Environmental monitoring exercise planned for St John's

The 500-year old conventual church of the Order of St John in Valletta has taken a leap into the information technology age by installing a state-of-the-art ticketing machine.

The conventual church, better known as St John's Co-Cathedral, has for the past two years been run by the St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation which is slowly pulling the church back to where it should belong as regards restoration and conservation.

Joseph Galea Naudi, executive secretary of the foundation, said St John's had for a long time been neglected in the sense that little if any maintenance of the works of art of inestimable value owned by the church was taken in hand.

Visitors to the co-cathedral, whose paving represents a kaleidoscope of colours made up of memorial marble tombstones recalling men of chivalry, used only to put in a donation if they so wished. There was no entry fee.

"When the Foundation decided on charging tourists a fee - Lm1 for adults and 75 cents for students - it was felt that in order to have a true picture of how many people visited the cathedral and at what times, an electronic system was the answer.

"By installing such a system, one can keep a close tab of income as well as present a more business-like layout that most visitors expect to find in such sites," Mr Galea Naudi said.

The co-cathedral is visited daily by hundreds of people, reaching a peak of visitors when cruise liners call in Grand Harbour, Daniela Apap Bologna, curator of the cathedral and the museum noted.

The fees were introduced last September.

"One of the advantages of having such a system is the ability to obtain precise information about the number of persons who visit the church at particular times of the day.

"Eventually, this data will be combined with an environmental monitoring exercise that will determine the impact of the temperature and humidity levels generated by the visitors on the works of art and all other polychromised surfaces in the co-cathedral," she explained.

The environmental survey and monitoring of the micro-climate will help collect data about the temperature and relative humidity levels at St John's.

The first phase of the monitoring will be installed in the chapel of Italy as part of the conservation project, financed by the Italo Maltese protocol, just before the restoration of the chapel starts.

The idea is eventually to have this monitoring throughout the church.

It will provide valuable scientific data which will enable the study of the effect of fluctuations in temperature and humidity on the various works of art, such as the marble monuments, the vault paintings of Mattia Preti and other gilt carved stonework throughout the co-cathedral.

"The electronic ticketing system will give us the precise number of persons entering the co-cathedral at a given point in time.

"This information will be combined with the environmental monitoring to see how the influx of people visiting is in reality affecting the internal micro-climate.

"Armed with such data, we will be able to evaluate all options and implement a long-term conservation strategy to ensure the preservation of one of Malta's most precious art historical treasures," Ms Apap Bologna said.

This is the first time such monitoring will be carried out at St John's.

The foundation has employed additional staff to keep an eye on the church and its museum to discourage visitors from touching or in any way damaging the stone work or the priceless monuments.

Visitors to St John's buy their tickets through the church side entrance in Republic Street opposite the law courts, where a ramp has been installed to facilitate access to wheelchair cases.

Visitors will leave St John's by the front door leading on to St John Street and not as was recently the case through Merchants Street.

This change of exit came about because visitors were complaining that when spilling out into Merchants Street right into the heart of the teeming open air market they had to wind their way through a throng of shoppers.

The St John's Co-Cathedral Foundation is made up of representatives of the government and of the Cathedral Chapter. In its 1998 budget, the government earmarked Lm300,000 spread over five years to help the foundation start dealing with the most urgent problems of restoration.

"Any other income generated by entrance fees will be used for the continuous maintenance, restoration, conservation and research programmes of this architectural jewel," Mr Galea Naudi added.