[8] The building was used for quarantine for high officials during the rule of the Order of St John, such as by the Inquisitor Monsignor Paolo Passionei.

[10] Since the arrival of the British military in Malta it started to be known (since 1799) as Villa Bighi particularly because of the references to it by Sir Alexander Ball.

[11] The palace, or villa, and its garden[1] become a public building of the Civil Government during the British Protectorate but was left to dilapidate.

[12] It was only with the intervention of King George IV in 1827 when it was granted permission to develop the site of the gardens, and turn them in the present Bighi Hospital.

[2] In 1829 four Egyptian limestone stelae, that pre-date the Phoenician period in Malta, were found on the site by British archaeologists.

He was later appointed director-general of the Royal Navy's Medical Department, and during his office Bighi nursed casualties from the Crimean War.

In 1863 the hospital looked after Queen Victoria's son Prince Alfred who was ill for a month with typhoid fever whilst serving as an officer in the RN.

[17] The Illustrated London News of 11 April 1863 included a detailed description of how the prince was quartered and the layout of the hospital.

A number of its buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the x-ray theatre, the East and West Wings, the Villa and the Cot Lift from the Bighi Jetty to the Hospital.