The opening of Casa Bonavita in Attard elevates the standard for a Mediterranean retreat.
In commenting on the May opening of her Casa Bonavita, the 17-room guesthouse and luxury hotel in Malta’s ancient city of Attard, which she discovered with her husband, Christopher, in 2010, Suzanne Sharp modestly declared, “We always wanted to open a little hotel.” That has to be one of the greatest understatements since Sir Paul McCartney described The Beatles as “… a good little bar band.”
In every way, from its location, design and architecture to its finishes and service, Casa Bonavita represents the magnificence of Malta. Built in 1715 in the tranquil interior of the island, it was originally the country residence of a Francophile family with Venetian roots that, in the 1600s, rose to prominence in Maltese society.
Like so many things in our wonderful world, the marriage of Christopher and Suzanne Sharp with Casa Bonavita was purely unintentional. In the autumn of 2010, the founders of The Rug Company decided to take an impromptu viewing of a mansion in Malta. Behind its limestone façade, the Sharps discovered a dimly lit, flagstone-floored interior that was in decay, but their design creativity and imagination told them it held potential. The ultimate “fixer-upper.”
The Sharps have restored and retained many of the retreat’s grandest architectural features in creating a 17-room estate as a house first and a hotel second in the celebrated design duo’s first adventure in hospitality, shaped by Suzanne’s childhood on the island and their long-standing love of Malta.
“We hope it will be a place where like-minded people will be able to see Malta as we do: a bastion of culture, a fascinating and kitsch mix of Arab and Italian influences framed by baroque architecture,” she says. Rather than presenting a polished version of Mediterranean luxury, Casa Bonavita is genuine, much like Malta itself. The retreat embraces the eccentricities, faded grandeur and domestic beauty that define Malta at its most authentic.
Casa Bonavita has been restored to retain the building’s original grandeur while preserving the warmth of a family home. Soaring ceilings, noble proportions and original architecture details are layered with vintage family pieces, bespoke commissions and works of artisans from across Malta and the Mediterranean, including commissioned hand-painted wallpaper depicting 17th century Valletta, which adorns the hotel’s intimate bar.
The Valetta Bar is meant to reflect the feeling of sailing into Valletta harbour. Inspired by that and the canvases of the 18th-century Maltese artist Alberto Pullicino, the bar features 1960s Henry Link bamboo chairs. The adjacent dining room — formerly a courtyard garden — now has windows that are hung with bamboo blinds. Italian muralists Alfonso Orombelli and Luna Aulehla Greppi spent six weeks reproducing its original alfresco atmosphere.
Rather than playing down the interior’s past life as a private home, the Sharps played upon that ambience by preserving it, starting with its heart: a kitchen clad in Sicilian tiles with a Lacanche range, where guests are welcome to come at any time in search of nourishment.
Guests are also welcome to dine at tables under a lemon-laced pergola and enjoy the sights and scents of this ancient city on beautifully manicured lawns. There is also a trellis-fronted outdoor bar and palm trees strung with lanterns whose design was inspired by the Tangier home of the late antiques dealer Christopher Gibbs.
Suzanne traces her obsession with interiors to her childhood days exploring both grand Maltese mansions and open-house auctions she attended with her grandfather, a hobbyist restorer. The seven bedrooms in the main house (the remainder are in separate annexes) are calm and serene. One bedroom, in the former salon nobile, has marble-effect wallpaper, a grand canopied bed and a Maltese balcony that evokes the ornate woodwork of old Cairo.
The emphasis at Casa Bonavita is on privacy and seclusion, an oasis of elevated luxury in a historical setting. Breakfast can be served to guests in their rooms, many of which have private balconies or terraces; near one of the pair of pools, the Sharps have created a jewel-toned tiled, high-ceiling subterranean spa with studded Sicilian doors.
From an impromptu visit to “opening a little hotel,” Christopher and Suzanne Sharp’s wondrous Casa Bonavita has brought to life the history, beauty and majesty of magical Malta.
