In 1803 Lord Nelson advised the Admiralty to have a ‘proper naval hospital’ on the Bighi site. The high number of casualties brought to Malta after the Battle of Navarino in 1827 brought the issue to a head once again and in 1830 the foundation stone was laid for the neo-classical Bighi Hospital. While digging for its foundations workmen unearthed an Egyptian type stele, or sculptured slab, which was eventually transferred to the British Museum.

Bighi Hospital comprises of two wings and complements Villa Bichi which was built some two centuries earlier by Knight Bali Fra Giovanni Bichi – a plague victim in 1676. For over a century Bighi Hospital has served as the largest naval military hospital in the Mediterranean until it was eventually closed down on the 17^th September 1970.

Bighi Naval Hospital remains a landmark in Malta’s medical history as it was in this hospital that on the 6^th March 1847 Dr Thomas Spencer Wells administered the first ether anaesthesia to be carried out in Malta.