Some places seem frozen in time, and Mdina is one of them. Perched on a plateau in the centre of Malta, this walled city of only a few hundred residents was for centuries the island's capital, the seat of the nobility and of power. Today it is 'the Silent City': a maze of golden-stone alleys, stately palaces with huge doorways, baroque churches and little squares where the only sound, once the tour groups leave, is the echo of your own footsteps. Walking in through its great gate is crossing a threshold into the Middle Ages.
Its history is the history of Malta itself. There was a settlement here from the Bronze Age; the Phoenicians and Romans walled it and called it Melite; the Arabs gave it its current name, Mdina (from 'medina', city), and the maze-like layout it still keeps; and the Maltese nobility made it their stronghold for centuries. Tradition says the Roman governor Publius lived here and was converted to Christianity by St Paul after his shipwreck on the island. When the Order of St John arrived in 1530 and moved power to the harbour, Mdina was left as the nobles' 'old city', frozen in its aristocratic splendour.
This guide covers Mdina with a practical, warm eye: how to get there and get around, what to see without missing the cathedral or the viewpoints, how to make the most of the magic of sunset, where to have the famous chocolate cake with a view and how to link it with Rabat and Dingli. Small, silent and untouched in its beauty (so much so that it was a filming location for series like Game of Thrones), Mdina rewards travellers who take the time to get lost in its streets and let its stillness wrap around them.
Mdina is Malta's oldest city and was its capital for almost all of its history until the 16th century. The site was inhabited from the Bronze Age, but it was the Phoenicians who founded a city here around the 8th century BC, which the Romans expanded and called Melite, much larger than today's Mdina. According to Christian tradition, in AD 60 the apostle St Paul was shipwrecked on Malta and converted the Roman governor Publius, considered the island's first bishop, in what is now Mdina. With the Arab conquest in the 9th century, the city shrank to its walled core, took the name Mdina (from the Arabic 'medina') and gained its distinctive maze of narrow alleys. Under Norman rule and later the kingdoms of Sicily and Aragon, Mdina was the seat of the nobility and of the Council (Università) that governed Malta, and it filled with stately palaces. When the Order of St John arrived in 1530, the nobility handed over the keys of the city, but the knights preferred to settle by the Grand Harbour; after the Great Siege of 1565 they founded Valletta, and Mdina was sidelined as the 'old city'. A strong earthquake in 1693 damaged the city, which was partly rebuilt in the baroque splendour admired today, above all under Grand Master Vilhena. Stripped of power but cared for as a historic jewel, it kept its character intact. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Malta's ancient interior: the old medieval capital of Mdina, Rabat with its early Christian catacombs, and the temples and cliffs at the heart of the island.
Read the history of The historic centre (Mdina, Rabat) →Some places make no sense on your own; with someone explaining them, they change completely. We look ours up on Civitatis: guided in Spanish and booked online with no fuss. They have 6 activities in Mdina. And there are free tours here: you book without paying and tip the guide whatever you think at the end, so trying one costs you nothing. Have a look below: tap any of them to see them all.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Mdina's history goes back to the dawn of Maltese civilisation. The raised plateau it stands on, in the middle of the island, was inhabited from the Bronze Age onwards. It overlooks much of Malta and is hard to attack, so it became a refuge and a seat of power. When the Phoenicians reached the archipelago around the 8th century BC, they founded a city here. They chose this defensible inland hill because it was far from the dangers of the coast.
Under the Punic rulers who followed, and then under the Romans, the city grew into the island's capital. It was called Melite, which is where the name 'Malta' comes from. Roman Melite was much bigger than today's Mdina. It also covered a large part of neighbouring Rabat, and a wall with a long perimeter ran around it. It was a prosperous city with temples, forums and wealthy homes decorated with mosaics. Some of those mosaics survive today in the Domus Romana, on the edge between Mdina and Rabat.
One of the founding episodes of Maltese identity belongs to this period. According to the Acts of the Apostles and Christian tradition, the apostle Saint Paul was shipwrecked on Malta around AD 60 on his way to Rome and stayed on the island for three months. During that time he is said to have converted Publius to Christianity. Publius was the chief man, or governor, of the island, and his residence stood in Melite, on the spot where Mdina's cathedral rises today. Publius is venerated as the first bishop of Malta. According to tradition, that shipwreck marks the birth of Maltese Christianity, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
The decisive change in the city's shape and name came with the Arab conquest. Around AD 870, Muslims from North Africa took Malta. They came from the Aghlabid emirate of Ifriqiya, which later became part of the Arab-Sicilian world. Under their rule, old Roman Melite was deeply transformed. The Arabs shrank the city down to its most defensible core, on the highest part of the plateau, and cut it off from the rest with a ditch and new walls. The part left outside came to be called Rabat, Arabic for 'outskirts' or 'suburb', and it still has that name today.
