Old Infirmary of the Knights of St John

The Sacra Infermeria, Valletta

For over two centuries the Sacra Infermeria was the Holy Infirmary of the Order of St John: the Knights’ hospital, built in the latter part of the 16th century on the edge of Valletta, overlooking the Grand Harbour. Its great ward is one of the longest halls in Europe. Today the building houses the Mediterranean Conference Centre.

For evening events

The infirmary takes gala dinners under 36-foot ceilings, for up to 1,400 guests at a seated dinner, depending on the build. The whole building can be taken for one group, with no other event anywhere in it.

La Valette Hall, one of its vaulted halls, has seated 450 of our guests for a four-course dinner.

What we have staged here

• An awards night for 600 top performers. The winners’ reception opened under the vaulted stone; the ceremony ran in Republic Hall on a custom stage backed by full LED walls; dinner for 450 followed in La Valette Hall.
• A medieval banquet for nine markets. Two long imperial tables, a Grand Master in full costume, flag bearers, torch bearers, drummers and trumpeters, and a knight on horseback at the entrance.
• Dinner for a 381-delegate summit, in the Knights’ great hospital hall, beneath the Order’s banners.

For conferences, the centre has ten halls and nine syndicate rooms over 7,000 square metres: see the Mediterranean Conference Centre.