A city with a history of at least two thousand years, Maastricht hosts a number of remarkable churches, witnesses of history and centers of spirituality of a city which is not only located in the center of Europe but also at the crossroads of the Christian faiths in Western Europe.
Basilica of Our Lady
The oldest church in town was built by the first bishop of Maastricht, Saint Servatius at the end of the 4th century. It was located at the place of an old Roman temple, at the place were today we find the two-towered building of the Basilica of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasiliek).
Star of the Sea
Much of the exterior structure of the present building was raised in the 11th and 12th century. A beautiful statue of the Madonna Star of the Sea is said to hold miraculous powers and is taken out in processions in the streets of the city once a year.
inside the Basilica of Our Lady
The interior of the church is rather dark and sober, yet powerful and elegant, in Gothic style.
Saint John the Baptist and Saint Servatius Churches
The Vrijthof square in the center of the city is sided by another two imposing churches. One of them is the protestant church of Saint John the Baptist (Sint-Janskerk). It’s imposing red tower is the tallest in the city and offers the best perspective for the audacious who climb its more than 200 stairs, but the interior is less than impressing.
galleries inside Saint Servatius Church
It is the Catholic church of Saint Servatius that catches the attention of the visitors and remains in memory as the more exquisite monument of religious architecture in Maastricht. It is a complex structure of church, chapels and cloisters reflecting a long history and a combination of styles from Romanesque to Gothic until more recent elements.
Shrine of Saint Servatius
The church is built around the grave of Armenian-born Saint Servatius who died and was buried here in 384, during the reign of byzantine emperor Theodosius and his tentative to reunite the Roman empire under the rule of Christianity. The grave of Servatius is located under the floor of the church, while a splendid golden-plated shrine can be seen in the museum.
Interior (nave) of Saint Servatius Church
The interior of the church belongs to the Baroque period.
stained-glass windows at Saint Servatius Church
Exquisite stained-glass windows have been created along the time, from the Gothic to the more recent periods.
Jerusalem Mosaic in Saint Servatius Church
The latest additions are the backdoor gate and the beautiful mosaic in front of it, with a representation of Jerusalem.
Selexyz Dominicanen - the most beautiful bookshop in the world
I could not end my tour of the churches in Maastricht without entering the bookshop that the British newspaper The Guardian put at the top of its list of the most beautiful bookshop in the world. It is located very close to the Vrijthof square, in a former Dominican church.
the bookshop church in Maastricht
The combination of the elegant arches of the former church with the three levels of the bookshop full is indeed unique. The spirituality of the former house of God is preserved and amplifies the force embedded in the endless number of book on the shelves. This renovation and second life of the former church is a daring and successful idea.
The 78th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force was hold in the heart of Europe – in the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands.
the IETF at the MECC
The venue of the meeting was The Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Center (MECC) not far from the place where in 1992 the treaty that defined the European Union and the creation of the Euro currency was signed. The location is a little remote from the center of the city, but frankly speaking the 20 to 30 minutes walk at night after dinner from the center to the nearby hotels did us just good, and the free pass that was granted to the IETF participants on buses during the week helped the lazy ones.
one shore of the Maas ...
The name of the city derives from the Maas (Meuse) river that crosses the city. The place is inhabited at least from the times of the Romans.
... and the other
The history of the city includes several interesting episodes. Good chances are that you have read about it during your childhood if you have read Alexandre Dumas’ novels. The death of d’Artagnan – the hero made immortal by Dumas happened during the siege of Maastricht by Louis XIV’s armies. The story is told in Dumas’ novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne.
the city seen from above ...
The city has many beautiful churches and at least two of them are outstanding. I will tell more about them and also bring up some pictures in one of the coming episodes.
... and down in the streets, at day ...
I love wandering on the streets of European cities like Maastricht.
