St John’s Co-Cathedral

St John's Co-Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

One ticket covers the church, the oratory with the Caravaggios and the museum, and includes an audio guide that is genuinely good; buying online saves the queue in Valletta's summer heat. Guided tours cost several times the ticket and add the history of the Order of St John, which is the real subject of the building. After-hours tours with a musical performance are sold by a few operators and are the premium option. Numbers inside are managed and a wait can build by late morning.

Note the footwear rule: stiletto heels are banned to protect the marble tomb slabs that make up the floor, and staff turn people away, so wear flat shoes. Valletta walking tours often list the co-cathedral as optional and charge entry on top. The church closes to visitors on Sundays and public holidays, which catches out cruise passengers. Tickets are sold at a desk across the street from the entrance rather than at the church door, which is easy to miss in a narrow lane.

Visiting St John's Co-Cathedral: what to see

The Knights of St John built their conventual church between 1573 and 1578, five years after the Great Siege, to a plain design by the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar; from outside it still looks like a fortress. In the 1660s Grand Master Cotoner ordered the interior redecorated to rival Rome, and Mattia Preti covered the vault with the life of St John the Baptist painted directly onto the stone, carving the walls into gilded foliage in the process. The floor is the extraordinary part: about 400 tomb slabs of coloured marble inlay, each commemorating a knight, with skeletons, trumpets and coats of arms in polychrome stone.

Eight chapels belong to the eight langues, the national divisions of the Order, each decorated by its own nation. In the oratory hangs Caravaggio's Beheading of St John the Baptist, the largest canvas he painted and the only one he signed, in the blood flowing from the saint's throat; beside it hangs his St Jerome Writing. The crypt below holds the tombs of the Grand Masters, including Jean de la Valette, who commanded the defence in 1565 and gave the city its name; it is normally closed to visitors and shown only on special tours.

St John's Co-Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Open Monday to Saturday from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, with last admission well before closing, and shut to visitors on Sundays. Cruise ships dock in the morning and their groups arrive between ten and one, so the first hour or the last are markedly calmer. Malta is hot and bright from June to September; the interior is cool and dim, and the Caravaggio oratory is kept dark to protect the paintings, which takes a few minutes of adjustment.

Dress code is enforced: shoulders and knees covered, and the shoe rule above. Photography without flash is allowed in the church but not in the oratory. Allow an hour and a quarter. Valletta is small enough that the Grandmaster's Palace, the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the harbour lifts are all within ten minutes on foot. Valletta closes down for the Maltese afternoon in summer, so the cathedral's early closing fits the rhythm of the city rather than working against it.