Off to the bus terminal again for a pleasant thirty-minute
bus ride to almost the other side of Malta and the walled city of Mdina,
perched on a fairly low hill and surrounded by what would have been a wide
moat. Mdina, crammed with beautiful
buildings and narrow streets, dates back to 1000BC and is known as the “silent
city”; after dark when the tourists have left and the lights are dimmed barely
a sound is to be heard. We wandered
around, admiring the blend of Moorish and Norman architecture and the views
from the walls, across the fields to the Mediterranean.
Our first port of call was St Paul’s Cathedral, named for
the patron saint of Malta, who was shipwrecked on the island in about 60AD
(according to the book of Acts) and took refuge nearby. This imposing cathedral is a baroque
masterpiece, constructed over several years from 1696, over an earlier Norman
church that was severely damaged during the Sicilian earthquake of 1693. The interior is breathtakingly adorned with
marble, gold, frescoes and paintings – wonderful paintings at every turn. The
ceiling frescoes, painted in the late 18th century by the Sicilian
Manno brothers – Vincenzo, Antonio and Francesco - depict the life of St Paul. The
cathedral museum, located in the adjacent former seminary, contains a dazzling
array of silverware, precious relics (including 5th century BC
Egyptian amulets) and a staggering collection of artworks.
We continued on to the National Museum of Natural History
and wandered through the fascinating displays of fossils, birds, animals and
fish. We saw the tooth of a shark –
Carcharodon megalodon – which itself measured eighteen centimetres and formerly
belonged to a 25-metre monster that prowled the Miocene seas about thirty
million years ago.
After a brief stop for lunch outside the Mdina walls we
walked to nearby Rabat, an equally charming town. We visited the small St Agatha’s Church,
built in the 17th century over catacombs dating from 700BC. Next
stop was the Domus Romana, the remains of a Roman residence with remnants of
the original mosaic floors, some almost completely intact and dating from the 1st
century BC. The mosaics were uncovered
in 1881 and fortunately their archaeological significance was immediately
recognised and a building immediately erected over them for protection. It was fascinating to view the mosaic floors
of a number of rooms as they would have appeared 2000 years ago.
Then down the road a few hundred metres to the St Paul
catacombs, a series of catacombs connected through a maze of tunnels below
ground, but accessed individually through a series of entrance steps from the
surface. They were in use during the
Punico-Roman and Roman periods, up to about the 4th century AD. There is still much that has not been
explored and it is believed that the entire catacomb complex may extend for
many kilometres under Rabat. Last stop
was the Carmelite Priory, a small but pretty church, then back on the crowded
bus for the journey back to Valletta.
When walking back home we passed the new and very modern Parliament
House, only completed in 2014. The roof
is covered by 600 square metres of photo-voltaic panels (are you paying
attention, Malcolm?).
Tomorrow – off to Hagar Qinn and Mnajdra to see some more
ancient temples.
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