... and at night
They are beautiful at day and at night.
terraces in the Vrijthof square
The week I spent in Maastricht was a pleasant summer week, following a wave of heat which had made the atmosphere challenging they week before (as we were told). The few showers were short and just cleaned the air. We could spent some of the evening dinners on terraces like the one in the Vrijthof square …
the Town Hall in Markt Square
… or the ones in the Markt Square.
a city of statues
Adding beauty to the picturesque streets are the statues that can be found in Maastricht at the crossroads or even on the sides of the streets. Most of them are not big in dimensions, in many cases at human sizes and proportions allowing for an feeling of intimacy and belonging to be established between the statues and the street walker.
Johannes Petrus Minckelers
One of the few that look at visitors from a pedestal is the statue in Markt Square of Johannes Petrus Minckelers, the inventor of the illuminating gas, who holds an eternal flame in his hand reminding all about his invention.
bycicles, bycicles
As in many other places in the Netherlands bicycles are a preferred means of transport. Locals are bicycling to work, to recreation, or to their commuting train stations.
the police orchestra plays for the IETF
The social event is the one moment of recreation that happens on Tuesdays of the IETF meetings allowing for a change of atmosphere and pace for the big heads who build and run the Internet.
rocking the boat at the IETF Social
The social at this meeting was organized on the boats near the river (who are used during the day for the tourist rides on the Maas). We had fanfare music, we had rock music played from the high deck of the boats, we had even tribal drums by the end. Food, wine and especially beer ran free, but beer will be the subject of a dedicated later episode.
The last episode of the Maltese travel notes is dedicated to the former capital of Malta – Mdina and the adjoining village of Rabat. We visited them in our last full day on the island.
the old city of Mdina
Mdina was populated as early as the year 700 BC and may have been founded by the Phoenicians. It was the capital of the island until after the Grand Siege, when the knights moved their principal institutions in the fortified city of Valletta.
Mdina Main Gate
The city today has no more than 300 inhabitants, but the surrounding Rabat has a population of 11,000. The entrance to the city is made through a spectacular gate, more beautiful than the access gate in Valletta.
in the streets of the old city of Mdina
The old city offers the traditional views of narrow streets in former medieval city. A tourist accustomed with the old city of Jerusalem will not feel displaced here at all.
knights are still walking the streets
There is a lot of tourist exploitation going on in the old city. Photo opportunities with armored knights is one of them.
St. Paul's Cathedral
The most important building in the city is the imposing Cathedral of the Conversion of Saint Paul. Saint Paul is the patron of Malta. Arrested in Jerusalem in the year 60 for preaching the new Christian faith through the Eastern part of the Roman empire he was sent to trial to Rome, but on its way to the capital of the world at that time the ship was wrecked and Paul saved himself on the island, living according to the legend in a grotto in Rabat. He converted the governor and thus introduced Christianity to the island, but later was captured again and sent to Rome to be killed during the reign of Nero.
interior of the St. Paul's cathedral
The current impressing building was built in Baroque style by the end of the 17th century, after an earthquake destroyed a previous church built by the Normans on the same place. Here took place the inauguration ceremonies of the Grand Masters of the knights Order of Saint John.
floor of the St. Paul Cathedral
We had the last opportunity to admire here the tombs on the floor of the cathedral, specific to the religious art of Malta.
dome of Saint Paul's Cathedral
The decoration of the church is due to a large extent to the Calabrese painter Mattia Preti, among other beautiful frescoes depicting episodes from the life of Saint Paul.
Madonna and Child icon (13th century)
An old icon of Madonna and Child is one of the beautiful objects of art saved from the previous church destroyed in the quake.
Mosaic in the Roman Domus
another Mosaic in the Roman Domus
Out of the city of Mdina we visited the principal objectives in Rabat, the adjoining village. One of them is the Roman Domus, actually a 20th century reconstruction of a Roman villa, hosting a beautiful museum on the ruins of a 1st century townhouse built during the Roman epoch. The mosaics are exquisite, with both decorative motives as well as figurative symbolic representations.
statue of Claudius - Roman Domus
Among the statues a splendid statue of emperor Claudius.
theatrical masks - Roman Domus
Theatrical masks remind one of the favorite pastimes of the Roman inhabitants of the place.
