|
Karl Schembri
St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta will be raising admission fees this year and the Mdina Cathedral will be introducing new fees on 1 November in a bid to cover rising costs to preserve the two heritage rich churches and their museums.
The Valletta co-cathedral has already notified tour operators of the new fees that will start being charged for group bookings from 1 November, which will be doubled from 75c to Lm1.50 per person.
For individual bookings, the fee has yet to be decided as well as the date when it will become effective, but it is expected to precede the 1 November raise. At present individuals pay Lm1 to enter the co-cathedral and the ticket is expected to go up to Lm2.
In Mdina, the cathedral will start charging Lm1 per person for tickets that will be also valid for the museum. In both cathedrals, the fees will not apply for religious purposes.
The Executive Secretary of the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation, Claude Busuttil, said admission fees were almost the only source of funding for the foundation responsible for the Valletta church which houses the world-renowned Caravaggio painting of the beheading of St John.
“The museum needs restructuring from A to Z, the paintings need to be restored, the tombstones and the tapestries require constant maintenance and the walls too,” Dr Busuttil said. “Over the years costs run into millions to do all the conservation works this place deserves. We’re now hoping to tap some EU funds as well. However, when we’ll put up the price we’ll be also adding the services and facilities.”
The foundation receives around Lm60,000 a year from the government but the expenses needed for restoration are much higher.
The Valletta co-cathedral receives around 450,000 visitors a year, a satisfactory figure that is however highly imbalanced throughout the year, with the summer peak at times reaching up to 3,000 visitors a day as opposed to the much calmer winter seasons.
“The Caravaggio is our breadwinner,” Dr Busuttil said. “Even in the oratory” – which houses the Beheading of St John and the St Jerome, both by Caravaggio – “we will improve the lighting, and we will also install a special carpet to solve the problem of people trampling upon the tombstones.”
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
|
