The Bighi Royal Naval Hospital, as it used to be known, is one of Malta's finest examples of neo-classical architecture from the early 19th century. The Bighi buildings previously housed a medical facility and now houses the Malta Centre for Restoration.

In the time of the Order of Saint John, there was an official who guarded the entrance of the Grand Harbour for any galleys, which used to sail in it. The galleys would later be examined for any contagious diseases. Quarantine regulations were very strict and scrupulously followed at the Barriera. The prior Capua, Fra Giovanni Bichi, bought a piece of land and built a Villa for his own use, after his retirement. Fra Giovanni Bichi was a nephew of Fabio Bichi, later Pope Alexander VII , who was in Malta as an Inquisitor from 1634 till 1639. Bichi was in the naval service of the Order and he eventually gained command of the Papal fleet that was operating in the Levant in conjunction with the Venetian and Maltese squadrons during the Candia campaign. In his capacity as Admiral of the Papal Fleet, Bichi was instrumental in setting up a hospital for seamen at Civitavecchia in the Papal States. The plan of the villa was designed by the celebrated architect Lorenzo Gafa of Vittoriosa and the building was initiated around 1675. Unfortunately, Giovanni Bichi did not survive to see the place finished as he became a victim of the plague which dominated the Island in 1676. He was buried in the nearby church of San Salvatore.

After Fra Giovanni Bichi's death, the villa passed into the possesion of his nephew the Knight Fra Mario Bichi. On the latter's demise in 1712, the "garden and palace of Sso. Salvatore" was purchased by Bailiff Fra Giovanni Sigismondo Count of Schaesberg. The property again reverted to the Bichi's in 1718 when it was occupied by another Fra Giovanni Bichi, the nephew of Mario. By the time of his death in 1740, the estate had become known as Villa Bichi, later distorted to Villa Bighi.