Saint Paul's Catacombs
Saint Paul's Catacombs - 2
One almost mandatory stop in Rabat are the Roman catacombs, named somehow inaccurately Saint Paul Catacombs. They do not have too much with Saint Paul, in reality they were the burial places of the city of Mdina for a few centuries, as Roman law forbid burial inside the city. Today they are well within the streets of Rabat, but then they were safely remote from the walls of Mdina. The underground labyrinth of corridors and burial chambers may have some macabre fascination, but it’s not my preferred kind of visiting objective.
the train does not come today
We did not miss the touristic minicar train ride of the city, which took us around the whole Mdina and Rabat and allowed us a few spectacular photo angles. One of the interesting objectives was the deserted train station. There is no train service today in Malta, and no need for one on an island whose diameter is 40 or 50 kilometers at most. Yet the British tried to build one during their rule, but it proved to be totally uneconomic and was abandoned after the second world was.
That was our last day in Malta. Early next morning Mr. David, the hotel driver took us back to the airport, to start our way home via Athens. It was the end of a visit in an interesting place, very much worth visiting once, probably not more than once.
I have heard for the first time about Gozo when I bought on Amazon one of the tour guides in preparation for the trip. The title was ‘Malta and Gozo’. What in the world is Gozo, I asked myself. The answer is of course that Malta is an archipelago, and Gozo is the second island in size (67 square kilometers) and a population of 31,000 inhabitants out of the about 400,000 total population of Malta. The third one in size if you ask has a population of six (one is a policeman, crime rate must be high).
the ferryboat to Gozo
The connection between the island of Malta and Gozo is by means of ferryboat. It’s not necessarily my preferred travel experience, although the ferry between the two Maltese islands seems well run and maintained, I was lucky to see Polanski’s Ghost Writer only after this trip.
the harbor of Mgarr
We took a organized trip, which is probably best to see Gozo, and one day is more than sufficient. The minibus waited for us at the harbor of Mgarr, which has a spectacular location, very Mediterranean in style.
the dome of Xewkija
The first stop was in the village of Xewkija, where the driver and guide of our tour was living. The village has a population of 3000 and a Rotunda church with a dome larger in size than the one of St. Paul’s in London.
admire God's creation
A welcome sign at the entry of the church invited us inside.
inside the Rotunda church of Xewkija
It is in fact man’s creation dedicated to God, rather than God’s creation. I have already written about the deep catholic feelings of the Maltese, and the church in Xewkija is a good exemplification. It was built during 20 years, between 1951 and 1971 and was all funded from money coming from the Catholic community of the village. All 3000 inhabitants have room in the church at the big events of the Catholic calendar.
stained-glass window in Xewkija
Not only its size, but also many of the interior decoration and pieces of religious art are remarkable. Of course, it is not the first church on this place, several other preceded it in the history, and part of the art objects previously used in these churches are preserved in the small museum of the church.
from the roof of the Rotunda church in Xewkija
One can climb the stairs or take the elevator to the roof of the church. The viewer is rewarded with the 360 degrees landscape of a large part of the island.
Gharb folklore museum
Our next stop was in the folklore museum in Gharb. It is quite a typical museum of ethnography, hosted by a 18th century house. The visitor will find here the typical sections in such museums about local crafts and costumes, some interesting, but presented in quite a dusty style.
Gozo wine
We did not have unfortunately the occasion to taste the wines of Gozo, just to photo the stand in a place where they were sold.
Ggigantija
I already wrote in another episode about the megalithic temples of Ggigantija. The island is populated for 5000 years.
Dwejra Bay, Azure window
Our next stop was in the spectacular Dweira bay with the Azure window and the interior lagoon carved in the limestone rock that dominates the geology of the island (as of the whole Malta). It is beautiful, reminding the Rosh HaNikra cave in the North of Israel.
Calypso's Boutique
The island of Gozo is also known as the island of Calypso, so the tour included the place where the legend says the nymph imprisoned Ulysses for seven years. Not too much can be seen there, just the entrance of a cave in a hill by the sea, so I preferred to put here a picture of … Calypso’s Boutique.
