The Malta Environment and Planning Authority is expected to discuss the extension and refurbishment of St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum.  The decision may be taken today, however there is a possibility that it will be postponed.

In February, The St John’s Cathedral Foundation made public its plans to extend and refurbish the museum, allowing for 29 Flemish Tapestries to be exhibited together. The extension will accommodate the ever-increasing amount of tourists who visit the museum.

The Foundation had said that the proposed extension will make maximum use of the vacant spaces and provide easy accessibility for persons with disability.

It stated that the extension will have no direct impact on the church and will be designed is such a way that will allow flexible opening hours of the museum, allowing for priceless collections to be exhibited as well as conserved for future generations to appreciate.

However, the project came under fire from Flimkien Għal-Ambjent Aħjar, which said that the desecration of the Great Siege Cemetery by the St John’s Cathedral Foundation would be an outrage.  The environment NGO said that the foundation has plans to dismantle the grave where the remains of the heroes of the Great Siege are buried and to built a far smaller monument on the side.

In its report, MEPA’s cultural panel stated that the present proposal consists of an extremely delicate intervention of major proportions to one of Malta’s principal monuments. The panel carried out  a site inspection and asserted that the Cathedral does not have an alternative location for the hanging tapestries, however noted that it has not been given sufficient information as to the necessity to have the tapestries hung all together and exhibited in one specific place other than in the place for where they were intended. The project has been in the offing for years and was turned down under the previous administration.

When contacted, a spokesperson for St John’s Cathedral Foundation, Cynthia Degiorgo said that she would not like to comment until a decision by MEPA is taken, so as not to jeapordise the judgment. The Foundation said it would be issuing a statment once the MEPA has decided on the proposal.