2004 Europe

Old Valetta, Malta



May 13 - It’s windy today in Valletta, Malta but the sun is shining and it’s cool but not cold, at least by my standards. We’re headed into the city of Valletta, the current capital of Malta, and then over to Mdina, the first capital of Malta. Valletta is a fairly new city by local standards. Grand Master Jean de Valette founded it in 1566.



The Grand Master is the leader of the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, otherwise known as the Knights of Malta. They were founded in 1113 as an Order of crusading knights to give health care and lodging assistance to pilgrims and crusaders (They are also known as the Knights Hospitaller, from which we get our word hospital). In 1530 Hapsburg emperor Charles V granted the Maltese Islands to them as well as the port of Tripoli. In 1565 the Ottoman Turks besieged Malta and despite being hugely outnumbered the Christian Knights, assisted by the Maltese, outfought the Muslim invaders. This defeat probably saved all of Europe from being overrun by the Ottoman Empire. Just a few years later in the 1580s, the Ottoman Empire was in retreat eventually being driven out of Spain and all of Europe. The Knights attacked and defeated many Ottoman fortresses single-handedly and staged a relentless naval war against Ottoman shipping. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Knights of St. John are the main reason all of Europe is not Muslim today. In 1798, in a typical gesture of French ingratitude, Napoleon made such outrageous demands of Malta that they had to refuse and he used this as an excuse to land troops in Malta eventually ejecting the Knights from the island.



Oops, back to the present. The old city of Valletta is much as it was in the 1500s. The walls, fortresses and churches are still intact. Some reconstruction had to be done after WWII. The masterpiece of the city is the Co-Cathedral of St. John (below). It has the Co-Cathedral title because the local Bishop, whose seat was in Mdina, was allowed to use this church as an alternative see. This was the covenant church of the Order of St. John and its Grand Masters are buried in lavishly decorated crypts that line the walls. The church was consecrated in 1578. The exterior is quite austere, but the interior is very ornately decorated. The walls are richly carved and the floor made up of over 350 marble slabs, ornately decorated. Below each slab is the grave of a Knight of Malta. Every slab is inlaid with the name, dates and some history of the person beneath. They are all elaborately decorated, over six generations, with metaphorical and real figures representing the Knight, death, resurrection and other themes. It was too dark and no flash was allowed, but I got some great video of them. The entire Cathedral floor is mad up of them. It was amazing.



The Cathedral museum has some very fine oils by Michelangelo Merisi, known better as Caravaggio, a name he adopted so as not to be confused with the other artist of the same first name. The painting ‘The Beheading of St. John, his masterpiece and the only painting he ever signed is here. It’s an amazing work. His use of light and shadow, the placement of the figures, the colors, just terrific. It has an amazing feeling of depth.



After a walk through the city we boarded the bus to go to Mdina, the first capital of Malta. Mdina was founded in the late Bronze Age (1500 BC). The present walls of the city date from 400 AD. The Cathedral of St. Paul (below), designed by Lorenzo Gafa in the baroque style, is the burial place of the religious leaders of the islands. They lie under floor slabs similar to the Knights’ in Valletta, but with more religious symbolism. The cathedral is built on the site of the original Norman Cathedral that was destroyed by an earthquake. The records of the Norman cathedral say that it was built on the site of the residence of the patrician Publius who welcomed the Apostle Paul in Malta in Acts 28:7-8. It was a very odd feeling to stand there looking at the Cathedral, knowing that Paul was in this area just after they sailed, against his advice, from Crete. While I was in the Air Force I was stationed on Crete for a year and a half. In 1968 I visited Fair Havens, the site of Paul’s landing on Crete. Mdina is known as the quiet city because few cars are able to get into the narrow gates and you have to have a special permit to enter. We took a walking tour of the streets and stopped to go into the St. Paul’s Cathedral. The picture at the bottom is Diana and I in front of the Maltese Falcon shop in Mdina. Of course it had all sizes of Maltese Falcons on sale modeled after the prop used in the Humphrey Bogart move of the same name.



After that it was back to the ship just in time for dinner. I had a rack of veal that was absolutely delicious. After dinner the Noordam cast performed again. This time the show was ‘Hit the Deck’, a review of dance music from jumpin’ jive to disco to Riverdance. It was very good; it gave both the singers and the dancers an opportunity to show what they could do. KC had several songs and did them very well. They give her a break on the dancing as she is the primary singer but she does contribute to the group dancing numbers. In return, the dancers never sing solos.

Tomorrow Palermo, Sicily and then a much-needed day at sea. Yippee!

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger