Inside Villa Guardamangia, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's Home in Malta
In The Crown's penultimate episode, Queen Elizabeth fondly reminisces on her days in Malta with Prince Philip. "Before I acceeded to the throne, Philip and I lived in Malta as a young married couple," the Queen (Imelda Staunton) tells Prince Philip (Ed McVey). "Villa Guardamangia was our home, outside Valletta. Some of the happiest years of my life."
She continues, "I used to go to the grocers, you know, every day, with all the other wives. And held dinner parties and picnics, and went to the local hairdresser. Out of the spotlight, living a perfectly normal life. I want you to have that, too."
This really happened: Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth, then Princess Elizabeth, lived in Villa Guardamangia from 1949 to 1951, when Philip was stationed in Malta as a naval officer.
The villa, located in Gwardamanġa, Pietà, Malta, was leased to (and later purchased by) Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip's uncle, in 1929. The royal couple first stayed at Villa Guardamangia in 1946, when they were newly engaged, and then returned in 1949. It was the only house outside of the UK that Elizabeth ever called home.
The three years that the couple spent in Malta were ones that the Queen remembered fondly. In 2015, when Queen Elizabeth visited the country, she said, "Visiting Malta is always very special for me. I remember happy days here with Prince Philip when we were first married." A neighbor, Ġużeppi Formosa, fondly recalled in 2015 "She was much loved here, people used to wait to wave to her, she would respond back waving her hand."
As The Crown says, Elizabeth lived a relatively "normal" life in Malta. Per Tatler, "The Queen was a 'regular' naval wife, shopping in her Morris Minor and taking boat trips around the archipelago, while her husband worked hard in the Navy, one of his great joys, and a career that was cut short by his wife's ascension to the throne."
The villa was put up for sale in 2019, and purchased by the Government of Malta with the intent of restoring the historic home.
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