Greetings!
We gathered in the hotel after breakfast, met our guide (Michael from Original World), and introduced ourselves. A very experienced group of travelers, all are here either after other stops this travel, or are going to other countries after this one, or both. one of them is from nearby our home (Greenbrae), and knows a very close friend of ours. Two are from Florida, and two from Tennessee. All have had very interesting lives.
Our first of many stops today was
Saint John's Co-Cathedral, where Michael introduced us to Malta by walking us through the Maltese home of the Knights of Malta (Order). Organized by the eight regions (Provence, France, Auvergne, Italy, Aragon, including Navarre, England, including Scotland and Ireland, Germany, and the kingdom of Castille, Leon, and Portugal), the Order's mission is to protect the Catholic faith. From 1113 to 1530, its knights, led by sequential GrandMasters, battled against Barbary pirates and Ottoman forces. After an important setback in Rhodes in 1522, King Charles V of Spain (Holy Roman Emporer) gave the Order Malta in exchange for a yearly falcon.
As Michael led us through the Church, we saw that each of the regions had apses displaying the colors, heralds, statues of famous leaders, tribunary supporters who paid to be buried under magnificent floor crypts, and plenty of powerful paintings. We continue to be amazed at the amount of mind-blowing art and tributes within churches throughout our travels. Everywhere one looks is another wonderous contribution to the story-telling and tributes collected in service of the religion.
The Italian artist,
Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio, spent many years on the island, and his paintings "The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist" and "St Jerome Writing" are both displayed in the Cathedral. Others of his are in the Lourve, and in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. His life, and works, struggle to reflect psycological realism, and a dramatic use of lighting. Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture, and death. He worked rapidly with live models, preferring to work directly on canvas.
After a stop at the Valletta Theateer for a 3D show of Malta history, we walked to the
National Museum of Archeology. It was another well-designed set of epic-themed displays, presenting evidence of the last 9,000 years of Malta's civilized cultures through tools, pottery, sculpture, and architecture.
While my cell phone ran out of memory about the time we visited the
GrandMaster's Palace and Armory, I have to say that both are well worth the visit, even as the brutal militaristic precision apparent in the weapons and armor confirmed the worst views of war.
Michael timed our journey to end at the
Upper Barrakka Gardens shortly before 4pm. At that moment, one of the cannons established to defend the City, is fired each day to the recoil of the large crowd standing at the walls above the firing.
No comments:
Post a Comment