Cathedral opulence II
ⓒRebecca Bugge, All Rights Reserved
Do not use without permission.
The walls of the Baroque cathedral St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta, are something quite extra. The church was first built 1573-78, after a design by Girolamo Cassar, born in Malta, but got its current looks in the century after. It was the main church of worship for the knights of St John (who dominated the island in the 17th and 18th centuries).
If you are wondering what a co-cathedral is, that is what you get when you are in a diocese that already has a cathedral (in Mdina), but thinks another church is just as a grand and important (if not more so). So the bishop can use it as an alternative cathedral. This solution dates to 1820s, when the knights had left. Initially the cathedral was called Chiesa Conventuale di San Giovanni Battista (yes, it had an Italian name - in English that is Conventual Church of St. John)
Cathedral opulence II
ⓒRebecca Bugge, All Rights Reserved
Do not use without permission.
The walls of the Baroque cathedral St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta, are something quite extra. The church was first built 1573-78, after a design by Girolamo Cassar, born in Malta, but got its current looks in the century after. It was the main church of worship for the knights of St John (who dominated the island in the 17th and 18th centuries).
If you are wondering what a co-cathedral is, that is what you get when you are in a diocese that already has a cathedral (in Mdina), but thinks another church is just as a grand and important (if not more so). So the bishop can use it as an alternative cathedral. This solution dates to 1820s, when the knights had left. Initially the cathedral was called Chiesa Conventuale di San Giovanni Battista (yes, it had an Italian name - in English that is Conventual Church of St. John)