Last days in Malta - 11/18/10

After our long day in Gozo, Caroline and I were exhausted and wanted to have a lazy day.   We woke up and went to grab drinks at Rainforest Cafe - a really cute outdoor cafe with fountains and palm trees everywhere.  After that we headed to the little beach right next to our apartment.  It was too cold for us to sit there without our jackets and scarves on, but we saw one man actually go in for a swim!

After we spent some time at the beach, we had a pretty lazy afternoon watching soccer on tv and going to see The Social Network at the local movie theater.  

We were well rested and decided to venture back to Valletta our last day to finally see St. John's Co-Cathedral and the Grand Palace.  Now, the Cathedral has a very plain exterior and we were not expecting the breathtaking beauty we would see when we walked in, but before I post some pictures it's time for...another history lesson!  :)  

Ok so these Knights of St. John (or also known as the Knights of Malta) were a major Western Christian Order formed during the Middle Ages.  Basically they were charged with keeping the Holy Land (Jerusalem) safe and unharmed, thus protecting Catholicism itself.  Well, Islamic forces took over Jerusalem so these knights had to find other places to be their base; first it was Rhodes and then they moved to Malta.  The Ottomans were upset that the Knights were able to resettle themselves and regroup in Malta, so of course they wanted to stir things up and attack.  In 1565 Suliemon sent his troops to Malta and waged a huge attack against the country, known as the Great Siege of Malta - specifically in the city of Valletta.  After a long back and forth battle, Malta was able to pull through, but just barely.  After that, the Knights decided to refortify and reestablish themselves on the island in case there were going to be other attacks in the future.  

This is where the cathedral comes in.  It was built shortly after the Great Siege and while the exterior is very plain, the interior shows how influential these knights were in the city.

So ornate inside

The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Order.  The exterior is very plain and has the mood of a fortress, which apparently reflects the mood of the knights after the Great Siege.  The inside of the cathedral was kept pretty plain as well until the 17th century when the Grand Master decided to embrace the new Baroque style, which was much more flashy.  The dichotomy between the exterior and the interior of this church really makes it a fascinating monument.

The church also boasts 2 paintings by Caravaggio.  If you don't know much about Caravaggio, just know that he was an extremely brilliant artist with an extremely violent temper.  Because of his talent, a lot of his outbursts of violence were pardoned; however, one outburst left another man dead and he found that there was no way he was going to be pardoned.  He fled Rome to Naples and then from Naples headed to Malta to try and gain the patronage of the Grand Master of the Order, thus hopefully gaining a pardon for his crime.  While in Malta he created many works of art for the Order, including one of the most famous of his works the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.  This is the largest painting he has ever done and the only one he signed - in the blood of St. John's head no less.

It's a very moving painting with a ton of emotion - my favorite of the works I have seen by him

The Grand Master was so impressed with Caravaggio's work that he made him a Knight of the Order; however, it wasn't long until Caravaggio got in another scuffle with another Knight and he was imprisoned and kicked out of the order.  He managed to escape and flee to Sicily, ending his stay in Malta.  The Cathedral was absolutely beautiful and both Caroline and I were so taken aback by it's ornateness.

After the Cathedral we headed to the Grandmaster's Palace.  It was one of the first buildings erected in Valletta and it was built in 1571.  It is still in use for the House of Representatives and the President of Malta so we weren't allowed to gain entry in much of the palace, which was a shame.  In fact we really didn't get to see much at all except for a few rooms and a long hallway with a couple statues.  We were pretty unimpressed until we got to the Armory museum housed within the palace.  The Armory holds a ton of pieces dating back to the Great Siege and we both felt like the museum was set up in a great way to appreciate all of the different types of armor and weaponry.  I'm usually not that interested in those types of museums, but the audio guide was great.  We especially liked seeing the different helmets they would wear and really liked these:

alien helmets

After a good day we headed back to our apartment and got ready for a nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking a harbor near our apartment.  I was adamant that we order an Italian wine instead of Maltese so we knew we wouldn't be disappointed, and we weren't!  I ordered a cheeseburger with fried onions and it was delicious!  We then were in food coma mode and went back to our place to pack up and get ready for our flight in the morning.

Our wonderful glasses of Chianti and our view of the harbor

All in all, Malta was a great trip and offered so much more history than I was expecting!  I can now understand why my grandfather and father really want to go there.

Ok so one more trip on the blog down and a few more to go!  I head home in just over 2 weeks and am filled with excitement at seeing my loved ones and trepidation for what is to come.  

Next post: Parent's trip to Italy!!