Co-Cathedral of St. John's , Valletta

We spent the day visiting the sites of Valletta, firstly absorbing the history of Malta at the Malta experience. All in all it is an amazing history of conquest by so many different countries as each made its presence known during the history of the Mediterranean over the last four or five millennia and one could not fail to see how all of these empires eventually failed by over-stretching themselves. The more recent history of the Knights Templar was fascinating as I knew very little about it. A hospitalier / religious order evolving from chivalric history which became a fierce and long lived military order. Malta's strategic place on all of the Mediterranean trade routes and it's excellent harbour facilities made it an an obvious target for conquest by the Mediterranean empires.

All the wealth of the Knights is displayed in all its gaudy glory in the Co-Cathedral of St. John's, the baroque architectural style in extremis and I could not fail to picture this in my blip.