floor was possibly built in 1707 by the architect Giovanni Barbara. The interior was also altered and embellished throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, with the main staircase being built in 1733 to designs of Romano Carapecchia. Due to these modifications, the building has a somewhat labyrinthine plan. The only remains of the original Castellania is a small courtyard with a Gothic groin vault cloister. French occupation and British rule The inquisition was abolished during the French occupation of Malta in June 1798. During French rule, the building was used as the headquarters of the Cottonera district. The coats of arms on the façade and some of those inside the building were probably defaced or removed at this point. Those forming the top hierarchy of the inquisition were given two days to leave the country. When Malta was taken over by the British in 1800, the building was passed on to the military authorities. It was initially used as a military hospital, and it was converted into a mess-house for officers stationed at the barracks near Fort Saint Michael in nearby Senglea. Several alterations were made to the building by the British military throughout the course of the 19th century. Around the turn of the century, the building was transferred to the civil authorities in exchange for some property in Valletta. The Public Works Office made plans to demolish the palace and replace it by government apartments in 1908, but nothing materialized. Museum The Inquisitor's Palace was passed to the Museums Department in 1926, and an extensive restoration was carried out by Vincenzo Bonello and Antonio Sciortino until 1939. In 1942, the palace was converted into a temporary Dominican convent after their original convent and church had been destroyed by aerial bombardment in World War II. The palace survived the bombings, and it was transferred back to the Museums Department after the Dominicans rebuilt their convent in 1954. The palace was restored again and it opened as a museum called the Inquisitor's Palace on 21 February 1966. The upper floor became a Folklore Museum on 5 December 1981, but by the late 1980s the museum was in decline and only parts of it remained open to the public. The palace was fully reopened as the National Museum of Ethnography in 1992, and apart from a museum it also houses Heritage Malta's ethnography section. Apart from exhibits relating to the inquisition,