The Knights of St. John - Malta's Golden Age

A concise, illustrated webpage covering the Order of St. John on Malta: their rise, the Great Siege, architecture, culture and legacy.

Historical spotlight

Overview

The Order of St. John - also known as the Knights Hospitaller, the Knights of Rhodes, and later as the Knights of Malta - was a religious, military and hospitaller order that played a decisive role in Mediterranean history. Granted Malta in 1530, the Knights transformed the islands into a heavily fortified maritime base, leaving an architectural and cultural imprint that survives today.

From their origins as a hospital brotherhood in Jerusalem, the Knights evolved into one of the most effective maritime powers of early modern Europe. Malta became the Order's base after Charles V granted them sovereignty in 1530; they repelled Ottoman attack in 1565 - an event that cemented their reputation and led to Malta's Golden Age of fortifications, arts and international diplomacy.

The Great Siege of 1565

"A small island, a vast resolve." - summing up the Knights' defense against the Ottomans.

The Great Siege was a defining moment. A numerically superior Ottoman force besieged the Knights in the harbors and fortifications of Malta. Despite losses and tremendous pressure, the Order - together with Maltese civilians and foreign reinforcements - held out until Ottoman supply problems and the arrival of relief forces forced a retreat. The siege boosted the Order's prestige and led to a wave of building: new bastions, forts and the planned capital, Valletta.

1530 Knights arrive on Malta - Given the islands by Charles V after they lost Rhodes.
1565 Great Siege - Ottoman attempt to take Malta fails.
1566-1600 Valletta built - A planned Renaissance city and defensive system.
1571 onward Fortifications expanded - Bastions, cavaliers and coastal batteries modernized.

The Siege of Malta in 1565: Arrival of the Turkish fleet, by Matteo Perez d'Aleccio

The siege had wide European repercussions: it checked Ottoman ambitions in the central Mediterranean and made Malta a symbol of Christian resistance. The Order's naval activities intensified - privateering, convoy escort and medical services became staples of their activity.

Architecture & Urbanism

The Knights were patrons of monumental architecture. Valletta - often described as "a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen" - introduced a grid plan, grand churches and richly decorated auberges (lodging houses) for each langue (ethnolinguistic division) of the Order.

Fortifications

Military engineering: trace italienne bastions, curtain walls and outworks were constructed across the Grand Harbour and the Cottonera Lines. Fort St. Angelo and Fort Ricasoli are surviving examples of the Order's defensive network.

Cultural buildings

St. John's Co-Cathedral (interior), palaces and auberges showcase Baroque interior work, altarpieces and major works by artists like Caravaggio, commissioned or acquired by the Knights.

Auberge de Provence, Valletta (V&A Museum)

Key Figures

Jean de Valette

Grand Master during the Great Siege; credited with organizing Malta's defense and founding Valletta.

Fra' Pietro del Monte

Examples of prominent commanders and diplomats who shaped policy and naval strategy.

Legacy

Malta's Golden Age under the Knights left a layered legacy: world-class fortifications, a concentration of Baroque art and architecture, hospitals and navigational infrastructure. Even after the Order left Malta in 1798 (Napoleon's arrival), their buildings and institutions shaped the island's identity.

400+Years of Hospitaller tradition (from before Malta to modern Order offshoots)

1565Great Siege - symbolic pivot in Mediterranean balance

UNESCOValletta - World Heritage (historic core)

Modern Malta preserves and presents the Knights' story through museums, restored forts and the Co-Cathedral, while the Sovereign Military Order of Malta continues as an international humanitarian order.

Quick facts

Founded: as Hospitallers in the 11th-12th centuries. Based in Malta: 1530-1798. Languages (langues): Italian, French, Castilian, English, German, Provencal, Auvergne and Aragonese among others.

The Knights more information

A life-size Figure of the French Prince Charles de Beaujolais

A Bronze bust Raphael Cotoner.

White marble figures of Justice and Charity on the tomb of Spanish Grand Master Roman Perellos y Raccaful.

