Malta may be small but it sure has its fair share of churches. Malta consists of 3 islands and there are 359 churches on these 3 islands. It means that there are approximately 1 every square kilometer. Needless to say, Papa is really excited to take lots of photos of these Baroque beauties. Most are very plain on the outside but really over the top with gold, silver, velvet, lovely engraved wood and lots of saints of all sorts with relics to spare along with cherubs galore. A plethora of holiness which Walt was only able to scape the surface. We would need to be here no less than one month to even come close to seeing half of them.
We did have the opportunity to tour the The Knights Hospitaller which was an infirmary or hospital originally set up for the Knights but became the main male hospital of the time. It had special doctors, nurses and its own pharmacy. Surgical techniques were somewhat better here than elsewhere considering the times, and their medication often did work. In fact there was and still is a special fungus or herb that grows high on a cliff on the island of Gozo. It was protected and collected just for them because of its special healing qualities. The building had a very long hall where hospital beds were lined up and each bed had its own bathroom-that was for the wealthy. The lower long hall had one big bed which held 4 or more poor patients and 1 bathroom per bed. This was an interesting place to see with tunnels which were also used during WWII. The larger room could hold 563 beds and 914 in an emergency. The beds were under normal circumstances on only one side of the room. The history behind this building is way too extensive to explain here but was a really neat experience.
We did have the opportunity to tour the The Knights Hospitaller which was an infirmary or hospital originally set up for the Knights but became the main male hospital of the time. It had special doctors, nurses and its own pharmacy. Surgical techniques were somewhat better here than elsewhere considering the times, and their medication often did work. In fact there was and still is a special fungus or herb that grows high on a cliff on the island of Gozo. It was protected and collected just for them because of its special healing qualities. The building had a very long hall where hospital beds were lined up and each bed had its own bathroom-that was for the wealthy. The lower long hall had one big bed which held 4 or more poor patients and 1 bathroom per bed. This was an interesting place to see with tunnels which were also used during WWII. The larger room could hold 563 beds and 914 in an emergency. The beds were under normal circumstances on only one side of the room. The history behind this building is way too extensive to explain here but was a really neat experience.
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