I spent the weekend at home to try and catch up on domestic matters including my blog. I'm now almost up to date but I still need to write about the Arts and Culture Department's tour of Valletta on Sunday. This week I've also spent a bit of time in Valletta because I'm settling on this historic city as the place where I want to live when I come back to Malta. There is mounting excitement in Valletta this week as people prepare for Carnival that begins tonight and continues until Tuesday. Yesterday when I went to look at some possible places to live, we couldn't get round some of the streets on the perimeter because of the Carnival floats being set up.
The photo is of a bell now in the stairwell of St Paul's oratory museum which was our first visit on the Sunday tour. The museum houses an eclectic collection of artifacts including some beautiful brocade vestments. Our guide was excellent and gave us some interesting snippets of information which I tried to note down but there was too much for me to process. I did gather that one of the sacramental robes displayed in a glass case was made from the wedding dress of one Angelina who was a founder of the Borg-Olivier family dynasty.
There is also a very old sedan chair, probably 17th century but presented to the knights in 1714. It is remarkable for its original condition and for the open windows that give clear views of the occupant presumably for processional purposes.
The museum also houses the base of the statue of St Agatha that can be seen in St Paul's church. Everybody wants a piece of St Agatha!
Like many religious places in Malta, the museum boasts a Pretti painting. This one appears very dark to me without the light source that highlights many of his other paintings. It shows some hero with his foot on the slain body of a vanquished baddie and the guide said it was reminiscent of St George.
The tour was a walking itinerary and it was another wet and windy day so we couldn't really enjoy strolling through Valletta streets and the juggling of different groups took place in foyers rather than outside. Our next port of call was the old Treasury building, the Casino Royale. This was where the knights kept their records but items of value were kept in the library. Each of the different langues (nationalities) of the knights were responsible for a different administrative aspect of the order. There was also a pecking order amongst the nationalities starting with the three French langues at the top and this was probably reflected in the importance of the different administrative responsibilities.
The British took over from the knights (after a brief interlude with Napoleon) and turned the Casino into a packet station. Now it is a very exclusive club but I couldn't find out how you become a member. There was a solitary gentleman sitting in the courtyard reading the newspapers.
We gathered again outside in Republic Street and admired the sun calendar on the front of the building which I hadn't noticed before. As we walked over to the Oratory of the Carmelite church, I chatted to an English woman who now lives in Valletta. Her story parallels my own in many ways and this chance meeting has encouraged me to start looking again at living in Valletta when I return to Malta next year.
We sat for a while in the small oratory that is covered in gold leaf with silver ex-votos in glass cases on the walls. The guide pointed out that the abundance of gold leaf is a modern interpretation of the old style which was much more plain.
Next we walked over to the Auberge d'Aragon. I have been to a lecture here previously. The auberge has survived almost in its original state with a portico added. It was the Grand Drapery, one of the administrative functions of the knights, and there is a list in the portico of all the Grand Drapers! After the knights left, it became the residence of the Anglican archbishop after the cathedral on the opposite side of the little square was completed in 1844.
Associated with the auberge is Our Lady of Pilar, the patron saint of Spain. This church belongs to the State rather than the local parish and has been recently renovated with much gilding. The guide referred briefly to the tension between government and church in relation to St John's co-cathedral. During the time of the British, the co-cathedral was run as State property. I'm not sure how this tension has played out in the recent controversy over the underground extension to St John's.
Our final port of call was the Auberge de Bavaria, a splinter group from Germany who brought the number of langues up to eight rather than seven. Our guide pointed out that the Maltese cross is eight pointed not because of the number of langues which started out as seven, but because of the eight beatitudes. The British langue of the knights became dormant after Henry 8 split off from the Roman Catholic church. It was re-instituted in 1782 when it amalgamated with the Bavarian langue.
After the knights, the auberge became a tenement building until it was requisitioned by the government and transformed into offices. It is now the Lands Department. We had our lunch in the courtyard here and also went down into the basement which has been recently renovated.
Valletta is now an EU listed heritage city. Its old buildings have been recycled for different uses over the centuries and although it now looks a little tired and some parts are run-down, I think it is about to move into another interesting phase of re-cycling. The Opera House and City Gate are to be re-designed, Fort St Elmo at the lower end will be renovated and there will be a ferry service reinstated across Grand Harbour to the 3 cities. I'm looking forward to being part of that process in a small way.
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