The city's own name changed too, from Melite to Mdina. It comes from the Arabic 'medina', which simply means 'city' or 'walled city'. The Arabs also brought the most distinctive feature of Mdina's layout: its maze of narrow, winding lanes, many of them dead ends, typical of Islamic medinas. The design had a purpose. It slowed down any enemy who managed to get in, kept the streets shaded from the heat and created a close, sheltered network. Even today, getting lost in Mdina's streets means walking through more than a thousand years of Arab heritage.
This period left a deep and lasting mark. The Maltese language, still spoken today, comes from the Arabic brought to the island in those centuries, with later additions from Sicilian, Italian and English. It is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet and the only one that is an official language of the European Union. With its Arabic name and its medina layout, Mdina is the clearest urban trace of the period that shaped Malta's identity for good.
In 1091 the Normans under Count Roger I of Sicily took Malta from the Muslims. The island became part of the Kingdom of Sicily, and was later tied to the crowns of Aragon and Spain. Throughout the Middle Ages, Mdina remained Malta's capital and the centre of its political and aristocratic life. The city filled up with the palaces of the Maltese noble families who formed the ruling elite, as well as churches and convents.
The island was governed by a local council called the Università. Despite the name, it was not a university but the municipal government. It was made up of nobles and leading citizens and had its seat in Mdina. From here it administered justice, organised defence against corsair raids and spoke for the Maltese before the kings of Sicily. The buildings of this period gave Mdina its noble character: stone palaces with Siculo-Norman paired windows, like the one still visible at Palazzo Falson, along narrow aristocratic streets.
Mdina also went through dangerous times. Barbary and Ottoman pirates and corsairs kept attacking Malta's coasts, and more than once the country people took refuge behind the walls of the 'old city'. Mdina's high, fortified position, inherited from the Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs, still served its defensive purpose. When the Order of St John arrived in 1530, the Maltese nobility received it in Mdina and symbolically handed over the keys of the city, in a ceremony that recognised the transfer of power. But that gesture also marked the start of the old capital's political decline.
The arrival of the Order of St John changed Mdina's fate. The knights were a naval and military order. They needed to be by the sea and next to a large harbour, not in an inland city. So they settled in Birgu, on the Grand Harbour. After their victory in the Great Siege of 1565 they founded a new capital, Valletta, and all of the island's political, economic and religious power moved there. Mdina was reduced to the role of 'Città Vecchia', the old city. It was still home to the nobility and the cathedral chapter, but it was cut off from decision-making.
Oddly enough, this neglect helped preserve the city. Without the pressure to grow into a large modern city, Mdina kept its small scale and its aristocratic character. The Maltese nobility went on living in their palaces and guarded their privileges closely, and the city kept its noble, slightly melancholy atmosphere. Relations between Mdina's old aristocracy and the knights in Valletta were not always easy, and there were tensions over power and prestige.
In 1693 a natural disaster changed the city's appearance. A violent earthquake, the same one that devastated eastern Sicily, badly damaged Mdina and brought down much of the medieval Cathedral of St Paul. The rebuilding in the following decades was done in the Baroque style. The Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafà built the new cathedral (1697-1702). Later, in the 1720s under Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, much of the city was remodelled. The monumental Mdina Gate, Palazzo Vilhena and other buildings date from this time. They gave the 'Silent City' the elegant Baroque look it still has today, laid over its medieval Arab street plan.
After centuries away from power, Mdina reached the modern era with its greatest treasure intact: an almost untouched historic city. Its medieval Arab street plan and its Baroque architecture sit side by side with hardly any modern intrusion. Under British rule and later in independent Malta, Mdina stayed a living relic. Only a few hundred people live there, many from noble families of old lineage, and the city was spared the urban sprawl that changed other parts of the island.
Its nickname, 'the Silent City', comes from exactly that atmosphere. There is no traffic, since the city is pedestrianised, and very few people live there. In the evening, when the visitors leave, its quiet stone lanes fall into an almost complete silence. That character, both beautiful and a little ghostly, has drawn artists, writers and filmmakers. Mdina has been the setting for many films and series, including the first season of 'Game of Thrones', which used it as part of King's Landing. That made it famous around the world.
Today Mdina lives mainly from cultural tourism and from its reputation as one of the best-preserved walled cities in the Mediterranean. Its palaces house museums and cultural centres, and its bastions offer some of the best views in Malta. Its streets, so quiet at night, make for a walk outside time. Together with Rabat and its early Christian heritage, it forms the main historic centre in the island's interior. Visit at sunset, when the golden stone lights up and the lanes empty out, and you'll see why so many people call Mdina the most magical place in Malta.
