Bastion Square
From this terrace at Mdina's northern tip you look across the fields and villages of central Malta to the sea, the width of the island in one view.
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Give your afternoon to St Paul's Cathedral and the rooms of Palazzo Falson, then walk to Bastion Square on the city walls and watch the sun set over the countryside and the coast.
Town guide, Malta. Meridian Dispatch.
Ninety seconds on Mdina
The stop is in Rabat, about 500 metres from Mdina Gate. The routes start at the Valletta bus terminal.
Private cars are barred. Only a limited number of residents' cars, emergency vehicles, wedding cars and horses are allowed in, so the walled city is explored by walking.
On Sundays visitors view the nave from a roped area from 15:00 (16:30 in August). Mass is at 09:00 on weekdays, at 09:00 and 18:00 on Saturdays, and at 09:30, 11:00 and 18:00 on Sundays, with the rosary at 17:30. Admission for sightseeing can be restricted during these services.
A day trip from Valletta covers the walled city. An overnight stay suits a quieter visit. After about 18:00 the lanes are quiet, and the streets are lit after dark.
Maltese and English, the two official languages of Malta in the European Union.
By Airport Direct TD1 or TD5, hourly and direct to Rabat, with room for suitcases. Mdina Gate is a short uphill walk from the Rabat stop, by way of Howard Gardens.
Half a day is enough for the lanes, the cathedral, its museum and the view from the bastions. The Cathedral Museum's galleries take about 20 minutes. The combined cathedral and museum ticket stays valid for 30 days, so the two can be split across separate days.
Outside the walls only, because parking inside Mdina is prohibited. Car parks sit outside Mdina Gate beside the playground, in the ditch below the walls, outside Greeks' Gate and opposite Domus Romana. The largest lies about 200 metres from Mdina Gate, beside the Rabat bus terminus.
Yes, the walled city stays open, but the Cathedral Museum closes on Sundays and public holidays. Palazzo Falson opens on Sundays and shuts on Mondays instead, which makes it the main indoor visit at the weekend.
Stay in Mdina only if Mdina itself is the point. Rabat, next door, has the buses and a spa hotel.
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Private cars stay outside Mdina's walls, so you cross this hilltop city in the middle of the island on foot, from Mdina Gate past the cathedral and the palazzi to the views from the bastions. It was Malta's capital until the Knights of St John moved to the harbour.
MDCCXXIV,
One palace on the bastions inside the walls, and a spa hotel above the Rabat valley, a short walk from the gate.
2 min from Mdina Gate
In Rabat
Grouped by what each place is best for, from the cathedral inside the walls to the towns around the hill.
Everything inside the walls is a few minutes' walk from Mdina Gate. The places around the hill are a short ride away.
From this terrace at Mdina's northern tip you look across the fields and villages of central Malta to the sea, the width of the island in one view.
Read the guide
In this cathedral you look across a floor of coloured marble tomb slabs, on the spot where tradition says the Roman governor Publius met St Paul after his shipwreck.
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A German bomb fell through this dome in Mosta during a wartime Mass and did not explode, and you stand directly beneath it. It is one of the largest unsupported church domes in Europe.
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Carved with the arms of Grand Master Vilhena and of Mdina, and a Latin date, this gate is the main way into the walled city. Stop on the bridge before you walk through, then come back after dark, when the gate is lit.
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Eight kilometres of path follow a ruined wall across Malta's central ridge from a country church above Baħrija. The first five stay high on the ridge, then the path drops into Mosta for the bus home.
Read the guideYou walk through the home of one collector here, a medieval house in Mdina where Captain Olof Gollcher lived among the objects now on show.
Read the guideAcross Archbishop's Square from St Paul's Cathedral, a former seminary holds the cathedral's treasury and one of Malta's best collections of religious art.
Read the guideThree floors of Malta's rocks, fossils, birds and sea creatures fill Palazzo Vilhena, the baroque palace that stands at Mdina Gate.
Read the guideWalk into hangars on the old RAF airfield at Ta' Qali and stand beside a Spitfire and a Hurricane of the kind that defended Malta in the Second World War.
Read the guideThere are two halves to this Naxxar palazzo, still in private hands: the state rooms and the walled baroque garden. Give the garden equal time, because Malta's geology and climate make formal gardens this size rare.
Read the guideTa' Qali's craft village below Mdina is where glassblowers and filigree goldsmiths have their workshops, and you can buy from the person who made the piece.
Read the guideWalking the President's palace garden at Attard takes you past old trees, ponds and roaming peacocks, in one of the few mature green spaces on an island that is mostly stone.
