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Main altar of the St John’s Co-Cathedral. Caravaggio’s The Beheading of St John the Baptist is in the cathedral’s Oratory. Photograph: Andrew Palmer/Alamy

Winning tip: Caravaggio in his element, Malta

Commissioned in the early 1600s by the Order of St John in Malta, Caravaggio’s masterpiece, The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, has been hung in St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta, ever since. It is rare to view a painting in the space intended by the artist, in this case the Oratory, a place of prayer, rather than the modern exhibition hall. And so it felt an enormous privilege to experience this masterpiece, which is immense – 520 x 370cm – along with Caravaggio’s Saint Jerome Writing in the silence of the Oratory, and all for €15.
Sara Godfrey