Can you imagine what Valletta’s Royal Opera House looked like back in its heyday in 1935? This guy did just that and honestly, we are floored. Meet Matthew Pace, a marine biology PhD student currently studying in Glasgow, with a passion for anything historic.

We spoke to Matthew, who tells us he fell in love with this gorgeous building at a young age (who wouldn’t?) and he recalls a time gone by when he’d walk in and admire the grandeur of the ruins that remained in Malta’s capital.

“I was fascinated by the Royal Opera House from a young age, walking into Valletta with my grandparents on weekends,” he says. “I've always had a love of Maltese history, but I could never find much information on what it must have been like to visit as an opera-goer in the first half of the early 20th Century.”

So Matthew gathered whatever he could find on the prestigious building and got cracking. “I'd recently seen some amazing near photo-realistic recreations of famous buildings using the map editor packaged with a video game (Far Cry 5) and I thought I might have a go at recreating the Royal Opera House using whatever photos and plans I could find.”

While he says in his original Facebook post to Malta Vintage History that the results are far from perfect, it’s the best he could do. It’s certainly better than any of us have done! They look absolutely incredible! “The goal is to hopefully recreate that experience of walking into the opera house one evening and experiencing the splendour of the architecture,” he says.

What do you think of the designs?

Matthew Pace/Facebook