Me and sedan chairs in Malta

- John Muscat

During my trip to Malta in August 2026, I developed an unusual interest. A sedan chair that I came across at a museum left me wanting to see more. By around the early-1600s sedan chairs had spread across Europe as a popular mode of transportation for high-ranking noble personages. They can be described as portable enclosed chairs for single passengers lifted by two men, one in front and one behind, by means of two long wooden poles or shafts inserted into brackets on the sides of the chair. Some say they were first used in the French city of Sedan. Many were ornately carved and decorated, reflecting the high status of their owners. The decorations often included the family crest, coat-of-arms or insignia of the owner. On the inside they tended to be comfortably lined and upholstered in silk, calling to mind the interiors of modern motor vehicles (this is where ‘sedan car’ comes from).

In Malta sedan chairs were called portinatina or more commonly is-suggetta and the carriers were known as suggettieri. They were used over the 1600s and 1700s by Grand Masters of the Order of Knights Hospitaller of St John, who ruled Malta from 1530 to 1798, senior office-holders of the Order, Bishops of Malta, Inquisitors, and members of noble families. They were especially useful in streets too narrow and winding for carriages, characteristic of old Malta. Towards the later 1700s many owners donated their chairs to parish confraternities dedicated to taking communion to sick or dying parishioners (Holy Viaticum). In some cases, this type of use survived into the 1930s.

I managed to track down and photograph eight sedan chairs in various locations across Malta.

[1] This ornate chair is in the Wignacourt Museum at Rabat. The photo at the bottom shows the carrying shafts stacked against the wall. A plaque near the chair says: “18th cent. French sedan chair emblazoned with the coat-of-arms of Fra Giovanni Carmine Pellerano, Bishop of Malta (1770-1780), complete with its lifting poles. Donated by the said bishop to the Archconfraternity of the Blessed Sacrament of Rabat, Malta in 1776.”

[2] This chair is found in the Sanctuary Museum at Zabbar. A card affixed to its base says the chair was used by Raphael Cotoner, Grand Master from 1660 to1663, and his nephew Nicholas Cotoner, Grand Master from 1663 to 1680.

[3] This chair is also in the Sanctuary Museum at Zabbar. It bears the coat-of-arms of Ferdinand von Hompesch, the last Grand Master in Malta. He was elected in 1797 only to be expelled by Napoleon along with the rest of the Order of St John the following year.

[4] This chair, with carrying shafts stacked behind, is located in the Cathedral Museum at Mdina. A sheet inside the chair says: “This well preserved chair bears the arms of the Religion [Order of St John] and not of a specific Grand Master. The open coronet [on the coat-of-arms] indicates that it belongs to a pre-Pinto [Grand Master Manoel Pinto de Fonseca] period before 1741.” Elected in 1741, Pinto was the first Grand Master to put a closed crown on his coat-of-arms to symbolise a royal or princely status.

[5] This chair is in Casa Rocca Piccola at Valletta, the 16th century palazzo of the noble Maltese de Piro family. A card attached to the front of the chair says: “Custom made for the distinguished French knight Fra Victor Nicholas da Vachon Belmont, it bears his hand-painted coat of arms, initials and intricate marine motifs, reflecting his role as Captain General of the Galleys, commanding many of the Order’s ships.”

[6] This chair is in the Inquisitor’s Palace at Birgu. The office of Inquisitor of Malta was active from 1574 to 1798. The post was not without some prestige at the time. Two Italians who held the position in the mid-1600s later went on to become pope. The chair is painted in a plain dark tone, as befits a menacing Inquisitor.

[7] This chair is in the Black Friars Museum at Valletta, a former Dominican monastery. A sheet hanging from the front of the chair says: “According to the well known Dominican historian, Fra Domenico Azzopardo OP, on March 17th 1661, the Parish Priest of Porto Salvo [Valletta], Fra Domeinco Farrugia OP, while on his way back to church carrying the Holy Pyx [a small round container used to carry the Eucharist], after having administered Holy Communion to the sick, had to seek shelter under one of the porches of the Magisterial Palace [Grand Master’s palace in Valletta] due to a heavy downpour. The Grand Master, Fra Raphael Cotoner (1660-1663), having been informed of what was happening, promptly offered the Parish Priest one of his sedan chairs with his footmen to carry him back to the church. When the sedan chair was returned the Grand Master felt that as the chair had been used by Our Lord himself, he was unworthy to use it again. He therefore sent it back to the church to be used only on similar occasions. By the year 1770, the old sedan chair was so badly damaged and unserviceable that the Grand Master, Fra Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca (1741-1773) presented to the Archconfraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, of which he was Rector and benefactor, another sedan chair. This had belonged to the late bishop of Malta, Monsignor Bartolomeo Rull (1757-1769). In grateful memory of his generosity, the Archconfraternity’s members commissioned a gilded bronze plaque with the emblem of the Holy Eucharist and Grand Master Pinto’s coat of arms from the local goldsmith Francesco Zimelli and placed it at the back of the chair.” It appears that the second chair is the one now on display at the Black Friars Museum. In relation to Grand Master Raphael Cotoner, we know that he had at least one other sedan chair at his disposal, see [2] above.

[8] This chair is found in the St Lawrence Parish Church Museum at Birgu. A sign inside the chair says, “An early piece, it nearly perished in the last war when the old church of St Lawrence, which had been the Conventual Church of the Order before St John’s [co-cathedral in Valletta], was bombed. The chair was found suspended upside down in the ruins. It was clearly designed by an artist and has free, mature and fine mouldings.” 

These eight chairs do not represent all of the sedan chairs in Malta. In 1993 an exhibition was held at the Cathedral Museum in Mdina called The Sedan Chair in Malta. Twenty sedan chairs were on display. Luckily not all of them are accessible to the public, otherwise I would have spent my whole time in Malta just looking at sedan chairs. A book of the exhibition was published at the time.

If you would like to comment on this post or share information about sedan chairs in Malta, please email jmmuscat@netspace.net.au