Read the guideStanding in this old Mosta quarry, you see where building stone was lifted out and where the Roman dead were laid, in tombs and catacombs cut into the same rock.
Read the guideFriars still occupy this Baroque priory on Villegaignon Street, and part of it opens as a museum.
Mdina's second gate pierces the southwest walls, a short walk from the main entrance and much quieter. A carved stone arch and a sloping passage beneath the walls lead out toward Rabat.
Orange trees, statues and benches fill this public garden along Mdina's landward walls, from the Saqqajja bus stop up to the city gate. It takes its name from Joseph Howard, Malta's first prime minister.
Allegorical statues of Justice and Mercy decorate the balcony of Mdina's old courthouse, above the motto Legibus et Armis. Built in the French Baroque style in the 1720s, it now houses the local council.
A small, quiet square inside the walled city of Mdina, with an old well standing at its centre.
Ornate carving covers this small Belle Époque clubhouse on Saqqajja Hill, just outside Mdina's walls.
Known in English as Honey Valley, this valley north of Mosta cuts through the Victoria Lines, with walking paths and vistas along its length.
Perched over a cave at the edge of Mosta, this chapel of 1760 overlooks the Speranza Valley, which takes its name from the building.
Spread over part of a wartime RAF airfield in central Malta, this large public park has formal gardens, shaded picnic lawns, nature trails and a children's adventure area.
Fabrizio Grech built this Baroque country house in Attard in 1745, and the family still lives here.
Tommaso Dingli's church of 1613 to 1624 is regarded as the finest Renaissance church in Malta, and it has kept its original design apart from a later belfry and sacristies.
Mattia Preti painted the Transfiguration over the altar of Lija's Baroque parish church in 1698, and two more of his canvases, St Luke and St Matthew, hang here too. Giovanni Barbara designed the building, begun in 1694.
Marble tomb slabs cover the cathedral floor, and the museum across the square holds Dürer woodcuts.
In this cathedral you look across a floor of coloured marble tomb slabs, on the spot where tradition says the Roman governor Publius met St Paul after his shipwreck.
Read the guideAcross Archbishop's Square from St Paul's Cathedral, a former seminary holds the cathedral's treasury and one of Malta's best collections of religious art.
Read the guideFriars still occupy this Baroque priory on Villegaignon Street, and part of it opens as a museum.
Cross the bridge at Mdina Gate, then leave by the quieter Greeks' Gate.
From this terrace at Mdina's northern tip you look across the fields and villages of central Malta to the sea, the width of the island in one view.
Read the guideCarved with the arms of Grand Master Vilhena and of Mdina, and a Latin date, this gate is the main way into the walled city. Stop on the bridge before you walk through, then come back after dark, when the gate is lit.
Read the guideMdina's second gate pierces the southwest walls, a short walk from the main entrance and much quieter. A carved stone arch and a sloping passage beneath the walls lead out toward Rabat.
Orange trees, statues and benches fill this public garden along Mdina's landward walls, from the Saqqajja bus stop up to the city gate. It takes its name from Joseph Howard, Malta's first prime minister.
A collector's medieval house, a baroque palace at the gate and small squares in between.
You walk through the home of one collector here, a medieval house in Mdina where Captain Olof Gollcher lived among the objects now on show.
Read the guideThree floors of Malta's rocks, fossils, birds and sea creatures fill Palazzo Vilhena, the baroque palace that stands at Mdina Gate.
Read the guideFriars still occupy this Baroque priory on Villegaignon Street, and part of it opens as a museum.
Allegorical statues of Justice and Mercy decorate the balcony of Mdina's old courthouse, above the motto Legibus et Armis. Built in the French Baroque style in the 1720s, it now houses the local council.
A small, quiet square inside the walled city of Mdina, with an old well standing at its centre.
Ornate carving covers this small Belle Époque clubhouse on Saqqajja Hill, just outside Mdina's walls.
From Bastion Square the view runs over the fields to Mosta's dome.
From this terrace at Mdina's northern tip you look across the fields and villages of central Malta to the sea, the width of the island in one view.
Read the guideEight kilometres of path follow a ruined wall across Malta's central ridge from a country church above Baħrija. The first five stay high on the ridge, then the path drops into Mosta for the bus home.
Read the guideYou walk through the home of one collector here, a medieval house in Mdina where Captain Olof Gollcher lived among the objects now on show.
Read the guideKnown in English as Honey Valley, this valley north of Mosta cuts through the Victoria Lines, with walking paths and vistas along its length.