John Paul II greets us in Victoria
The capital of Gozo is Victoria, or Rabat as it was known during the Arab rule. The Citadel which is an old city fortification is the tourist center of interest, and this was our last stop on the island.
inside the Gozo Cathedral of Assumption
The Cathedral of Assumption dominates the Citadel. It was built in 1697-1703, by Lorenzo Gafa, and it’s another wonderful piece of religious architecture and includes many of the characteristics of the other churches in Malta, including the elaborated tombs on the floor.
Gozo cathedral - ceiling and trompe-vue
The art of the ceiling with a spectacular trompe-vue impressed me.
good-bye, Gozo
The way back was by ferry-boat again, a 20 minutes trip which brought us back to the main island.
I love to visit art museums. Big ones and small ones. Famous and anonymous. In the big metropolis of the world or in remote places. Visiting an art museum (at least 0ne) is an almost mandatory part of a trip, of my exploration of a new place. When I am in a lesser known museum I look for the local artists, I try to learn as much as I can about the history of the institution, and about the role of art in the life of the place.
The National Museum of Fine Arts
The National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta is located not far from the gate of the city, in a beautiful baroque palace located on South Street. It is one of the oldest mansions of the city, built in 1571. During the years of the British rule it hosted the Admiralty House and Winston Churchill is said to have been its guest. It became home of the most important art institution in Malta in 1974.
The Museum of Valletta was founded in 1903, and its fine arts section became the National Museum of Fine Arts and moved in the location on South Street in 1974. It was the dream and deed Vincenzo Bonello who built the collection and led the fine arts section for much of the century. Unfortunately he did not live to see it in the beautiful home today. A short film about the man and the museum he created is available on YouTube.
inside the museum
The collection of the museum is strong in works that are inspired by Caravaggio, although no work of the master who spent two years in Malta (1607 to 1609) can be found here. We can however see works of Guido Reni or Mattia Preti - the latest with an impressive gathering of Bible inspired art which can be seen at http://www.maltaart.com/pretismall/html/list_of_works.html
Maltese Prie-Dieu
Before getting to the paintings that seemed to be more interesting although out of the beaten path here is a beautiful piece of religious furniture from the 17th century, called a ‘prie-Dieu’ – you can imagine the knight or the noble man or lady kneeling in prayer and keeping his Bible (and maybe other artifacts) in its drawers.
the crystal sword
Two beautiful pieces of arms that could never be used in war are exposed at the first floor of the museum, near the superb spiral staircase. These are a sword and a dagger made of crystal, with exquisite ornaments that were a present by king Philip the 5th of Spain to the Knights of St. John, in sign of the special relation of friendship and protection between the kingdom of Spain and the island of the knights.
Le Valentin - Judith and Holofornes
One of the most caravaggian works in the museum belongs to Valentin de Boulogne (Le Valentin) is ‘Judith and Holofornes’ which matches the painting of Caravaggio which I had seen in Rome a few days earlier at the retrospective at Quirinale.
Jusepe de Ribera - St. Francis of Paola
Jusepe de Ribera also known as Lo Spagnoletto is also considered a disciple of Caravaggio. I like his style sometimes called ‘Tenebrist’ and works who seem to me to be a balancing act between the darkness of the Inquisition-haunted Spain he came from and the ideals of Renaissance of the Italy he lived and created much of his life. The portrait of St. Francis of Paola that can be found in the museum in Valletta is fascinating.
Venetian School - Flowers in a Vase
I am no big fan of floral arrangements paintings, but this painting from a 18th century Venetian school master drew my attention.
Louis Ducros - View of the Great Harbor
Local landscapes take a deserved place in the collection. Above is a painting of the Great Harbour of Valletta as painted by the Swiss Louis Ducros at the beginning of the 20th century.
Eugenio Maccagnani - Leah
Out of the more recent collection of art here is a piece by Italian sculptor Eugenio Maccagnani from the beginning of the 20th century.
