Malta - part 4

On our second full day in Malta we stayed on the main island and went to the capital city of Valletta. I was really looking forward to this part of the trip and I really wanted to see some forts. Malta was given to the Order of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (or Knights of Malta or Knights Hospitaller or the Order of Saint John or whatever else you want to call them) by Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1530. Then in 1566 the Grandmaster of the order, Jean Parisot de la Valette, built the new city on the Xiberras peninsula. This was just after the Siege of Malta (1565) by the Ottoman Empire (which I mentioned in a paper about Charles V and Suleiman the Magnificent about nine years ago). The knights were outnumbered by about 45,000 to 8,500, but they managed to hold on for a victory. The Ottomans had around 30,000 casualties and the knights had 2,500 (while their civilians had 7,000 and their slaves had 500). After all of that Jean de Valette decided to build a new city with better defenses. So there are forts all around the area including Fort Saint Elmo (on Valletta), Fort Ricasoli, Fort Manoel, Fort Saint Angelo, and Fort Saint Michael. But were able to go into any of them? No. I was quite depressed. I should have known since the guide book didn't really mention much about them or about how to get into them. So all I got was some pictures from across the harbours.
Now, on with the pictures...


Here are some of the walls of Valletta. These were facing the rest of the island and were on the left as we approached the city. I don't know if the entryway to the fort was raised up or if they dug huge ditches around the walls, but it was quite a drop. Actually, it's probably just due to the hilly terrain. I read that some of the bastion walls of the city are 153 feet tall.


Sarah proudly stands in front of her new boyfriend on the approach to the main gate. I think it was the gold that attracted her. We saw a few older gentleman on this day wearing even more gold jewelry than this. Mr. T is really popular there.


This is Triq Ir-Repubblika, or Republic Street. It is the main road that runs straight from the main gate to Fort Saint Elmo. Along it are many important sights, including one of our destinations, St. John's Co-Cathedral.


St. John's Co-Cathedral is very plain and understated. Yeah right. It was overwhelming. The Baroque decorations are so ornate.


It was built between 1573 and 1578 by the Knights of Malta.


There are eight chapels on the sides that are dedicated to the patron saint of one of the order's eight sections. There are chapels for the Anglo-Bavarian section, Provence section, France section, Italy secion, Germany section, Auvergne section, Aragon section, and the Castile, Leon, and Portugal section. Each one had symbols of that section in the decorations on the walls. You can kind of see above the double eagle that, I think, was the symbol of the German section.


The rear of the church. It is a little pricy to get in, but you get to listen to the headphones to learn about different sections and works of art.


The reason that it is a co-cathedral is because...well...I don't know why. At the time that it was built there was already a cathedral (St. Paul's) in the old capital of Mdina where the Archbishop resided. I guess this church just joined it, rather than taking its place.



The floor of the cathedral is full of knights of the order. Each one has decorations that might show where he was from or how he fought and died.


Neat.

Malta was home for a short time to Caravaggio. He was made a knight before he had to leave, probably for killing a man in a brawl. The cathedral has two of his famous works. Here is The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, the most famous thing in the church.

And here is St. Jerome. I loved how realistic they are and the use of light. That's all I'm going to say. I am not an art historian.

So, Malta is also famous because St. Paul was shipwrecked here. So there are mentionings of St. Paul all over the place. The original cathedral in Mdina is St. Paul's and was supposedly on the sight where St. Paul met the Roman governor Publius. St. Paul's Shipwreck Church was quite nice. It looked more like an old theater.


Right across from the church was Tarsus Men's Wear. There werre countless references to Paul on the islands.

The buildings in Valletta and the rest of Malta were interesting. Most of them had little rooms protruding out from their walls as seen above.

The next posting will show some of the views of the forts and harbours from Valletta.