From the street, St John's Co-Cathedral looks almost stern: two bell towers, a plain limestone front and a balcony over the door. Step inside and the light changes colour. Gold covers the walls, the vault is painted from end to end, and the floor is a carpet of coloured marble. Most visitors stop just inside the door for a moment before they move. It is the one paid sight in Valletta that nearly everyone agrees is worth the money.
St John's Co-Cathedral opening hours and tickets
- Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 9am to 4.45pm, with last entry at 4.15pm.
- Closed: Sundays and public holidays, when the church is used for services.
- Tickets: €15 for adults, €12 for seniors and students, free for children under 12 with an adult. The ticket includes an audio guide.
- Where: St John Street, Valletta, a five-minute walk from City Gate and the bus terminus.
- Time needed: about an hour for the nave, the chapels and the Oratory. Allow longer if you like to sit with a painting.
Hours change for services, concerts and state occasions, and the cathedral posts notices on its website, so check the week you visit. Shoulders and knees should be covered. Stiletto heels are not welcome either: the marble floor beneath you is the reason.
A plain church that turned to gold
The Knights of St John built the church between 1573 and 1577 as their conventual church, a few years after the Great Siege of 1565. The Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, known in Maltese as Ġlormu Cassar, designed it, and the austere outside reflects a city that had only just survived a war.
The richness came later. In the 1660s, the Calabrian painter Mattia Preti, himself a knight of the Order, painted the long barrel vault with scenes from the life of St John the Baptist, working in oil directly onto the stone. The carved and gilded walls followed the same Baroque taste. The Co-Cathedral title came in the 19th century, when the Bishop of Malta was allowed to use it alongside his cathedral in Mdina.
The floor of knights
Look down. The nave is paved with around 400 marble tombstones, each one marking the grave of a knight or an officer of the Order. They are inlaid in coloured stone with coats of arms, crowns, ships, weapons, Latin epitaphs and the occasional grinning skeleton holding an hourglass. Read a few and the church becomes a record of the men who ran Malta for more than two centuries.
The chapels of the langues
The knights came from across Europe and were organised into groups called langues, by language and region. Each langue had its own chapel along the sides of the nave, and each competed to decorate it. Walk them one by one: Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, Castile, Germany and the Anglo-Bavarian langue. Several hold the monuments of Grand Masters, with sculpted figures in marble and bronze.
Caravaggio in the Oratory
The Oratory, off the right side of the nave, holds the painting many people come for: The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, painted by Caravaggio in 1608. At roughly 3.7 by 5.2 metres it is the largest canvas he ever painted, and it fills the end wall of the room. Look closely at the red pool beneath the saint's neck. Caravaggio signed it there as "f. Michelang.o", the f standing for fra, brother, because the Order had just made him a knight. It is the only painting he is known to have signed.
The honour did not last. Within months he was in trouble again after a brawl, escaped from prison in Valletta and was expelled from the Order. The painting stayed. The Oratory also shows his St Jerome Writing, painted for the Order during the same stay in Malta, so you can see two Caravaggios in one room.
The museum and the new extension
The cathedral owns a set of 29 Flemish tapestries made after designs by Peter Paul Rubens, a gift from Grand Master Ramon Perellos in the early 18th century. They were hung in the church each year for the feast of St John. A long-running museum project, part financed by the European Union, is building a dedicated chamber for the tapestries, a Caravaggio wing and a new entrance from Merchants Street. Parts of the museum have been closed during the works, so check the cathedral's website for what is open before you go.
How to plan your visit
Go at 9am. The Oratory is at its quietest in the first half hour, before the tour groups arrive. Buying your ticket online the evening before saves the queue at the door.
Use the audio guide. It is included, and it explains the chapels and the floor far better than the labels can.
Come back for music. The church is also a concert venue. The Valletta Baroque Festival 2027 opens here on 7 January with Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, and candlelit evenings such as Candlelight: The Best of Vivaldi on 15 January let you hear the building after dark.
Make a morning of it. The Grand Master's Palace is two streets away, and the Upper Barrakka Gardens give the best view over the Grand Harbour. Our Valletta walking guide links them in one route, and our story on the art collections the Knights left behind shows where else to find their paintings.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the ticket to St John's Co-Cathedral?
Adult entry is €15, with €12 for seniors and students. Children under 12 go in free with an adult, and the audio guide is included.
Is St John's Co-Cathedral open on Sundays?
No. It opens to visitors Monday to Saturday, 9am to 4.45pm, and closes on Sundays and public holidays.
Can you see the Caravaggio paintings?
Yes. The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and St Jerome Writing are both in the Oratory and are included in the standard ticket.
Is there a dress code?
Cover your shoulders and knees, as in most churches in Malta, and avoid stiletto heels, which can damage the marble floor.
How long do you need inside?
About an hour covers the nave, the side chapels and the Oratory. Art lovers often stay closer to two.
