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Mdina and Rabat

The walled city and the town outside it, best after the coaches leave.

Mdina was the capital until the Knights arrived in 1530 and moved everything to the harbour. It has been walled since the Middle Ages, fewer than three hundred people live inside it, and almost no cars are allowed in. People call it the Silent City and for once the nickname is accurate.

Rabat is the town immediately outside the walls. It is where most of the catacombs, the Roman remains and the cafes are, and it is where you park.

Mdina and Rabat in a day

Through the main gate

Mdina

The gate is the one everyone photographs, and the one that stood in for the entrance to King’s Landing. Inside, the lanes are narrow, shaded and deliberately crooked, which was a defensive measure rather than an aesthetic one.

St Paul’s Cathedral sits in the main square. Palazzo Falson and the natural history museum are a few minutes apart.

Film locationsBook an Mdina tour
The historic gate into the walled city of Mdina
Come in the evening

Mdina goes quiet after dark

Coaches arrive through the middle of the day and Mdina gets very busy. They leave by late afternoon, and after that the city is close to empty.

Come at dusk and walk the lanes while the limestone is still warm. Very few people stay for it.

The quiet limestone lanes of Mdina at dusk
Outside the walls

Rabat

St Paul’s Catacombs and St Agatha’s run under the streets. Next to them, the Domus Romana is a Roman townhouse with its mosaics still in place.

This is also where you eat. Mdina has a handful of places and Rabat has the rest, at ordinary prices rather than walled-city ones.

Museums and sites
A quiet street in Rabat, outside the walls of Mdina

Practical points

Before you go

Parking
You park in Rabat and walk in. Only residents and a few permit holders can drive inside the walls.
By bus
Direct routes run from Valletta and from Sliema, and the stop is a short walk from the gate.
How long
Two hours covers Mdina comfortably. Add another two if you are doing the catacombs and the Domus Romana in Rabat.
Noise
People live here. Sound carries a long way down the lanes, which is worth remembering in the evening.
Do the catacombs before the city

The underground sites in Rabat close earlier than the streets of Mdina do. Doing them first and walking the walls afterwards gets you both, and puts you in Mdina at the hour worth being there.