Housing St John's Museum

Now that the polemic about digging up St John Square, Valletta, to construct a museum has ended, it is time for a new proposal to be considered, since an adequate solution has to be found to house the Cathedral's unique treasures in a fitting and dignified space.

So what could be a most viable solution now? A few metres away from the back of the Cathedral, precisely from the corner of the cemetery, stand two magnificent palaces still in their original state but evidently unused, unoccupied and consequently left to succumb to the cruel effects of time.

One is in St Lucia Street corner with Merchants Street, once the furniture showroom of an old, very popular cabinet factory, while the other is right opposite in Merchants Street, next to the offices of the Assayer for Goldsmiths.

Both have an elegant architecture and seem to provide abundant space for such a project. Unfortunately, the latter, while having more interesting features, especially the design and construction of the wooden balconies, is already in a pitiful state. These may both offer a good possibility for housing the museum before it is too late.

The feasibility of such a task will be conditioned by numerous considerations of which I am sure the St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation is fully aware.

But apart from the undertaking that such a project entails, there are other valid reasons to be considered, including the conservation of significant buildings in Valletta and putting them to good use, while improving further the urban texture of the city.

Having a museum detached from the Cathedral itself should not be seen as a disadvantage or as an alien idea. After all, the Mdina Cathedral has long had its own museum outside its precincts and it works well.