Comments on: Notes from a whacko island

By: john

john — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:58:01 +0000

Point is – they may still be there.

By: john

john — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:47:35 +0000

@V DeBono
Daphne – I’d go easy on this one if I were you. Other than the Siege knights, most members of the Order, up till it’s closure in 1603, were also buried here. That would make it many hundreds, maybe even more, skeletons to account for. If they aint still there – then where are they?

[Daphne – I’m as keen to know as you are. Shame we’re never going to find out. There were shops and houses all along what is now the ‘open side’ of the yard, along Merchants Street, and they were cleared too.]

By: V DeBono

V DeBono — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 08:13:58 +0000

As John said, the Knights were exhumed from Birgu and St. Angelo and re-buried at the Merchant’s Street side of the Co-Cathedral. They ARE still there. A monument inscribed with their names was destroyed during the last war.

Inside the church are tombstones of Knights. NOT the Great Siege contemporaries. Most are really buried underneath, while some are still buried in the Bartolott crypt and their tombstone removed to the church to fill in the blanks in the course of 19th Century improvements which also included ‘up to date’ fashion like REMOVING THE SCULPTURE in the chapels … which was stopped and reversed.

History tends to try to repeat itself….

[Daphne – They are not still there. The yard was cleared and rebuilt. It is not the original yard.]

By: Moggy

Moggy — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:39:37 +0000

[Sybil – It wasn’t only the knights that perished in the great seige that got buried beneath the monument.]

I’m sure there were Maltese people too. The Knights did not fight the Turks alone, after all. Sybil, did you notice what the Archbishop said about the whole thing – that the best decision had been taken, athough it had been a long time in coming?

By: Harry Purdie

Harry Purdie — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:58:16 +0000

Welcome to fun and enlightenment, John. Enjoy.

By: Amanda Mallia

Amanda Mallia — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:27:32 +0000

Daph – “to go into battle for an opera house, armed with timpana and a bridge-table”

Don’t forget the lampuki pie!

By: John

John — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:26:51 +0000

@Harry Purdie
I’m new to this game – and the jargon. Thanks for the info.

[Daphne – I’m glad you’re here, John. Don’t go away.]

By: Sybil

Sybil — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:52:06 +0000

[Daphne – Thank you, John. The point is that they are there no longer, and that meanwhile, we walk over the graves in the cathedral itself.]

It wasn’t only the knights that perished in the great seige that got buried beneath the monument.

By: Harry Purdie

Harry Purdie — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:36:42 +0000

Wouldn’t dare, Tony. She’d wipe you out.

By: Tony Pace

Tony Pace — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:57:23 +0000

Ouch.. that hurt !
See what I mean Harry, this lady ain’t for messin’.