It was a welcome break from hard-nosed politics for Mario de Marco this morning as he started the day in the crypt of the Zejtun parish church.
The restored crypt with magnificent arches provided the backdrop for one of the tourism minister's stops during a tour of the parish church dedicated to St Catherine.
Dr de Marco smiled when he was told that the high humidity in the crypt used to preserve the bodies buried there.
"When the tombs used to be cleaned more than bones used to be transferred to the ossuary because the humidity preserved the body," Fr Gino Gauci told a bemused minister. "And it was no miracle just humidity," the priest added.
The crypt restoration is just one of a series of projects undertaken by the Zejtun parish to create a heritage trail for visitors within the church.
EU funds were used to finance the project that will also see a revamped museum at the backside of the church coming to life with important paintings and statues.
During a tour of the place, Fr Gauci, who is coordinating the project, said visitors will start from the oratory and move on to the main church by passing through a narrow corridor.
Visitors will then proceed down a spiral stone staircase into the crypt before returning back up to the museum.
Fr Gauci explained that a large portrait depicting the beheading of St Catherine, was believed to have been an abandoned sketch of Caravaggio' beheading of St John the Baptist found in Valletta.
He also pointed out the bayonet marks on the wooden furniture in the sacristy made by French soldiers, who wanted to steal church property, when Napoleon invaded Malta.
Dr de Marco praised the initiative and said this project helped highlight the riches of Zejtun, giving tourists an additional attraction when they visited
Malta. "We cannot concentrate all our attractions in Valletta, Mdina and the Cittadella," he said, urging churches to remain open and serve as focal points for culturally-inclined tourists.
The €10 million EU fund from which the parish benefitted was aimed at helping sustainable projects, he added.
"The value of the projects co-funded so far amounted to some €20 million," he said.
A call for the last tranche of funds amounting to €1 million opens on Monday and closes on March 18.