A full and exciting day! First up, we spent an hour and a
half in Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.
Its austere exterior absolutely belies the breathtaking opulence of its
interior. It was built in the late 16th
century (1572-1577) by the Knights of St John following the establishment of
Valletta as Malta’s capital (after the Great Siege of 1565) and initially,
though huge, was quite plain inside.
However as the years passed, the grand masters, knights, popes and
monarchs donated gifts of high artistic value and made enormous financial contributions
to enrich the cathedral with the best of everything. As a result, it is most glorious and
magnificent artistic expression of the High Baroque era. Everywhere you look – the walls, the ceiling,
the chapels, even the floor – are covered with brilliant frescoes, paintings
and statuary, marble panels and intricately carved and coloured woodwork. The entire floor is taken up with the tombs
of former knights, all adorned with colourful crests, symbols and
inscriptions. The oratory contains two
Caravaggio paintings, The Beheading of St John the Baptist (the largest of Caravaggio’s
paintings and the only one he signed – in St John’s blood) and the exquisite St
Jerome Writing. We had to literally tear
ourselves away and needed to sit down for elevenses to compose ourselves.
We then walked to the Upper Barracks, colonnaded gardens
created in the 16th century as a haven for the knights to relax, and
witnessed the daily mid-day firing of the cannon from the Saluting Battery,
which was established by the knights at the end of the 16th century
and was used to mark special occasions.
For the past several years a group of volunteers, in old British army
uniform, has fired the cannons at noon and 4pm each day. Elizabeth, our travelling photographer, did very well to capture the precise moment! We then descended to the waterfront and
boarded a gondola to be ferried across the harbour to Vittoriosa (just the two
of us and the gondolier - much more romantic than the crowded ferry we caught
the other day). We walked up to Fort St
Angelo, the other main fort that protected the harbour entrances (we have
already reported on St Elmo). The
knights took over this ancient fort in 1530 and strengthened it – it played a
pivotal role in the Great Siege of 1565.
It was severely damaged by German bombing during the 1942 siege but has
been beautifully restored (with restoration only completed in the past couple
of years), with some wonderful film displays and exhibits. The views in all directions are amazing.
After lunch overlooking the harbour (filled with
multi-million dollar boats with names ranging from “Plan B” to “Iggle Piggle”)
we wandered ever upward until we found the Inquisitor’s Palace, built in the
1530s. In 1570 it became the tribunal
and prison of the Inquisition, whose task was to identify and suppress heresy,
and to correct and/or punish those guilty of heresy. An interesting building, over several floors,
it contains the inquisition tribunal room, prison cells, torture chamber, as
well as living and administrative quarters for the inquisitors. The torture room contained a sort of rack and
rope pulleys for encouraging confessions.
Torture was not to be applied without just cause, only if the accused
failed to admit his guilt and the inquisitor believed that he was guilty
anyway. Persons found guilty of heresy
could be admonished, flogged, imprisoned, exiled or, in extreme cases,
executed. It was interesting to note that one inquisitor, Antonio Pignatelli,
who no doubt oversaw some pretty vigorous interrogation and punishment, went on
to become pope and chose as his papal name Innocent XII. Irony, anybody?
Back down the hill and onto another gondola for the ride
back across the harbour, then our last call was to the Church of St Paul’s
Shipwreck, dedicated to St Paul, who in 60AD was shipwrecked on the Malta coast
while en route to Rome. He took the
opportunity to introduce Christianity to the Maltese people and is still
revered here. The church dates from the
16th century and houses a reliquary containing wrist bones of St
Paul, as well as a part of the column on which he is said to have been beheaded
in Rome.
Tomorrow – we spend our last morning here, including a visit
to the Archaeological museum, then we board our flight for Cyprus. Malta is an absolutely beautiful place,
perhaps the most beautiful we have visited, and we will remember it forever.
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