The relative isolation of Malta as an island in the center of the Mediterranean, while still accessible to navigation allowed for the early development of a civilization that built an impressive number of monuments comparable to the Stonehenge megalithic structures, as well as to their preservation in time, relatively better kept ways from the invasions and conquests that overturned the earth of Europe.
Hagar Qim
There are 17 such sites on the islands of Malta and Gozo, five of them are recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites, and considered among the oldest religious sites on the surface of Earth. The period when they were built extends from 3600 BC in the stone age to 2500 BC in the bronze age. The population that built the temples came around 4500 BC from Sicily. By 2500 the Temple Culture disappears, and the reasons are not clear – natural catastrophe, disease, or social unrest. What is known is that after that date the settlements start to look very similar to other neighboring bronze age structures, and the usage of the temples is completely abandoned. The ruins are rediscovered in the 18th and 19th century, when they begin to be studied scientifically.
altar at Hagar Qim
The first site that we visited was Hagar Qim, located on a hill near the Southern coast of the island. The structure is nowadays protected from rain and winds by a metallic tent-like structure. A visitors center is yet to be built with European funds, actually we encountered this type of announcement in several other places, it looks like investments were made, work started, but not completed at least until the time we visited there. There are three separate structure grouped in a flower-like shape, with utility rooms, and other enclosures whose destination can only be supposed nowadays.
Mnajdra
temple entrance at Mnajdra
walls at Mnajdra
At a distance of 500 meters from Hagar Qin stands the temple of Mnajdra. It is built actually earlier than Hagar Qin, but the stronger coraline limestone used allowed for better preservation. There seem to be three temple structures in Mnajdra as well, but they are arranged in line. The form of the entrance and the remains of the pillars indicate that a vaulted roof covered the whole complex.
goddess at Tarxien
sarcophagus at Tarxien
The Tarxien temples that we visited the next day as part of our guided tour are located in the village, so there is no good perspective of the original emplacement. We can find here again three temples, the most recent of the ones we visited, well, relatively recent, built between 3200 and 2800 BC in the bronze age. Many of the objects that were found here at the begining of the 20th century were taken to the Museum of Archeology in Valletta and museums in the US, but a few interesting ones are left – like the legs of a statue of the goddess of fertility, and a sarcophagus that indicates that the place was also a burial place. Other artifacts indicate that animal sacrifices were practiced in the temple, probably part of the religious rituals.
Ggantija walls
The last impressive site we visited was Ggantija, on the island of Gozo, where we arrived in the sixth day of our trip. That site is maybe the most spectacular that we have seen, and also the one that reminds mostly Stonehenge, with one massive round structure. It was built between 3600 and 3000, and it is being said to have hosted oracles, and considered to be a magic temple, with healing powers. A sacred permanent fired was maintained in the altars.
the altars inside the Ggantija temples
Unfortunately, we missed the Hypogeum site, which is an underground site which is said to be very impressive. A limited number of visitors can enter that site each day, and bookings must be made days in advance. However, we have seen a number of beautiful pieces of art and cult at the Museum of Archeology in Valletta, which will be the subject of a future episode.
Let me start with the top. The best dinner we had during our Maltese week was in the Venus restaurant in Bugibba, the sea resort next to Qawra where we stayed, located by the St. Paul’s Bay, in the area where the man who is said to have given up kosher food for sea food shipwrecked around the year 60AD. The menu is classical with a local twist, and it comes at very reasonable prices.
Venus - Minestra (vegetable stew)
Venus - Spinotta (bass fillet)
Venus - the desert
Maltese food is not spectacularly inventive. The local specialties seem to be at the intersection between closely geographic Italy and British imperial (and bad food) influence, using Mediterranean ingredients. You will get an olive-based spread with your bread as an appetizer, the Minestra (vegetable stew), Aljotta (the local version of bouillabaisse) or the rabbit stew if you ar adventurous as soups or main course. Fish is good (bass, grouper, red mullet) and probably preferable to the tourist level steaks. Pies or pastries filled with spinach, ham, anchovy, tuna, olives offer an alternative. The best deserts are based on dates and honey.
