It is still rather difficult to decipher the entire history of the development of the Palace of the Grand Masters from the two houses that originally stood in its place.

However, it now seems clear the Palace may have contained two, not one, chapels and that one of those chapels was moved from one side to the other.

So said Dr Theresa Vella in her public lecture, held under the auspices of the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University, entitled Piety and Ritual in the Palace of the Grand Master held at Palazzo Santa Sofia in Mdina last Wednesday.

It would seem that the first chapel was sited at the top of the winding staircase, just before one enters the state rooms. In fact, the corbelled arched ceiling here is a unique one and totally different from all the other ceilings in the piano nobile.

It would have contained a wooden altar that could be packed up and moved elsewhere.

Later on, as the palace grew and developed, it seems that the chapel was moved back towards what came to be called the Winter Wing, near the President's office and there it remained for a time, as the Grand Master's private chapel.

The palace, of course, combined the dual function of being the Grand Master's residence and also the seat of government and its history has always been that of keeping a balance between the two functions.

Later on, the Summer Wing was added, on the Archbishop Street side. Here the state rooms lead to the Grand Master's dressing room which, in turn, led to the Grand Master's bedroom.

It is unfortunate that until, a month or so ago, these two rooms were used exclusively by Parliament as committee rooms, Thus the sequence of frescoes leading from the state rooms, depicting the history of the Order, was broken.

The bedroom contained a series of frescoes which seem to have been painted by Alessio Erardi, who apparently derived his inspiration from etchings by Sebastien Bourdon, a disciple of Poussain - a series of Biblical scenes on the Works of Mercy.

(Dr Vella omitted to mention that exactly on top of where the Grand Master used to have his bed there is a Crucifix on the ceiling, which would be the last thing he saw before he lay down and the first thing he saw when he woke up.)

It would seem that the corridor that passes along this side of the palace was originally an open balcony and guests visiting the Grand Master would pass, according to their degree of importance, from one state room to another and thence to the Grand Master's bedroom.

It was in this Summer Wing that Grand Master Verdalle built the second chapel, ideally keeping the first one open to the public while this new one was intended to be the Grand Master's private chapel.

This is what is called the Paladini Chapel because of its impressive Renaissance frescoes by Francesco Paladini depicting the life of St John the Baptist.

In time, however, this private chapel was opened to the public on various state occasions and those invited in were meant to be impressed by the fact that they had been given access to the Grand Master's sancta sanctorum.

Originally, it would seem the chapel held a triptych which is now in the St John's Museum and which seems to have come with the Knights from Rhodes. Later, there was apparently an Adoration of the Magi, a copy of which is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

As was stated in a recent article, the altarpiece of the Paladini Chapel is no longer there but is in the Archbishop's Palace in Valletta, to which it had been donated by a British Governor in the 20th century. Like the Elgin Marbles, it has not been returned.

In time, this very private chapel began to be opened to the public, initially for highly religious reasons. The first occasion was during the reign of Grand Master Perellos, the most Baroque of the Grand Masters, and was the acceptance and transfer of the relics of St Vincent Ferrer to a chapel in St John's cathedral.

It was a very moving and formal occasion, with the Knights in full regalia, the bishop likewise and the Prior of the Order (later Bishop) Alpheran de Bussan.

Then, in 1739, there was a second procession for the transfer of the relics of St Victor again to St John's. On this occasion, the public was once again admitted to the chapel of the Grand Master and even encouraged to spend the night in candle-lit prayer there.

In 1765, this time it was Grand Master Pinto who welcomed the arrival of the relic of St Louis of France. By then, the chapel had already seen the first baptism held in it. This took place in 1750 when a neophyte, or slave, was baptised into the Church. We do not know the name of the person baptised but only that his Godparents were the Grand Master and Baroness Inguanez, a member of the Maltese nobility.

Then, in 1768, the ageing Grand Master acted as Godfather at the baptism of an infant, the grandson of Baron Inguanez, with Knights mingling with Maltese nobility both at the ceremony and at the reception that followed.

Once again, the Godmother was Baroness Inguanez, the wife of Marc' Antonio, the Governor of Mdina.