St John’s Co-Cathedral

A visit to Valletta wouldn’t be complete without stepping inside St John’s Co-Cathedral, one of the city’s masterpieces.

At first glance, you might not think much of it, but give us a few moments to change your mind. Commissioned and financed by Jean de La Cassière, the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St John, the cathedral was built between 1575 and 1577. At the time, the island’s official cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral, was already standing in Mdina. So this new place of worship was given the unusual status of co-cathedral, a rare distinction that few dioceses can claim.

Its exterior is modest, with a plain but perfectly symmetrical façade, a look that’s fooled many unsuspecting tourists into walking right past it, but you know better now. Step inside to find a dazzling world of Baroque art. Every newly elected Grand Master added something over the centuries, making the interior richer and more impressive with time.

The vaulted ceilings are stunning, but it’s the marble floor that truly steals the show. It holds over 400 tombs of knights from the Order, their coats of arms and life stories laid out in stone.

One of the most important tombs belongs to Jean Parisot de La Valette, the man who founded the city around 1566.

If you decide to get a ticket and see this treasure with your own eyes, look for the inscription near the side entrance, once used by the knights themselves. It bears a stark reminder of our own mortality with these words: “You who walk over the dead, remember that one day others will walk over you.” A humbling thought, and a fitting moment to pause and take it all in.