The Plum Tree
Le Beaujolais Noveau Est Arrive
A couple of other places were quite nice, the food was at least reasonable and the owners or waiters amiable and friendly. The fact that we visited the island out of season helped, none of the places was crowded, and the owners seemed happy to welcome customers. The Plum Tree in Qawra is one of these places, owned by a British couple, and decorated with stylish booze posters including classical Noveau Beujolais announcements from the previous century.
The Overflow
inside The Overflow
‘The Overflow’ is another such place, owned by a Brit named Clancy, who receives appreciation letters from customers and proudly displays them.
the La Valette red
I always try to explore the local wines, and I was guessing that Malta’s climate offers little excuse for local wine to be other than good. I was fortunate to have my hopes confirmed and to discover in the first or second evening a local brand called (what else?) La Valette, consistent, aromatic, and not too heavy, which made everybody at the table happy (even our beer drinker friends).
La Sorpresa
No surprise that the food at La Sorpresa was Italian. I do not remember much about it, but what I do remember was that they had TV sets all around and we could see Messi’s best game ever and Barcelona beating Arsenal 4-1.
The Golden Shell
Yes, we even had a Chinese dinner in Malta. The Golden Shell was located near our hotel, and the food was quite reasonable, as all the staff was genuinely Chinese.
Caffe Cordina - the chocolates stand
inside Caffe Cordina
Caffe Cordina
Located on Triq Ir-Republika (Republican Road) – the main street and topological axis of Valletta, the Caffe Cordina is one of the institutions of the principal city of Malta. While the street restaurant is routine tourist level, when entering the old building you get into a very different atmosphere – classy and elegant. The style and the chocolates stand reminded me Capsa in Bucharest.
food stand
No description of local food is complete without talking about the street food. This is however quite uninspired in Malta, and there is nothing special to talk about, no Belgian waffles, or Arabic falafel, or Greek gyro – maybe a variant of these here or there. The good looking sweet stands attract the tourists, which end by trying the local specialties which are variants of dates pastries, and Helwa tat-Tork which looks lesser than its Arabic halwa cousin and more like a sweet sugary mixture and sesame seeds that can come in various colors and flavors. I was not enthusiastic.
Kinnie
And yet, there is one local treat that I discovered only in the final days of the trip, and whose memory I took with me. Believe me or not – it’s a soft drink! It’s called Kinnie, looks like coke and tastes like a non-alcoholic Campari – a mix of herbs and orange flavors, absolutely charming. This is for me the taste of Malta.
This was one of the craziest trip that I have taken. I flew out on Sunday night to New York for the two days IESG retreat meeting and flew back home on Wednesday night. What was common to the two flights besides being long transatlantic red-eyes was the fact that both landings were with almost zero visibility. New York welcomed me with a thick morning fog which made impossible the classical view of the Manhattan skyline, while in Tel Aviv a sandstorm reduced visibility to a few meters. The El Al pilots were probably less impressed than I was.
S-a-mbracat în zale lucii cavalerii de la Malta,
Papa cu-a lui trei coroane, puse una peste alta,
Fulgerele adunat-au contra fulgerului care
În turbarea-i furtunoasa a cuprins pamânt si mare.
The Maltese Knights dressed themselves in shining armors …
Such retells Mihai Eminescu, the Romanian national poet an episode in the heroic resistance of the Romanian prince Mircea (the Elder) against the Turkish expansion, and this verses learned by heart by any Romanian pupil are stuck in the common memory. Yet, mentioning the Malta Knights or the Knights of St. John in a poem about a battle that happened in 1395 is just a poetical license. Actually it’s only more than one century later, after 1531 that the knights arrive in Malta!
historical fresco in the State Rooms - the Siege of Malta
The Knights Hospitaller is one of the religious orders founded in Jerusalem during the period of the Crusades, more exactly in 1023, with the principal goal of taking care of the pilgrims in the Holy Land. It became a military order (as the Templar or the Teutonic knights) in the centuries to come. With the defeat of the Crusaders the St. John Knights had to abandon the Holy Land and settled in Rhodes but two centuries later that island fell under the Turks, so by 1531 there was no other new home for them in an Europe caught in the conflicts of the Reformation, but to resettle them in Malta. The Turks came after them, but the famous siege in 1565 put a stop to the Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean, in a military event event that marked and remained as milestone in the history of the island.
