Mdina

Overview

Mdina is a walled town of a few hundred residents on a plateau in the middle of Malta, and it was the island’s capital from antiquity until the Knights of St John moved the seat of power to the harbour in 1530. The registered population was 242 in July 2024, inside walls enclosing about 0.9 square kilometres, and roughly 1.5 million visitors a year pass through the gate.

The name comes from the Arabic madīnah, meaning town or city. Greco-Roman Melite covered a much larger area, spilling into what is now Rabat; the settlement was cut back to its present footprint under Byzantine or Arab rule and refounded in the eleventh century as Madīnah, and the narrow, maze-like streets still reflect that period. On top of that plan sits a second town: after the 1693 Sicily earthquake, Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena ordered a full renovation from 1722, and the French engineer Charles François de Mondion rebuilt the entrance, the palaces around it and several public buildings in Baroque style.

No cars are allowed in apart from a limited number belonging to residents, plus emergency vehicles, wedding cars and horses, which is a large part of why the town picked up the nickname the Silent City, Il-Belt Siekta in Maltese. Mdina is on Malta’s tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and most of its palaces are still private homes held by the same families for generations.

Between them the two make a comfortable full day. Mdina alone is a ninety minute walk unless you go inside the buildings.

Neighbourhoods

Inside the walls there are two towns layered on one another. Villegaignon Street runs the length of the place as the main road, lined with palaces and opening onto the formal squares: Pjazza San Pawl in front of the cathedral, Misraħ il-Kunsill, Pjazza tal-Arċisqof and Pjazza tas-Sur, which is Bastion Square. Off it run the older, tighter lanes such as Triq Mesquita and Triq Inguanez, closer to the medieval pattern than to anything the eighteenth century laid out.

Bastion Square is the view, looking north and east over the plain. The circuit of walls also takes in Greeks Gate on the far side and the Torre dello Standardo by the main entrance.

Rabat, outside the gate, is a working town rather than a monument: a commercial centre and market for the farmland around it, with Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian communities still in their convents.

See & do

St Paul’s Cathedral and the Cathedral Museum

The cathedral was founded in the twelfth century and, after the 1693 earthquake left the medieval building beyond repair, rebuilt by the Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafà between 1696 and 1705. The floor is laid with inlaid tombstones over the graves of bishops, canons and noble families, the ceiling frescoes of the life of St Paul are by the Sicilian brothers Manno in 1794, and the titular altarpiece of the Conversion of St Paul is by Mattia Preti. A baptismal font of 1495 and the old cathedral’s main door of 1530 were reused.

Tickets are sold at the Cathedral Museum a few metres to the right of the church, and one combined ticket covers both: 15 euro for adults, 10 euro for students and for visitors aged 60 and over, free for children aged 12 and under with an adult. Both open Monday to Saturday, 09:30 to 16:30, last ticket 16:15. The museum closes on Sundays and public holidays; on Sundays the cathedral can be seen from behind a rope, 15:00 to 17:00.

Palazzo Falson and Palazzo Vilhena

Palazzo Falson on Villegaignon Street is a thirteenth century house, home to Captain Olof Frederick Gollcher (1889 to 1962), a collector from a Swedish shipping family that settled in Malta in 1848. His furniture, arms and armour, jewellery, coins, paintings and silver are shown in the rooms he lived in. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 16:00 last entry, at 12.50 euro for adults and 6 euro for students, seniors and ISIC or ICOM holders, with an audio guide included; under 6s are not admitted.

Palazzo Vilhena, the Baroque palace by the gate, houses the National Museum of Natural History. Commissioned in 1724 by Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena and designed by Mondion, it later served as a cholera hospital and a tuberculosis clinic, and became a museum in 1973. Admission is 5 euro for adults, 3.50 euro for youths and seniors.

Rabat: the catacombs and the grotto

St Paul’s Catacombs are the earliest and largest archaeological evidence of Christianity in Malta, interconnected Roman cemeteries in use from Punic times to the seventh or eighth century AD. The Ħal Bajjada area holds more than thirty hypogea; the main cluster covers over 2,000 square metres and opens into two halls with pillars cut to resemble Doric columns and circular rock-cut tables used for commemorative meals. It was the first site in Malta to receive the European Heritage Label. Heritage Malta charges 6 euro for adults, 4.50 euro concessions, and reckons on one to two hours. Hours are 09:00 to 19:00 daily from 1 March to 31 October, and 09:00 to 17:00 daily from 1 November.

The Wignacourt Museum on Parish Square was the residence of the chaplains of the Order of St John, completed in 1749 over St Paul’s Grotto, where tradition holds the apostle founded Malta’s first Christian community in AD 60. The underground level also takes in Punic, Roman and Christian hypogea and about fifty rooms of World War II shelters, and the gallery upstairs has works by Preti and Antoine Favray. It opens daily, 09:30 to 17:00, last admission 16:00, at 6 euro for adults and 4.50 euro for seniors and students.

St Agatha’s, on St Agatha Street, is a separate complex of crypt, catacombs and museum run by the Missionary Society of St Paul rather than Heritage Malta. The catacombs cover about 4,100 square metres, date to the second and third centuries AD, and hold over 500 graves, the majority of them children’s, with separate sections for pagans, Jews and Christians. It publishes no opening hours or prices online; the number for enquiries is +356 21454503.

