The Inquisitor's Palace is the only Inquisition palace in the world to have survived intact and to be open to the public. It served as the residence and court of the Apostolic Inquisitor of Malta from 1574 until the suppression of the Maltese Inquisition in 1798 when Napoleon arrived. The building, originally constructed in the fifteenth century as civil law courts, was adapted for its new purpose — complete with a tribunal room, cells for accused heretics, and an apartment for the Inquisitor himself.
The museum now housed within presents a thorough account of the Inquisition's operation in Malta, which was less bloody than its Spanish counterpart but no less intrusive. The cells and torture rooms are preserved, and the collection of instruments and documents is substantial. It is a sobering place, presented without sentimentality. The building is also architecturally interesting — the Inquisitors added baroque touches to the medieval structure over the centuries, and the main staircase is particularly fine.