St John’s Co-Cathedral

No trip to Valletta would be complete without a visit to St John’s Co-Cathedral (Co-cathedral because there was already a cathedral on the island at the then capital city, Mdina). For over 200 years St John’s Co-Cathedral  was the church of the Order of the Knights of St John. The Knights were noblemen from the most important families of Europe with a mission to protect the Catholic faith and Europe from the attacks of the Ottoman Turks. Originally based in Rhodes, the Knights were evicted from there by the Ottoman Turks and when the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, offered them the island of Malta, they initially established themselves in the castle in Birgu, which they renamed Fort St Angelo.

St John’s Co-Cathedral   

The 3 forts overlooking the harbour, St Elmo, St Angelo and Senglea, were repeatedly attacked by the Ottoman Turks, the climax of which was the Great Siege of 1565. With the siege over and the Ottoman Turks pushed back, the Knights set about fulfilling their plans for a fortified city on the rocky and steep sided Mount Sciberras. The new city was named after Grand Master La Valetta who initiated the build.

In 1573, Grand Master Jean de la Cassière authorised the building of a conventual church for the Order which was completed in 1578.

It was initially quite unadorned and austere inside but over the years the Grand Masters and Knights donated gifts of high artistic value and made enormous financial contributions to enrich the church with the finest works of art by leading artists. As a result, upon entering you are confronted by a hugely flamboyant demonstration of Baroque styling.

Every surface is covered in paintings, sculptures and gilding. Even the high, barrel vaulted ceiling of the nave. Here, between 1662 and 1667 Matti Preti “Il Calabrese” painted the life of St John the Baptist, patron saint of the Order, directly onto the primed stone.

The Order was divided into 8 Languages (hence the 8 points of a Maltese cross) according to the nationality of its members: Auvergne, Provence, France, Aragon, Castille, England, Germany and Italy. Each of the 8 side chapels of the cathedral was allocated to one of these “Languages”, with the more senior being closer to the altar.

These side chapels are incredibly ornate with artwork and carvings. Gilded flowers, foliage and angels surround the funerary monuments of the Grand Masters from that particular “Language”. It seems that not a square millimetre has been left unadorned.

Even the floor is a work of art being entirely composed of ornate marble tombstones of the knights of the Order. Each tombstone is richly decorated with variously coloured marble and brightly coloured inlaid stones to show the knights’ coats of arms and to tell individual stories of gallantry.

After seeing such an ostentatious display of Baroque styling, it only seemed appropriate that our ice-creams that day would be equally over-the-top. Each flavour we picked was shaped into a petal and the ice-cream cone put together so that it ended up looking like a rose.

Valletta, Malta