St John's Co-Cathedral

St John's Co-Cathedral stands on St John's Street in the heart of Valletta, Malta, and is the conventual church of the Order of the Knights of St John. Its plain, fortress-like limestone facade gives little warning of the interior, which is among the most lavishly decorated Baroque spaces in Europe. Visitors enter a single broad nave whose walls, pillars and vault are carved and gilded, with the painted ceiling showing scenes from the life of St John the Baptist. The marble floor is formed of inlaid tomb slabs marking the burials of knights, each decorated with coats of arms, skeletons and symbols of mortality. Side chapels, one for each language or langue of the Order, hold altarpieces, tapestries and tombs of grand masters. The oratory and museum area holds the cathedral's best-known work, Caravaggio's The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, painted while the artist was in Malta and considered a masterpiece of the period. A set of Flemish tapestries and a collection of church silver and vestments are displayed in the museum rooms. A visit normally takes one to one and a half hours, and the ticket price reported by visitor guides includes an audio guide that walks through the chapels in sequence. Photographers can find the best views looking down the nave from near the entrance, where the gilded vault and patterned floor appear together, though flash and tripods are usually restricted. Crowds build from mid-morning as cruise passengers arrive in Valletta, and the queue can be longest between about 10:00 and 14:00. The cathedral still functions as a place of worship, so modest dress with covered shoulders and knees is expected, and the building closes to sightseers on Sundays except for services. Visitors arriving soon after opening or in the final hour before closing generally find the nave quieter and the light on the gold more atmospheric.