Grand Master de la Valette
The knights now completely ruled over the island for more than two centuries. They built the fortified city of Valletta with its historical buildings, impressive churches and picturesque streets. They managed the economy and ruled the island based upon the support of the pope and of the Spanish kings, until Europe and the church itself ran into social crisis in the 18th century culminating with the French Revolution and the ascension of Napoleon. When the French army occupied the island in 1798 they encountered almost no resistance. Part of the knights found refuge in Russia electing for a short time the Czar as Grand Master, the rest found refuge in Rome where the order is headquartered until today, focusing on welfare and hospital activities. Their presence in Malta nowadays is just symbolic.
Grand Master's Palace
A good place to learn about the history of the knights and the relation with Malta is the Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta. It is located on the main street of Valletta, not an imposing building seen from the exterior, but with quite an interesting interior. It was one of the first palaces built in the city in the year 1571 by the Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette. The building houses today the office of the President and the House of Representatives of Malta in the State Apartments, and the Palace Armoury in the separate wing. The very impressive corridors are decorated with frescoes and portraits of the Grand Masters, as well as with elaborated ceilings with the symbols of Malta as they evolved in history.
ceiling of the State Rooms
office of the President
interior court of the Grand Master's Palace
The Armoury hosts an impressive collection of weapons and military equipment from the period of the knights. There are some impressive pieces acquired by the knights from the best manufactures of the Western Europe of the period, or captured from the battles with the Ottoman archenemies. The gathering of metallic pieces of armoury or helmets sometimes give the impression of the remains of an ancient field of battle cast in metal or maybe testimony to the visit of an alien race in these places. This is maybe what the knight of St. John were in their passing on the island.
We spent the weekend in Jerusalem attending a seminar of the Forum for Liberal Thinking with the subject of liberalism in the religions of the Middle East. I hope to find time to say more about the seminar and the other places I have visited, but to start with here are a few photo-shots taken yesterday and today in the streets of Jerusalem.
The welcome sign when entering Jerusalem on Highway 1 has become the spectacular bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava.The photo is taken today, the blue color is not the sky (it was a desert storm day and poor visibility) but the light filter in the windshield of my car
Jerusalem, the Calatrava bridge
Yesterday we started in the Jabotinsky and HaNasi streets, in the area where the President’s House is located. It’s a mix of old and new buildings, united in style by the Jerusalem stone, until today compulsory on any external walls of the houses built in Jerusalem according to a city regulation dating from the British Mandate period.
Jerusalem, new architecture
Here the blue belongs to the sky, it was a beautiful day yesterday.
Jerusalem, Jabotinski Street
The target of the morning visit was the Museum of Islamic Art, where we wanted to see two exhibitions. They were interesting, I will talk about them separatly.
Jerusalem, Islamic Art Museum
Close by I photographed another beautiful building. It’s the Israeli Bar Association, here is the place for my friend Asher, who is a new immigrant and Hebrew student right now, and will be an Israeli lawyer sometimes soon, I hope.
Jerusalem, lawyers association building
About the Notre Dame Center which hosted us and the seminar I will write separatly. It’s a beautiful building, with a captivating history and present.
Jerusalem, Notre Dame Center
The building is just near the Flowers Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, The Flowers Gate into the Old City
It’s one of the smaller and less spectacular access gates into the Old City of Jerusalem, but it was enough for us to enter and wander through the streets which were getting empty with the sunset.
Jerusalem, Armenian Restaurant in the Old City
Jerusalem, street in the old city
The old city walls area is under permanent construction, the ‘light train’ (tram) line takes forever to build, new underground passages seem to pop up all the time, and there seems to be something new being excavated and build all the time I am there. While during the day traffic is a nightmare, at night the area empties, the construction works are not that visible, and the Old City walls look even more spectacular.
