St John’s Co-Cathedral is without a doubt one of Malta’s greatest beauties, shredded with history within every corner but have you ever heard of the earie burning chapel?

The ‘Cappella Ardente’ as it’s known within the Catholic church was set up as you see it in the picture below, following the death of Pope Benedict XV in 1922, 101 years ago.

It was first built in 1726 on the design of Romano Carapecchia during the time of Grand Master Vilhena.

The wooden structure is 10 metres high and holds an impressive 230 candles.

However, the burning chapel is a temporary structure and was only set up upon the deaths of Grand Masters, Popes, bishops or Catholic Kings.

It was also once set up not for the death of a high standing member of the church but as sign of respect for the victims of the Sette Giugno in 1919.

Many in the comments of the photo uploaded to social media soon jumped to ask what has happened to this stunning structure now.

It seems that the chapel itself still exists but hasn’t been set up in a quite some time.

Hopefully, we’ll get to see this again at some point in the near future!

Facebook/The National Archives of Malta