Mdina, known also as the Silent City, fascinates with its architecture, history and romantic atmosphere. As a very small medieval town with charming narrow streets, it attracts tourists, yet there is silence and calm, which is really noticeable. The best way to sighsee the town is getting lost in it, if the word ‘getting lost’ can be used here at all since Mdina is very small and even the persons without a sense of direction will find themselves here quickly.
Entering the ‘Noble City’ (that Mdina was called thanks to the heroic defence and miraculous help of Saint Paul in the XV century), we will see the Howard Gardens next to which there is the bus stop and in which one can relax in the shadow of the trees. Passing the Main Gate at which there are horse cabs waiting, we will get to the Vilhen Palace where the Museum of Natural History is situated. Visiting it is a good idea for lovers of biology and geology.
Heading for Inguanez street, we will get to the world of baroque and Norman architecture. Quickly we are hitting the St. Agatha’s chapel which was destroyed by earthquake at the end of XVII century, yet one year later it was rebuilt. The interesting fact is that the chapel was used as an air-raid shelter for the residents during World War II. Quite near, at the Santu Rokku street there is St. Paul’s Cathedral which quickly attracts sight with its monumentality. We can notice that the right clock of the building shows hours and minutes, while the left- days and months. Another interesting fact is that the painting of Virgin Mary, which is located inside the cathedral, was supposed to be painted by Saint Lukas. The next object that is worth paying our attention is Carmelite Church which must be necessarily visited.
Walking out of Mdina, we don’t need a lot of time to land in Rabat. Going straight ahead without the map, we are asking a worker of a petrol station how to get to Rabat, and it turns out that we are already here. The town is as quite and calm as its neighbour Mdina.
On the way for sure we will stumble across British red phone boxes, so this time we don’t have to go to Great Britain to take a picture in one of them.
We are hitting the Saint Paul Church, and next we decide to go to the museum and we visit catacombs of Saint Paul, which we will find at the Saint Agatha Street. In the underground rooms we will see various kinds of tombs. Between the corridors we should watch our steps and draw our attention to the mosaics on the stony floors. Nearby there are also catacombs and church of Saint Agatha.
