Family's Close Link with Cathedral Crypt

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
25 Mar 2009

The funeral service of John Melocco who helped his father, Peter Melocco create the spectacular terrazzo floor in The Crypt of St Mary's Cathedral, was held on March 24.

Fittingly, the service will be held in The Crypt where he worked with his father as a teenager and young man laying what experts consider one of the finest examples of terrazzo mosaic worldwide.

John died suddenly aged 82 at his home at Castlecrag on March 17 and was the only son of Peter Melocco, the brilliant artisan who was commissioned by Cardinal Gilroy in 1945 to create the floor of The Crypt.

He began work on the floor as an 18 year old, and it would be another 13 years before the floor was finally finished in 1958.

Worth the wait, the floor was acclaimed as a masterpiece.

"We visited it with our family quite often and whenever visitors were in town who were interested," John's wife, June Melocco said.

Describing the floor as her father-in-law’s life’s work, she spoke of her husband's pride in his father's accomplishments and the pleasure he took in the fact that he had been involved with the creation of The Crypt's floor.

"John worked alongside his father for the whole time The Crypt floor was being created," Mrs Melocco said.

Regarded as one of the world's great artists and artisans, Peter Melocco was the master responsible for the State Library of NSW's famous mosaic of the Tasman Map as well as the creator of the altar floor for the Chapel of the Irish Saints in the eastern wing of St Mary's Cathedral.

But his masterpiece remains the floor in The Crypt which continues to be regarded as one of the world's most beautiful works of terrazzo.

Born Udine, Northern Italy, John's father arrived in Sydney as a 26 year old in 1908. Setting up shop in Redfern, he persuaded Cardinal Moran to let him design the Cathedral's altar floor for the Chapel of the Irish Saints. Thinking the artisan was too young, the Cardinal hesitated. But finally persuaded by the young man's enthusiasm as well as his meticulous designs, he gave in.

It took Peter two years to complete the floor which gave him enough money to bring his two younger brothers, Anthony and Galliano to Australia. Anthony had trained as a mosaic tradesman in Paris and he and Peter formed Melocco Brothers, while Galliano at 12, was encouraged to finish his education.

The first to introduce terrazzo to Australia, the brothers' company was a huge success and in the 1920s such was the demand for terrazzo and mosaic bathrooms, the firm was employing 100-200 people. In the 1930s the Depression hit but the company continued to do well with decorative plaster for private homes, and when composite stone was introduced in the 1930s, the brother created many of the ornate facades to Sydney's buildings.

But it was the commission from Cardinal Gilroy to create the floor of The Crypt that had John Melocco's father acclaimed as an artisan with unsurpassed brilliance.

Using the design in the shape of a Celtic Cross, the floor depicts the story of Creation and the symbolic titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary and since it was completed in 1958, has been visited not only by pilgrims and congregants from the Archdiocese but by non-Catholic architects, artists, scholars and tourists from around the globe.

There will always be a strong link between the Crypt and the Melocco family but with John Melocco's passing, there is no longer anyone living who actually worked and helped create the masterpiece.

A brilliant mosaic artisan himself, with the same talents as his father, John Melocco is survived by his wife June, his sons, Peter, James and Mark and his two grandchildren, Alex 6 and Fiona 4.

"He was a very gentle, warm, caring man who lived for his family and never had a nasty word to say about anyone. He was respected and loved in business by his associates and employees and we will miss him greatly," his wife June Melocco said of her husband in a short statement.