A mosaic portait on the mausoleum of Portugese Grand Master Emanuel Pinto De Fonseca

The Knights of St. John belonged to an order of chivalry, but also to an essentially religious order. While they embellished their palaces, auberges and abodes ,they did not fail to enhance their major conventual church dedicated to their patron saint, John the Baptist. It has been said that what St Peter is to the Italians, the Pantheon to the Frenchman, and Westminster Abbey to the Englishman, such is St John's church to the Maltese as well as to the Knights

The facade of this church contains all the elements of a mannerist commerist composition, while the interior is baroque. St John's church contains all the elements of a Mannerist composition, while the interior is baroque. St John's church which was commenced in 157, is the major work of the Maltese architect Gerolamo Cassar (1530-1593); between the years 1576, when it was consecrated by Archbishop Ludovlco Torres of Monreale and 1798, when the Order was expelled from Malta by Napoleon Bonaparte, this church became the main burial place of the Knights, including Grand Masters and prelates of the order. There are some 375 inlaid multi-coloured funeral slabs under which are buried admirals, generals, ecclesiastics, Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and Knights. The memorial mosaic slabs are richly and profusely decorated with coats-of-arms, epitaphs and inscriptions, trophies, sailing ships and symbols of death such as skulls, cross-bones and skeletons. The impressive array of family emblems represent the heraldry of the Mediterranean in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Not all those who found their last abode in this church were perfect in their lives; many were saintly, some were bad. In spite of their human failings, some mottoes on their tombs are a severe warning to the living. The tomb in the centre of the German Chapel is that of Wolfgang Philip von Guttenberg (d.1733), who while still living , dictating the motto: Fumus, humus, Sumus,et Cinis est Nostra Ultima Finis - a reminder that all shall pass away; we are like smoke and dust and our end is ash. Anselme De Cays (d.1710) placed his tomb in the doorway of the side-entrance, so that one has to tread over it on entering or leaving; it bears "the cryptic warning "; Qui me calcas calcaberis et id cogita (You who tread on me, will be trodden over, think of this ....)

Most of Malta's 28 Grand masters are buried in their respective national chapel inside the church itself. In this respect the German chapel is the most conspicuous in that the only German Grand Masters, Ferdinand von Hompesch , relinquished the island when Napoleon took over, and thus missed his place in this church . Not less important is the chapel of the Holy Crucifix, known as the Crypt of the Grand Masters, Which lies under the choir. there are several Grand Masters interred in the crypt. These include Phillippe Villiewrs de L'Isle Adam (1522-1534) who was elected Grand Master in Rhodes in 1521. In 1526 he was received in England by Henry VIII, and in 1530 led the order to Malta. He was originally interred in the Chapel of St. Ann in Fort St Angelo. His Monument Consist of a white stone sarcophagus supported by heraldic leopards.

The tomb of Jean L'Eveque de la Cassiere (1672-1681),the Grand Master who build this church of St John, is a massive structure in Maltese hard stone. Hugues de Loubenx Verdalle (1582-1595) was Malta's only Grand Master to be promoted to the dignity of Cardinal. His tomb is a large mausoleum of local stone supported by wolves (the Grand Master's Coat of arms); a white marble slab carries a life-size effigy of the Grand Master, arrayed in the robes and mitre of a cardinal with a sword by his side.

Tomb of French Grand Master L'Eveque de la Cassiere .

When Grand Master Jean de la Vallette (1557- 1568 ) died, he was interred in the church of St John's. La Vallette distinguished himself during the epic siege of Malta in 1565 by the Turkish invaders. He founded the city of Valletta: Humillima Civitas Vallettae. His tomb consists of a sarcophagus in stone on which is a bronze converse with a high-relief, life-size figure of the Grand Master also in Bronze. The epitaph was composed by his Latin secretary, Sir Oliver Starkey: "here lies La Vallette, worthy of eternal honour. he who was once the scourge of Africa and Asia, and the shield of Europe, whence he expelled the barbarians by his holy arms, is the first to be buried in this beloved city, whose founder he was. " A memorial tablet commemorates Sir Oliver Starkey Himself, who was among the few English Knights to Come to Malta after the suppression of the Order in England by Henry VIII. Also buried in the crypt is Grand Master Francisco Ximenes de Texada , but not a single line marks the spot where he lies ! St John's Church Provide the historian, the genealogist, the student of heraldry and the artist with lasting and fascinating mementos of past chivalry.