|
Places to Visit in Valletta |
|
|
VALLETTA MAP |
St.
John's Co-Cathedral-(Crypt of the Grand Masters)
VALLETTA
 
St.
John the Baptist is the Patron Saint of the Order. This was the Order's
church and was accorded the status of Co-Cathedral in 1882 along with the
Cathedral at Mdina. Before the Cathedral was built, a Conventual church was
located at Birgu, across the Grand Harbour. Building of the Cathedral was
started in 1573 under the sponsorship of Grand Master La Cassiere. La
Cassiere paid for the initial cost of the building. The architect was
Gerolamo Cassar. StJohn’s Cathedral is a highlight of the Maltese Islands.
However short your stay on the Islands, this cathedral of the Knights of St
John is a must to visit. Described as the first complete example of the high
baroque anywhere, it epitomises the role – spiritual and military - of its
patrons. The austere façade is reminiscent of the fortifications of
Valletta, the fortress city in which it stands;
while the exuberant and lavish baroque interior shows the Knights’ deep
appreciation and patronage of culture and the arts. The Cathedral is
testimony to the talent of Maltese military architect, Gerolamo Cassar, and
to Mattia Preti, the Calabrian artist and Knight. Preti designed the
intricate carved stone walls and painted the vaulted ceiling and side altars
with scenes from the life of St John. The Cathedral houses also one of
Europe’s most impressive and famous art works, Caravaggio’s Beheading of St
John the Baptist. The
Cathedral is a shrine to the Knights in another sense. Many sons of
Europe’s noble families from the 16th to 18th centuries lie buried here.
Their intricate, marble-inlaid tombstones form a magnificently crafted
pavimento.
The inscriptions relate the story of the lives and valiant deeds of the
Order.
Sir Walter Scott, in Malta in 1831, called the Cathedral the most
magnificent place he had ever seen. It is certainly a spectacular
building and a fitting resting place for the founder of Valletta, Grand
Master Jean Parisot de la Vallette. His tomb lies in the crypt, a quiet sanctuary and
place of contemplation away from the busy streets outside.
 MALTA`s CHURCHES
After their conversion to Christianity by St Paul of Tarsus, (the apostle of
the gentiles), the Maltese people demonstrated their christian traditions
openly at all times, even when under dominations of non-believers like the
Romans and later the Arabs who occupied Malta for over 200 years. Proof of
these Christian traditions lies in several ancient chapels all over the
Islands, and some four hundred churches spread around the various parishes.
Malta's Churches are monuments of faith and adoration many of which were
built by local architects, draughtsmen, craftsmen and builders giving of
their own free time for hardly any payment at all. The cathedral of Gozo is
said to be erected over the remains of a pagan temple dedicated to Juno. The
Sanctuary of Ta' Pinu in gozo is a monument to local craftsmanship in stone,
worthy of the ancient temple-builders. On that site there was an ancient
country chapel where mary, mother of Jesus Christ, is reputed to have
appeared to a peasant woman (Carmela Grima) from the village of Gharb
(Gozo), who, whilst praying, was told by the mystical Lady to offer
sacrifice and pray that a Church be built on that spot. Today thousands
flock to this beautiful sanctuary seeking peace and blessing at the foot of
the miraculous oil painting of the "Madonna ta' Pinu" , which was re-crowned
and blessed by His Holiness John Paul II during his visit in 1990. Other
impressive Churches are to be found all over the Maltese Islands, not least
the Cathedral at Mdina (the Silent City), the Co-Cathedral of St. John
(built by the Knights) in Valletta, (Valletta is full of beautiful Churches,
and the titular Churches of all the parishes which seem to vie with each
other for architectural beauty and decor as well as their iconography and
monumental works and artefacts. Any visitor to Malta interested in this
(religious) aspect of Maltese culture will surely thrill at the many "finds"
that await him/her.
It should be noted that in Malta there is religious toleration although the
Constitution of Malta says (article 2) that the Roman Catholic Apostolic
Religion is the religion of Malta.
Indeed there are a number of other Christian denominatins represented such
as the Church of England(St Paul's Anglican Co-Cathedral, Valletta and Holy
Trinity Ch., Sliema), Church of Scotland and Methodist Ch., Valletta, Greek
Orthodox Ch., Valletta, and various other rites including non-christian,
elsewhere in Malta
|
