On day three of our recent Valletta trip we decided to visit the ancient walled city Mdina (m-dee-na). It is Malta’s former capital and lies high on terraced fields, dominating the island’s surrounding skyline. If you feel some ‘Game of Thrones’ vibes upon entering through city gate, that’s because the gate and other locations featured in season one of the popular series…welcome to King’s Landing…
In the GoT series Mdina city gate represents one of the entraces of King’s Landing.
Mdina is easily accessible by bus and the ride takes about half an hour, depending on traffic, dropping you off at the garden opposite the entrance gate.
Through course of history Mdina went by different other names: it was founded ‘Maleth’ by the Phoenicians and renamed ‘Melite’ by the Romans after the honey the island was famous for. Under rule of the knights of Order of St John activities switched to the newly built Valletta and Mdina therefore lost its capital status.
The current and still used name is derived from the Arab word ‘medina’, though it also goes by its nickname ‘The Silent City’ and ‘Citta’ Notabile’, with the latter probably the most accurate to this date: the noble families that once lived within city walls are replaced by about 300 noble and lucky inhabitants with security cameras closely monitoring the entering cars and their drivers.
St-Pauls Cathedral is a baroque church dedicated to apostle Paul. Under each bell tower is a clock: the right one being a normal one telling time, the left one showing date and month, though legend says the two clocks were to confuse the devil. The church was destroyed during the Sicilian earthquake of 1693 and had to be rebuilt completely.
Meanwhile some mingling with the locals…
Another GoT filming location, Littlefinger’s brothel…
No walled city nowadays without souvenir shops…Mdina is famous for its glass, used in jewelry and deco items…
We had lunch at Trattoria 1530, part of the Xara Palace Relais&Chateaux hotel and located in one Mdina’s lovely picturesque squares…by the way, can you spot our little lunch companion?
re-fueled we again hit the winding and narrow streets…
Charming Mdina is rightfully on UNESCO’s World Heritage tentatives (the waiting) list.
Join me next time for the final part in this Valletta-series where I’ll take you around a fun ‘Three Cities’ tour.
Ingrid
xxx
for part one of this blog series covering Valletta itself click here Valletta 2018: the culture trip
The Back Road Chronicles 