Description:
St . John's Co-Cathedral, designed and erected to the design of Geranimo Cassar, architect appointed by the Order of St. John (now better known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta) between 1568 and 1592 was used up to 1798 as the Conventual Church of the Order and owes its present decorative details to donations effected by various Grand Masters and others during that time. The first phase of the project required the identification of the elements which had caused the decay. These included blasting as a consequence of bömbing during WW2, erosion of the globigerina limestone due to long exposure causing fregmentation accelerated by the effect of sea spray, dry rotting of timber beams and other damage due to lack of proper maintenance. In consideration of the above it was decided to adopt a system uf replacement, the existing stonework being too weathered to allow application of special plasters. The area over the nave was protected by the application of insulated mild steel plastic coated sandwich panels over steel trusses adjusted to allow a free circulation of air beütween them and the original crushed terracotta protective coat to the nave.