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Ninety seconds on Mysterium Fidei
Cloistered nuns of the Second Order of Saint Augustine. The museum's own site describes them as probably the last generation of nuns to carry on the monastery's legacy.
In 2023. That year the cloisters, garden and crypt beneath St Catherine's Monastery opened to the public as the Mysterium Fidei museum, run by Hidden Valletta, which also runs the Black Friars Experience.
Every day of the week, public holidays included, with no weekly closing day. Last entry comes half an hour before the doors shut, and the times are listed on the museum's own site.
Yes. The Multi Ticket gives a discounted entrance to both Mysterium Fidei and the Valletta Black Friars Experience at St Dominic’s Priory, and it is sold online through the official site.
It is about a three-minute walk, according to the museum's own website. The monastery lies in the paved part of St Christopher Street, which keeps the approach simple on foot.
Yes. The museum takes group bookings through its office during office hours, by phone on +356 7746 7061 or +356 7708 3138, or by email to info@hiddenvalletta.com, so a group visit is arranged before arrival.
Going underground beneath a working Valletta convent takes you into the old stone quarry where its cloistered nuns lived and worked, now a run of rooms open to visitors.
Mysterium Fidei is the underground complex beneath St Catherine's Monastery, in the middle of Valletta. The museum fills the basement of the three-storey building, and everything on the route sits below street level.
The building's stone was quarried from beneath the site itself, and that open quarry became the chambers you walk through today. They form a labyrinth of ribbed vaulted rooms.
Between the rooms lies a peaceful central garden. The complex also holds the old ovens and the nuns' undisturbed burial place.
The nuns of this house vowed to live shut away from the city outside until death. The audio tour takes you through the rooms they used for work and prayer.
On the paved stretch of St Christopher Street, signs point you to the door, which stands between Republic Street and Strait Street, opposite the Barrister Hotel. Tickets are sold online through the museum's own site and at the reception desk, which usually has no queue.
The audio tour plays through the free Mysterium Fidei app on your own phone, in ten languages. The app's built-in code reader moves you from one location to the next.
If you would rather not listen, notice boards in each area explain what you are looking at, so you can read your way round instead.
Download the app before you arrive, so it is set up and ready when you reach the desk. Inside, the walls are thick enough to block the Wi-Fi in places, and the QR codes do not always load there.
Where that happens, read the boards for that room instead.
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