Maltesers anyone?

So, went to bed with the wind howling outside. Woke up to … more windy weather, which became progressively worse during the day.

As we had planned to do some indoor things in Valletta anyway, knowing that it might be windy, we weren’t too perturbed. First off, St. John’s Co-Cathedral, the church built by the Knights of St John after they were gifted Malta by the Spanish, so they could help defend the West, in particular Christian pilgrims, against the Turkish threat after the 1400s.

St Johns is a seriously magnificent church. Quite plain on the outside, but a jewel box inside. Each langue, or group of knights from a certain country in the order, were given side chapels in the church, and spent their money on decorating their area, which would usually be dedicated to their particular saint. Also, each Grand Master of the Order would present a magnificent gift to the church upon taking office. As a result, the church is a marvel of gold, paintings, sculpture, marble, and silver. I don’t usually like such Baroque excess, but this was so overwhelming it was quite stupendous.

There was so much religion and history tied up in this edifice that we spent quite a bit of time here.  Caravaggio was briefly a Knight, in a very chequered career, and daubed some paint around while he was in town.

After this, we visited the Grand Master’s Palace, now the Parliament of Malta. In spite of their vows of poverty and chastity, the knights lived a pretty good life as shown by this building, with halls of trompe l’oeil and frescoes, rooms of gobelin tapestry, banqueting halls, etc.  Of most interest though, were the rooms containing a series of frescoes depicting the unfolding drama of the Great Siege of 1565, when Malta was besieged by the Turkish fleet and army.

48,000 Turkish troops invaded the country, countered by 6,000 Knights, Maltese, slaves and commoners. Eventually, after a long siege, the Turks were defeated and withdrew their presence from the Western half of the Mediterranean. A visit to the Armoury, part of the Palace, confirms the military role played by the Knights.

We had planned to take the ferry across the harbour this afternoon to explore the original site of the settlement for the Knights of St John, and took the new lift down to the docks, but found that the ferry had been cancelled due to high winds, so we opted for plan B, which was to go to the Archaeological Museum.

This was a fascinating source of information on the prehistoric settlements of Malta, plus the bronze age peoples and the Phoenicians. It filled in some gaps in our knowledge after visiting the Hypogeum, and the various temples at Tarxien, and Ggantija. In particular, we were impressed by the spiral decoration on the temples and the details of carvings on the figurines of women, called “fat ladies”.  And cart ruts – we now know far too much about the mysterious cart ruts of Malta…

By now, it was late afternoon. We wondered if the wind had ceased. But no. Now the sky was even more filled with dust and it was difficult to see to the end of the block, so we do what any sensible tourist should do. We retired for a glass of wine, an aperitif, and looked at our daily photo snaps, as we prepared for another evening eating out at a local restaurant. (And this was a Valletta favourite – we dined on honey and carob baked rabbit, and fish involtini, stuffed with pine nuts and other goodies. M had the dates in honey and filo for dessert).