Welcome to St John’s Co-Cathedral

In 2006 two of a set of 29 priceless 18th C Flemish Tapestries were sent to the De Wit Laboratories Belgium for restoration. The Belgian Government provided the transport, with the assistance of the Belgian Ambassador to Malta, Thomas Baekelandt. The pair represented The Triumph of the Catholic Church and The Portrait of Grandmaster Perellos. The process includes the removal of dust, washing with a fine mist, consolidating loose parts and finally stitching. The restoration of the complete set of tapestries will take up to ten years at an estimated cost of one million euros. The Foundation intends to restore all the tapestries two of which were carried out in 1997. At present two tapestries are in Belgium: The Institution of Corpus Christi and The Triumph of Charity. The King Baudouin Foundation of Belgium, committed to supporting the restoration of Flemish works art, sponsored that of the tapestry Charity.

The tapestries were woven according to the designs of Peter Paul Rubens at the Flemish atelier of Judecos de Vos, famous as the court Weaver for King Louis XIV. They were presented to the church in 1701 by the newly appointed Aragonese Grandmaster Ramon Perellos y Roccaful as part of a traditional custom where by the newly appointed Grandmasters bestowed a gift or gioia to the church.

The tapestries are of a truly impressive size with fourteen of them measuring six by six-and-a half meters. They were specifically designed for St John’s Co- Cathedral to cover the nave of the church. The large tapestries depict the life of Christ with allegories portraying the principal and fundamental divine truths of the Catholic faith. The allegories were meant to convey a message-that of the supremacy of the Catholic Church and the fame and grandeur of the Grandmaster and the Knights of the Order of St. John. Another fourteen panels represent the Virgin Mary, Christ the Saviour and the Apostles. A tapestry portraying the donor Grandmaster Perellos y Roccaful completes the impressive collection. The priceless collection is the largest in the world and is unique. 

St. John’s Co-Cathedral consists of a barrel vaulted nave buttressed with arches leading to side chapels. Each side chapel belongs to a specific langue of the Order who were each responsible for the decoration of their own chapel. The walls of these chapels were lavishly carved out of limestone to form relief carvings, which were gilded creating an ora of dazzling brilliance.

Humidity as well as other contributing factors led to considerable deterioration of the surfaces. In 2006 the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation took the initiative to restore them. This project was entrusted to Sante Guido. Restauro e Conservazione Opere d’ Arte. Several layers of dirt and grime as well as water infiltrations had to be dealt with in order to reveal the brilliance of the original gold which has not been interfered with. In the lower strata re-gilding is being carried out as the damage to these areas was extensive. The cleaning and restoration works are taking place in order to retain the original coherence and beauty of the decoration of the Cathedral.

The lower strata of the walls were severely damaged due to water infiltration, humidity, dirt and grime. Re-gilding is taking place in order to restore the initial splendour of the chapels intended by the Knights of the Order of St John.

The Flagellation of Christ (383.5cmx300.5cm) is a mannerist work by the Florentine artist Stefano Pieri painted in 1572. It is not known whether Pieri, who worked with Giorgio Vasari, visited the island and executed the work here or if it came to the island as a complete work.  The painting hangs above the altar of the sacristy in St John’s Co-Cathedral, it was however painted prior to the building of the church and is recorded to have initially been hung in the chapel of the Langue of England in the last years of the 16th Century before being transferred to the Sacristy. In 2006 donations by Sir James Hackett of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and funds raised by Le Méridien Phoenicia as well as individual donations placed in collection boxes, made it possible to restore the painting which had blackened to a state that it became incomprehensible. The leading Maltese restorers ReCoop began the restoration on the painting in October 2006. The signature of the artist was also rediscovered after centuries of being masked beneath layers of thick, darkened varnish which has now been expertly restored. The restoration was completed in May 2007. 

The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation has just concluded the restoration of the Lascaris bell.  This ambitious project took over 2 years. The bell cast in 1636 during the term of Grand Master Antoine de Paule and was probably commissioned by Bailiff Jean Paul Lascaris de Castellar, successor of Grand Master De Paule. It was almost surely cast in the Foundry of the Order known as the Ferreria.  Four armorial shields are found on the front, obverse and quarter points.

The Lascaris bell was originally installed in the façade arch of the northwest belfry. It is commonly thought that the bell was damaged due to war action, however cracks in its suspending cannons strongly indicate otherwise. It was last rung on the 24^th August 1974 on the occasion of the funeral of Bishop Emmanuel Galea. 

The actual blessing was carried out from the balcony above the main door of St John’s since the bell was too heavy to be carried into the Church as was the custom. The ceremony was attended by the bell’s donor the Grand Prior, the Chapter of Canons and other Ecclesiastical dignitaries.

The conservation treatment on the bell commenced in October 2006 by Soundweld Bell Restorers of the UK and continued at the John Taylor Bellfoundry of Loughborough also in the UK. The bell was eventually re-patinated in a manner as to be aesthetically presentable.

Mattia Preti’s outstanding painting of St George and the Dragon, which is the altarpiece of the Chapel of Aragon, had such serious and urgent preservation problems that it was sent for restoration to the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome. The process started in January 2004.

In April 2005, to commemorate the completion of its restoration, the painting was exhibited in its full splendour, first in Rome, and then again in an exhibition in the Co-Cathedral on its return to Malta.

Restoration of one of Caravaggio’s most famous masterpieces began in April 1997 when it was sent to the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence as the Comune di Firenze had offered to restore it. The whole project, which was a major operation, was financed by the Opificio itself. Restoration works were completed in June 1998 and the painting was exhibited at the del Carmine church, Florence. The painting returned to Malta in June 1999.

Prior to this project, the painting had been damaged in an audacious attempted burglary in 1989.

This masterpiece, also by Caravaggio, was sent to the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome in the 1960s to be relined. On the 29th December 1984 it was stolen and it was recovered on 4th August 1988. Two years after it was recovered, the canvas, damaged when the burglars cut the painting out of its frame, was sent for restoration once again to the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro.

The 5th Financial Protocol, signed between the Government of Malta and the Government of the Republic of Italy, made the conservation and restoration of the Chapel of Italy possible.  This project was entrusted to the Ditta Sante Guido Restauri of Rome and was completed in November 2005.

The 5th Italo-Maltese protocol funding also included financial assistance for the restoration of the early 17th century organ situated in the Oratory of the Co-Cathedral.  Fratelli Ruffatti of Padova was commissioned for technical and scientific consultancy and the actual restoration of all the parts of the organ. The restoration of the organ case was entrusted to M C Restauri of Noto.

The painting of St Charles Borromeo, hanging in the Chapel of the Anglo-Bavarian Langue, was in a poor state of preservation and needed restoration. This project was sponsored by Heritage Malta and was carried out by professional restorers at the National Museum of Fine Arts.