Tapestries museum planned under St John's Square

The St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation, responsible for the running of Malta's major artistic monument, is planning to dig up the square in front of the cathedral in Valletta to build an underground museum.

One of the aims of the museum will be to house the collection of 29 18th century Flemish Tapestries woven according to cartoons by Peter Paul Reubens from the Brussels atelier of Judecos de Vos.

Work on the ten-year restoration project of the tapestries, costing the foundation some €800,000, began last week in Belgium on two of the tapestries at the De Wit restoration laboratories of Mehelen.

During a visit to the centre by Malta's Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, who is also a member of the foundation's board, the executive director of the centre, Yvan Maes De Wit, said that the Maltese tapestries, which are considered to be the largest series of tapestries in the world, are in dire need of care and can no longer be exhibited in the cathedral unless an urgent conservation intervention is undertaken. He said that light must have been the main reason for the tapestries' deterioration.

Mr De Wit said that the work to be done on the Perellos tapestries is the third most important restoration project his centre will be embarking on in its 100-year history. He said that previously, De Wit performed similar large-scale projects on a set on 102 tapestries belonging to the Swiss Canton de Vaud and the conservation of 75 pieces of the Art Institute of Chicago, which is still ongoing.

The first two tapestries to be restored are The Triumph of the Catholic Church and The Portrait of Grand Master Perellos, which were flown to Brussels last week by a military plane offered by the Belgian government.

The set of tapestries, a donation of Grand Master Perellos on the occasion of his appointment in 1697, were designed specifically to cover the nave of the co-cathedral, the Order's conventual church.

The 14 large tapestries depict scenes from the life of Christ and allegories portraying the principal and fundamental divine truths of the Catholic faith.

Another 14 panels represent the Virgin Mary, Christ the Saviour and the Apostles. A tapestry portraying the benefactor, Grand Master Perellos y Roccaful, designed by Mattia Preti, completes the impressive collection.