Updated September 18, 2026: This article was substantially revised to correct the Order of Malta’s history and legal status and to add current, authoritative sources.
At number 3, Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, a small keyhole frames one of Rome’s most memorable views. A laurel-lined garden draws the eye across the city to the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica. The door belongs to the Magistral Villa of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta on the Aventine Hill.
What can you see through the Knights of Malta keyhole?
Looking through the keyhole, you see the gardens of the Magistral Villa in the foreground, the city of Rome beyond them, and Saint Peter’s dome in Vatican City in the distance. The long green corridor creates a telescope effect that makes the dome appear remarkably close.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi redesigned the square, monumental entrance, and nearby Church of Santa Maria in Aventino in the 1760s. The Order’s official account notes that rows of trees framed the dome even before his work, so it is uncertain whether Piranesi deliberately created the precise keyhole view. He did replace the trees with laurel hedges that strengthened the effect.
Read the Order of Malta’s official page on Saint Peter’s Basilica seen through the keyhole.
Are there really three countries in one view?
The scene is often described as a view across “three countries”: the Order of Malta, Italy, and Vatican City. That phrase is memorable but imprecise. Italy and Vatican City are states with territory. The Sovereign Order of Malta is a sovereign subject of international law with diplomatic relations and its own institutions, but it is not a third nation-state occupying a piece of Rome.
The Magistral Villa remains part of Italian territory while enjoying rights of extraterritoriality. The distinction is similar to the special status enjoyed by certain diplomatic premises: it gives the property legal privileges without turning it into a separate country. The Villa also houses the Order’s embassy to the Italian Republic.
From a Jerusalem hospital to a worldwide mission
The Order began in Jerusalem in the second half of the eleventh century around a hospital serving sick and poor pilgrims. Under Blessed Gerard, the community became a lay religious order. Pope Paschal II formally recognized it in 1113 and placed its institutions under papal protection.
As conditions in the Holy Land changed, the Order also assumed a military role in protecting pilgrims and Christian territories. After leaving the Holy Land it established itself first in Cyprus, then on Rhodes, and in 1530 on Malta. The Knights governed Malta until Napoleon expelled them in 1798. The Order established its headquarters in Rome in 1834.
The official historical outline, From the 11th Century to the Present Day, gives the fuller chronology.
The Magistral Villa today
The Order has possessed the Aventine property since the early fourteenth century. Today the Villa is one of its two institutional seats, the historic home of the Grand Priory of Rome, and a setting for important religious and diplomatic events. Its church is Piranesi’s only completed architectural work and contains his tomb.
The Order itself is both a Catholic religious order and an international humanitarian institution. Some members are professed religious who take the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; other knights and dames belong to different classes of membership and do not all take religious vows. Membership is no longer accurately described as exclusively noble.
The Order summarizes its mission in two phrases: Tuitio Fidei, the defense of the faith, and Obsequium Pauperum, service to the poor and the sick. That union of faith and service is a helpful reminder for every Christian knight: honor is not a privilege to possess, but a call to place oneself at the service of Christ and neighbor.
For a reflection closer to our own vocation, read A True Knight Receives His Mission From Above.