Check-in: Malta Postal Museum (January 2020)

Malta Postal Museum | מוזאון הדואר של מלטה

Stamps are the cornerstone of every postal museum; but in order for postal museums to succeed in appealing to a wider public that might not appreciate stamps, they must endeavor to have a range of exhibits in addition to stamps that the wider public can relate to. In this spirit, the first exhibit one encounters upon entering the Malta Postal Museum in the Maltese capital of Valletta/Il-Belt is not a stamp but a bicycle, and past the bicycle a mailbox. The bike is identified as a Pashley Model A "used by Maltese delivery postmen on their beats," and the mailbox as an "English Pillar Box with E.II.R cipher" salvaged from a construction site in the nearby town of Sliema.

Vestibule exhibit

To be sure, stamps are very much an integral part of the Malta Postal Museum, and no one who comes here with the specific intent of basking in Malta's rich history of postage stamps will leave disappointed. The first floor is where the stamp galleries start, and it is where Malta's stamps between the years 1860 and 1974 are on display. Included in the first gallery is an exhibit showcasing Malta's most valuable stamp, the 1919 "St. Paul 10s," whose highly sought-after status stems from a mysterious anomaly wherein only 1,530 of its kind were printed. The first floor is also where visitors are introduced to Emvin Cremona (1919-1987), the artist behind many of Malta's stamps between the years 1957 and 1980. During the months of December 2019 and January 2020 the Malta Postal Museum hosted an extensive collection of original artwork by Cremona, both stamp-related and ecclesiastical.

Stamps of Malta: 1860-1922

The second floor features Malta's stamps between the years 1975 and 2000, including the first Maltese stamps to feature running (1976) and Hebrew (1990). A skullcap worn by Pope John Paul II during a visit to Malta is also on display here. Two other rooms on the second floor take visitors on a tour of Malta's postal history, beginning with the Knights of St. John, through Napoleon's conquest, British rule, and World War II. Exhibits here include "Quarantine Mail" from an outbreak of bubonic plague in Malta in 1813, "Malta as Nurse of the Mediterranean" during World War I, and an original letter from 1576. A fourth room houses Emvin Cremona drawings, which a panel indicates are "the genesis of what we see on a much larger scale in our churches."

Malta Postal Museum, second floor

The third floor features Malta's stamps between the years 2001 and 2010, including the first Maltese stamp to use the euro as its face value (2008). A separate room memorializes four Malta postal workers renowned for their dedication as mail deliverers and invites junior visitors to dress up as mailmen and get a taste of what delivering mail is like. Another part of the room showcases wooden models of the Gozo Mail Bus and the SS Gleneagles, as well as a real-life James Captain 200 cc motorcycle and several classic mailboxes of various shapes and sizes.

Malta Postal Museum, third floor

Valletta's main attraction is its architecture, with practically every building in the city worthy of being called a work of art. It is a feature peculiar to the local Vallettan culture that property owners and municipal officials share a similar preservationist attitude toward their city's architectural heritage. Part of this attitude involves documenting and taking pride in each building's unique history, and the Malta Postal Museum is no exception to this pattern. A panel on a vestibule wall of the museum recounts the history of the building as having been designed by architect Giuseppe Cachia Caruana in 1947 to replace "a much earlier building" on the site "that succumbed to enemy bombing in 1942." The newer building, the panel goes on to state, was acquired by MaltaPost in 2011.

Malta Postal Museum entrance

What the panel neglects to mention is who the museum's interior architect is -- the person behind the collections' layout and presentation to the public. That person would be curator Lara Bugeja, who has been the museum's conceptual helmswoman since before it opened its doors in 2016. Bugeja, whose enthusiasm for her work is immediately felt when engaging with her in conversation, also conducts tours of the museum and says there are some surprising projects on the agenda for 2020 and beyond.

Lara Bugeja (left) with Amir Afsai

The Malta Postal Museum is open Monday through Friday between 10:00 and 16:00 and Saturday from 10:00 to 14:00. The site also functions as a post office with its own mail processing service and hand stamp. An on-site gift shop sells postcards, books and stuffed MaltaPost mailmen. A limited edition first day cover from the museum's inauguration in 2016 is available for purchase upon request (€5). Museum tickets cost €5 and are valid for one month. Address: 135 Archbishop St., next door to Valletta's iconic The Pub.

The Pub, 136 Archbishop St.