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You can’t go to Malta and not visit the Capital, Valletta. You can’t go to Valletta and not visit St John’s Co-Cathedral, once the conventual church of the Knights of Malta. You can’t go to St John’s Co-Cathedral and not visit its Oratory which houses Caravaggio’s famous painting “The Beheading of St John the Baptist” (1608), the only one signed by the reckless artist. It goes exactly in that order.
St John’s was built between 1573 and 1578 on a design by Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar who was responsible for many other fine buildings in the new Capital of the Knights. Valletta was built soon after the Great Siege of 1565, at a time when the threat from the Ottoman Empire, still smarting from its failure to capture the Island, was an on-going reality.
It is why the inside of St John’s Co-Cathedral is in sharp contrast to the bare and rather dull façade, created to maintain the image of a continuing line of fortifications within the city itself. The richness inside, however, makes up for all that. It was largely decorated by another Italian artist and a knight himself, Mattia Preti, who designed the intricate carved stone walls, all done in-situ, and painted the vaulted ceiling and side altars with scenes from the life of St John.
The Co-Cathedral is never fully discovered. Archaeologists and historians continue to find new leads, particularly in the subterranean world that supports this majestic building, with its catacombs and graves underneath the formidable collection of marble tombstones.
But why Co-Cathedral, you may ask? The name, Co-Cathedral, refers to its later, dual role. In the 1820s, the Bishop of Malta, whose seat was at Mdina, was allowed to use St John’s as an alternative See… All in all, well worth a visit, even by those for whom the idea of walking round a holy place is not top of their holiday agenda.
For more information visit www.stjohnscathedral.com
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