The Tombstone Covered Floor of St. John's Co-Cathedral of Malta

Commissioned inwards 1572 past times Grand Master Jean de la Cassière equally the Conventual Church of St. John , the St. John's Co-Cathedral inwards Valletta , Republic of Malta , is considered to endure i of the finest examples of high Baroque architecture inwards Europe as well as i of the world's cracking cathedrals. The cathedral's interior is extremely ornate , amongst carved rock walls , painted vaulted ceiling as well as side altars amongst scenes from the life of John the Baptist. The most impressive is the marble flooring which is composed of nearly 400 tombstones of Knights as well as officers of the Order. Each tombstone is inlaid past times a colored , marble slab bearing the crest , coat-of-arms as well as epitaph of the noble knight.

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Photo credit: www.maltacultureguide.com

The Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem were noblemen from the most of import families of Europe , as well as their mission was to protect the Catholic organized faith against the Muslim forces. The Knights came to Republic of Malta inwards 1530 after they were evicted from their before habitation on Rhodes past times the Turks inwards 1522. Using Republic of Malta equally their novel base of operations , the Knights continued to struggle against the Turks as well as peculiarly the Barbary pirates. Unhappy to run across the guild resettled , Ottoman Sultan , Suleiman the Magnificent , sent an invasion forcefulness of virtually xl ,000 men to besiege Malta. Despite having a pocket-sized the world forces of six ,000 soldiers , one-half of which are civilians as well as exclusively 500 or as well as then were Knights , the Turks were unable to siege the island. After defending Republic of Malta from the Ottomans , the Knights turned Republic of Malta into a fortress that befitted a armed forces Order as well as built a novel upper-case alphabetic quality metropolis worthy of noblemen.

The Knights who cruel during the Great Siege of 1565 were originally buried inwards Fort St Angelo merely were later on re-interred within the Cathedral of St. John’s. They were later on joined past times Grand Masters similar Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam , Claude de la Sengle , Jean Parisot de Valette , as well as Alof de Wignacourt. The earliest grave dates dorsum to 1606 , approximately 25 years after the church building was opened. Bodies continued to endure buried inwards the cathedral till the 19th century.

Today , the cathedral is i of the most pop tourist attractions inwards Republic of Malta , as well as it is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.

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