[1] Changes to the façade, including a shift in the orientation of the building as well as the addition of a double serrated string course and the hood mould framing the main doorway were completed at this point.

[6] According to tradition, soon after the arrival of the Order of St. John in Malta, Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam visited the palace for a banquet after a ceremony in which he took possession of Mdina on 13 November 1530.

[4] In 1657, the palace belonged to Ugolino Cumbo Navarra, and on his death it was inherited by his aunt Guzmana Cassar.

She passed the building to her nephew Federico Falsone, who was not a member of the main branch of the family and who probably never lived at the palace.

The building eventually passed into the hands of the Muscati-Falsone-Navarra family, and by the 1920s it belonged to Count Francesco Palermo Navarra Bonici, a resident of Catania.

[1] Throughout the centuries a number of changes were made to the house, including a reduction in the size of the building by separating it into more than one tenement.

[8] Gollcher was an art collector, and he transferred his collections into the palace, which he called The Norman House since at the time its architectural features were considered to be Siculo-Norman.

[9] The most significant changes Gollcher made can be seen in the courtyard where he built a Siculo-Renaissance inspired external staircase, as well as a pseudo Siculo-Norman fountain and a Byzantine-Romanesque folly.

[8] The family was of Swedish descent and owned a shipping business which still operates in Malta today, under the name of The Gollcher Group.

[11] In 1914 Gollcher joined the British Army and subsequently served in both World Wars, gaining the rank of captain in 1945.

[12] After his death, in 1962, both were eventually made over to the Captain O F Gollcher OBE Art and Archaeological Foundation, but it was not until 2001 that restoration on the house and the collections began.

The museum opened its doors to the public in 2007 and continues to operate under the management of Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti.

[15][page needed] Other items of particular note include the painting Portrait of a Boy attributed to the Spanish baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682); four small pictures representing the Four Seasons traditionally attributed to the French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665),[16] and a landscape ink and wash sketch by the British 19th century artist and poet Edward Lear (1812-1888) made during one of his stays in Malta.

One of the more intriguing items is a chastity belt, originally believed to have been worn during the Middle Ages as a sign of a woman’s fidelity while her husband was away at war.

A number of books have also been digitised in collaboration with the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library of Saint John’s University, Minnesota (U.S.) and one can view the digital versions upon special request.

[24] Another well-known book within the palazzo's rich collection is a travel guide named “Baedeker’s Northern France”, published in 1894.

[26] The exhibitions are generally accompanied with the publication of a catalogue and a calendar of activities - such as gallery talks and children’s workshops.

Titled Scent Bottles: From Ceremony to Seduction, it showcased over 250 examples sourced from local private and museum collections.

The show was dedicated primarily to Lear’s stay in Malta and married his water colours with his corresponding diary entries, highlighting the unique personality of the artist.

The ground floor is built in a vernacular style, possibly incorporating part of an earlier synagogue.