St. John's Co Cathedral

St John's Co Cathedral

Contact:
St John’s Co-Cathedral
St John’s Street
Valletta, VLT 10
Malta

General enquiries:
+356 21 220 536

Bookshop:
+356 21 239 628

Website:
stjohnscocathedral.com

Commissioned in 1572 by Grand Master Jean de la Cassière as the conventual church of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John and designed by the celebrated Maltese military architect Gerolamo Cassar, St John’s Co-Cathedral stands as a unique monument of international importance. The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Order.

The simple, sober façade of St John's gives no hint of its lavish interior. It was built as the conventual church of the Order and the Knights spent enormous sums of money embellishing the chapels of their langues. Almost every last piece of the walls, vault and chapels is painted, gilded or carved. Knights and Grand Masters are omnipresent in the form of their heraldic arms, monuments and mausoleums. The pavimento (floor paving) consists of numerous multi-coloured marble tombstones, bearing - along with carvings of skeletons and symbolic death - the names and escutcheons of past members of the Order.