Object description

The statue of António Manoel de Vilhena is a life-sized Baroque bronze statue of António Manoel de Vilhena, a Portuguese Grand Master of the Order of St John. Commissioned in 1734 by the knight Felician de Savasse, it was sculpted by Pietro Paolo Troisi and cast by Aloisio Bouchut. In 1736 it was installed at Fort Manoel in Malta, and it was subsequently relocated a number of times. It was moved to Piazza Tesoreria in Valletta in 1858, to the entrance of The Mall gardens in Floriana in 1891, and to its present location at Pope John XXIII Square in Floriana in 1989.