Villa Francia

Villa Francia is an 18th-century palace in Lija, Malta, completed around 1757 by Francesco Preziosi. It began as a one-storey hunting lodge known as Villa Preziosi and was raised to two storeys with an added upper floor in the late 1700s, later renamed Villa Francia after the family that acquired it and modified again in the mid-20th century for residential use; the limestone building combines a Palladian exterior with Sicilian Baroque interiors inspired by the Villa Palagonia in Sicily. Its grounds, which make up about 90 percent of the property, include fountains, a nymphaeum, a reservoir, a coach room, a water mill, horse stables and a belvedere looking toward Mosta. Donated to the Maltese government in 1987, it has served since as the official residence of the Prime Minister of Malta, and the government has spent about one million euros restoring it with European Union funding; it is a Grade 1 national monument on Malta's National Inventory of Cultural Property. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/