The St John’s Co-cathedral museum extension is planned to be concluded by the time Valletta becomes the European Capital of Culture in 2018, said curator and museum project leader of St John’s co-Cathedral Cynthia de Giorgio told The Malta Independent on Sunday.
There had been a delay of almost a year, explained Ms de Giorgio. “At the time of the Mepa hearing last August,” she said, “a Unesco report raised some flags. The St John’s co-Cathedral Foundation was already in discussions with Unesco, so when the application was submitted to Mepa, the same application and details were also submitted to Unesco.
“The good thing about this project is that it can be phased, so it doesn’t have to be done all in one go. The aim is to have the tapestry hall (which is the construction phase of the project) ready by 2018.” Ms Giorgio explained that the construction of the hall was not expected to take long and it was the rehabilitation of the interior as well as the restoration work that would be the more time-consuming parts of the project.
She said she was sure there would not be any disruption to the cathedral itself, which will remain open as usual. “Obviously, some of the artefacts will not be available, but some other means will be found.”
The construction and refurbishment of parts of the museum have caused concern to a number of people, but Ms De Giorgio has given assurances that all possible care will be taken.
Asked about the possibility of using existing buildings around St John’s rather than building a third storey on the cathedral’s side-building, she responded with a question of her own: “Has anyone located such a building? It’s easy for someone to say we should locate one. Are they owned by government, are they large enough to hold 820 square metres of tapestries? According to the research that has been carried out, there is no such surface area in Valletta.”
Ms de Giorgio said that there are some empty palazzos in the area around St John’s, but none of them are large enough to hold the 29 tapestries, of which currently only half can be exhibited at a time. “They are not a collection, they are a set. If they were a collection, accumulated over the years, then I could understand the argument that they don’t all have to be exhibited at the same time. However, they are a set, given at the same time by Grand Master Ramon Perellos y Roccaful in honour of the Eucharist for the Feast of St John the Baptist.
“All the existing space will be used. It’s not going to be some monstrosity built on Merchant’s Street. We are rebuilding part of an edifice that already existed. The area where the tapestry hall will be situated was originally three storeys high, but it collapsed during the war. A lot of people don’t know that. You have to weigh the gains and the losses. Some air space will be lost, but you will gain a space in which to exhibit one of the most important set of tapestries in the world.”
Ms de Giorgio told this newsroom that the process of restoring the 29 tapestries, which began in 2006, has not yet been finished but roughly three-quarters of the work has been done. Describing the origin of the tapestries, she said: “St John’s houses the beginning of the Baroque period, through the Caravaggio, and the High Baroque period, through the tapestries based on designs of the baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens, two of the most prominent artists of their time. The Grand Master was an aristocrat and wanted to imitate what other monarchs were doing – bestowing gifts on their favourite cathedrals. He was fortunate enough to be a Grand Master and own his own cathedral. Remember that, in 1697, the cathedral had already been built, so someone came up with the idea of giving a set of tapestries to line the whole cathedral.”
Ms de Giorgio explained that a crane would be used for construction. Asked if Merchants Street would need to be blocked off, she said she doubts it. “The tapestry hall won’t need a massive crane and it could possibly be placed within the cathedral precincts. The architects are working to avoid having the crane in either Merchants Street or St Lucia Street. The less havoc we create, the better it is for us.”
Other work will also include the creation of a Caravaggio Centre, which will be housed in the Grand Prior’s residence on the corner of Merchants Street. “It will be restored and the interior remodelled,” she said.
She gave assurances that the painting The Beheading of St John by Caravaggio would not be moved. “It was made for the Oratory and it will remain there. The residence, where the Caravaggio Centre will be, has a door leading directly into the Oratory, so it will form part of the Centre. Nowadays, a visitor goes into the Oratory, listens to the narration and yet has no space to interpret what Caravaggio meant to the Counter-Reformation and to art. We will take visitors from the Oratory to the Centre so they would be able to interpret what they have seen. Even if a person has only a mild interest, he or she will leave with some understanding, without having had to read anything.”
A book shop, which already exists within the grounds, will also be moved to the area beneath the arches on the Merchants Street side. The arches, she said, will have glass rather than gates. The courtyard floor, re-laid with concrete after the Second World War, will also be replaced, as it is not in keeping with the baroque architecture.
In addition, there is a passage at basement level which will be dug further, “simply because the regulations do not allow for a public space to be below a certain height. It lies beneath the arches and will house a number of artefacts.”
She mentioned that rotary cutters will be used. “The work will begin with rotary coring to take samples. Everything will be done under the supervision of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. Our architects don’t want to cause any damage, so we will make sure that all precautions are taken.”
The project will see a number of shops surrounding St John’s – both in St John’s Square and in Merchants Street – reintegrated again, according to the original plan of the church.
“The Caravaggio Centre would not be possible if we didn’t have that space. This project is way overdue by the way. The St John’s co-Cathedral Foundation was established in 2001 and its statute dictates that it is to expand the museum for the knowledge of the Maltese and the general public. It is one of its duties and obligations. It has been working since it was set up, first collecting funds, and then thinking about projects.
“In a historic space, you can either go underground or build within the precincts. The underground project was scrapped for fear of damaging the cathedral. Now there is this project that will be suitable for the purposes of exhibiting the artefacts that belong to St John’s.”
Speaking about the current situation with the museum, Ms de Giorgio said that the majority of tourists do not visit the museum as it is neither attractive nor inviting. “St John’s also has one of the largest collections of sacred vestments, and I didn’t even know about them until I started researching. They have some fascinating designs.
“Every church with treasures and artefacts normally has a museum and most such churches in Europe have a place where they can exhibit these works of art, which tend to be gifts given to the church in honour of the parish or, in the case of the Order, in honour of their convent. They were all gifts made in honour of God, and tend to be magnificently ornate as they are from the post-Counter-Reformation period.
“At the beginning of the 17th century – the height of the Counter-Reformation period – the Knights were in their heyday. They were noblemen, well-educated and informed. They wanted their church to rival every other church in Europe, and this is how St John’s received its unique collection of artefacts.
“You can either keep the artefacts locked up in cupboards, or you can exhibit them. This is part of our social-religious-political history. It is the duty of anyone who runs a cathedral to inform the public about these artefacts, to explain what they really are and why they were made.
“A lot of people miss the point. They say that they are too extravagant, yet back then there was no extravagance when it came to honouring God. Nowadays, things have changed, and people honour God through philanthropic work. They were different times and you cannot compare the 17th and 21st centuries.”