Our first stop was to see St. John’s Co-Cathedral – a Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The interior was spectacular and the excellent audio guide provided with the cost of our entry fee explained many of the wonderful artworks and complex details of the various chapels.
A view of the Nave.
Here’s a closer look at a small sample of the detailed gold work.
And this closer look at the inlaid marble:
Carravaggio, a famous artist who worked in Malta was commissioned to paint works for the Cathedral. This one is titled ‘Beheading of St. John the Baptist’. For more info about Carravaggio in Malta, click here.
A visit to this Cathedral is highly recommended!
We also visited the National Museum of Archaeology. The collection includes prehistoric artifacts from the Maltese islands.
One is the Sleeping Lady artifact.
The corpulent statues (shown below) were unearthed from temple excavations. The current thinking (according to Wikipedia) is that they are from a cult that was tied to a fertility rite. We don’t expect to see such fine detail and sophistication in works this old!
Here’s the ‘Venus’ of Malta (below):
On the way back to the ferry for our return trip to from Valletta to Sliema, we saw this colorful hardware shop. A museum in itself!
Today is less breezy but still a bit chilly. We ended our busy day with a hearty meal at a nearby Hungarian Restaurant called Margaret Island.
We’re looking forward to a new day of adventure tomorrow!