Perched over a cave at the edge of Mosta, this chapel of 1760 overlooks the Speranza Valley, which takes its name from the building.
Mosta's dome, Spitfires at Ta' Qali and palace gardens in the towns below.
A German bomb fell through this dome in Mosta during a wartime Mass and did not explode, and you stand directly beneath it. It is one of the largest unsupported church domes in Europe.
Read the guideEight kilometres of path follow a ruined wall across Malta's central ridge from a country church above Baħrija. The first five stay high on the ridge, then the path drops into Mosta for the bus home.
Read the guideWalk into hangars on the old RAF airfield at Ta' Qali and stand beside a Spitfire and a Hurricane of the kind that defended Malta in the Second World War.
Read the guideThere are two halves to this Naxxar palazzo, still in private hands: the state rooms and the walled baroque garden. Give the garden equal time, because Malta's geology and climate make formal gardens this size rare.
Read the guideTa' Qali's craft village below Mdina is where glassblowers and filigree goldsmiths have their workshops, and you can buy from the person who made the piece.
Read the guideWalking the President's palace garden at Attard takes you past old trees, ponds and roaming peacocks, in one of the few mature green spaces on an island that is mostly stone.
Read the guideStanding in this old Mosta quarry, you see where building stone was lifted out and where the Roman dead were laid, in tombs and catacombs cut into the same rock.
Read the guideKnown in English as Honey Valley, this valley north of Mosta cuts through the Victoria Lines, with walking paths and vistas along its length.
Perched over a cave at the edge of Mosta, this chapel of 1760 overlooks the Speranza Valley, which takes its name from the building.
Spread over part of a wartime RAF airfield in central Malta, this large public park has formal gardens, shaded picnic lawns, nature trails and a children's adventure area.
Fabrizio Grech built this Baroque country house in Attard in 1745, and the family still lives here.
Tommaso Dingli's church of 1613 to 1624 is regarded as the finest Renaissance church in Malta, and it has kept its original design apart from a later belfry and sacristies.
Mattia Preti painted the Transfiguration over the altar of Lija's Baroque parish church in 1698, and two more of his canvases, St Luke and St Matthew, hang here too. Giovanni Barbara designed the building, begun in 1694.
Walk in over the bridge at Mdina Gate, and turn round once you are through the arch to see the carving on the inner face. The palace on your right is the National Museum of Natural History, and the narrow streets ahead lead to Cathedral Square.
One ticket covers St Paul's Cathedral and the Mdina Cathedral Museum, with one entry to each. Buy it at the museum, a few metres from the cathedral door, and see the Dürer woodcuts there before or after the nave.
Palazzo Falson takes its last visitors at 16:00, so go there first if you arrive after lunch. Bags go into a free locker at reception, and the café on the roof looks out over the island.
End the afternoon at Bastion Square on the walls. The big dome on the horizon is the Rotunda of Mosta, and on a clear day the view runs on to Valletta and Sliema on the coast.
Rabat starts outside the gate. Walk to the Roman mosaics at Domvs Romana or down into St Paul's Catacombs, then come back to Mdina after dark, when the gate is lit and the streets sit under amber lamps.
The dates that fill Mdina and the roads below its walls.
Pre-1985 race cars run a closed circuit below the walls. The hill climb and the show before the racing are free.
Pick a summer Sunday in Malta and a parish is likely to be carrying its saint through decorated streets behind a band.
Malta has one airport, at Luqa, southeast of Mdina. Two Airport Direct bus routes run from it to Rabat, outside the gate.
Airport Direct leaves from the airport bus terminal, signposted once you exit arrivals. Get off in Rabat and walk up through Howard Gardens to the gate. Pay on board by cash or contactless card, and there is room for suitcases.
Buy a fixed-fare ticket at the booth in the Welcomers' Hall. Cars stop outside the walls, so ask a hotel inside them how your bags reach the door.
Request the car once you land, then walk to the pickup point the app shows outside arrivals. Bolt sometimes moves that point, so check the app again as you leave the terminal.
Every Malta town, place and dispatch, on one map.
Hotels, bars and a long seafront promenade fill Buġibba and Qawra, the resort strip on the north side of St Paul's Bay.
Walk down from Buskett Road through tree cover unlike anywhere else on Malta to a shaded valley floor of citrus groves.
On a ridge above a sandy bay, this hilltop town is the base for the northern beaches, the boats to Comino and the Gozo ferry at Ċirkewwa.
The official pages this guide was checked against.
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