The Domvs Romana, also in Rabat, preserves a Roman townhouse found by accident in 1881 and sheltered by what was the first purpose-built structure of its kind in the Maltese islands. Its highlight is a set of marble statues of the Emperor Claudius and his family, unusual in a private house. It opens 09:00 to 17:00 Tuesday to Sunday, at 6 euro for adults.

Food & drink

Eating options inside the walls are few, which follows from having 242 residents. The Xara Palace, the one hotel in Mdina, runs three restaurants of its own: The de Mondion, The Medina Restaurant and Trattoria AD 1530. Palazzo Falson has the Gustav Café attached to the museum, and a museum ticket carries a 10 per cent discount there.

For everyday eating, Rabat is the better bet: a full-sized town whose commercial centre serves its own residents rather than a visitor trade, which usually means more choice and lower prices than the walled town a few minutes away.

Plan meals around the sites rather than the other way round. Most of the paying attractions here shut between 16:00 and 17:00, and the cathedral museum stops selling tickets at 16:15, so a late lunch can cost you a building.

Nightlife

There is no nightlife inside the walls in any normal sense of the word. Mdina has a few hundred residents, one hotel and a set of museums that close in the late afternoon; the quiet after the day-trippers leave is the whole reason the place is called the Silent City.

What there is instead is the walk. The town is lamp-lit at night, and the streets that were shoulder to shoulder at midday are empty by early evening. If you want a table with it, the Xara Palace’s restaurants are the option inside the gate.

Rabat is residential and does not substitute for this. For a proper night out, go to Sliema and St Julian’s or Valletta, both reachable by bus, and treat Mdina as an evening walk on the way back or a separate trip.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the sensible windows. Using Open-Meteo’s ERA5 1991 to 2020 normals for the Mdina grid cell, monthly average temperatures run from 13.8 C by day and 11.2 C at night in January to 27.3 C and 23.3 C in August, with April at 16.5 C and 13.3 C and October at 22.3 C and 19.3 C. Those are smoothed grid averages: measured on the ground, typical Maltese daytime highs in August run from 28 C to 34 C, and January days sit between 12 C and 18 C.

Rain is concentrated and easy to plan around: the same normals give about 390 mm a year, of which roughly 245 mm falls between November and February, against 13 mm in total across May to August.

Within a day, aim early or late: coach groups fill the main street in the middle of the day, and the town returns to something like normal once the sites shut. If you would rather have the streets busy in a good way, Mdina’s feast days fall on 29 June and the fourth Sunday of July. Public holidays close the cathedral and its museum entirely.

Getting there

Buses go to Rabat, not to Mdina, and you walk the last few minutes to the gate. From the Valletta terminal take route 50, 51, 52, 53 or 56. Route TD1 runs direct to and from the airport. From Buġibba, route 186 runs to Rabat; from Mellieħa, take 221 or 222 to Buġibba and change. From Marsaxlokk, take 81 into Valletta and pick up a Rabat route there.

Fares are flat rather than distance-based. A single on a day route is 2.00 euro in winter and 2.50 euro in summer, night and tallinja Direct services are 3.00 euro, and route TD1 to the airport is 3.50 euro; pay in cash or with a contactless card on board. A shareable 12 Single Day Journeys card costs 19.00 euro, and unlimited travel cards run from 21.00 euro for four days and 27.00 euro for seven. The fine for travelling without a valid ticket is 50 euro.

The cathedral chapter also lists taxis, bicycles and hop-on hop-off services, and bus route maps are handed out at the tourist office inside the walls.

Getting around

On foot, and there is no alternative worth considering. The walled town covers around 0.9 square kilometres and no traffic comes in, so everything inside is a few minutes from everything else. Horse-drawn carriages are among the few things allowed through the gate, if you would rather ride than walk the main street.

Rabat begins immediately outside the gate, and its sites cluster near the parish square: Heritage Malta puts the nearest bus stop about five minutes’ walk from St Paul’s Catacombs. A sensible order is Mdina first thing, Rabat after lunch, since the catacombs stay open latest.

Surfaces are old limestone, uneven in places, and much of what you visit is underground and reached by steps. St Paul’s Catacombs are only partly accessible for visitors with reduced mobility. The cathedral has step-free access and the Cathedral Museum has a lift to the first floor.

Where to stay

Staying inside the walls means one address. The Xara Palace is a converted seventeenth century palazzo on Misraħ il-Kunsill with seventeen individually designed rooms and suites, and it describes itself as the only hotel located within the walls of Mdina. The telephone number is +356 21450560, postcode MDN 1050.

Everyone else stays elsewhere and comes for the day. Rabat next door is a town of over 12,000 people, and Valletta is a straightforward bus ride away.

There is a real argument for sleeping inside the gate if you can. The town empties when the sites close in the late afternoon, and a guest gets several hours of it with almost nobody about, then the same again before the first coaches arrive.

Practical info

Prices are in euro, and both Maltese and English are official, so tickets and audio guides come in English everywhere listed here. Useful numbers: the cathedral and Cathedral Museum reception on +356 21454697, St Paul’s Catacombs on +356 21454562 and St Agatha’s on +356 21454503.

The full set of sites costs about 50 euro per adult, and all of them offer concessions.

One last note: this is a residential place, and most of the palazzi along Villegaignon Street are private homes rather than attractions. If you have a car for the day, Dingli Cliffs are a short hop southwest and pair naturally with an afternoon here, as does the rest of Central and Northern Malta and the wider island covered on the Malta country page.