My Adventures 3

On Thursday 28th August 2025 we awoke at our hotel The Sunseeker Holiday Complex and went up to the rooftop for breakfast and pass the rooftop pool with seaviews.

We then walked to Bugibba Bus Terminal and caught the TD1 bus to Mdina.

On arrival we walked down to the Mdina Gate.

Mdina Gate also known as the Main Gate or the Vilhena Gate, is the main gate into the fortified city of Mdina, Malta. It was built in the Baroque style in 1724 to designs of Charles François de Mondion, during the magistracy of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena.

Inscription and Vilhena's coat of arms.

Mdina also known by its Italian epithets Città Vecchia ("Old City") and Città Notabile ("Notable City"), is a fortified city in the Western Region of Malta which was the island's capital from antiquity to the medieval period. The city has not spread beyond its ancient walls, and has a population of 250.

A natural redoubt, the area of the city has been inhabited since prehistory. A Phoenician colony known as Ann was established around the 8th century BC, sharing its name with the island and presumably acting as its capital. During the Punic Wars, the town was acquired by the Romans and renamed Melita after the Greek and Latin name for the island, probably taken from the Punic port at Cospicua on the Grand Harbour. Greco-Roman Melite was larger than present-day Mdina. It was reduced to its present size during the period of Byzantine or Arab rule.

Following a 9th-century massacre, the area was largely uninhabited until its refounding in the 11th century as Madīnah, from which the town's current name derives. Mdina then continued to serve as the capital of Malta until the arrival of the Order of St. John in 1530, who established their capital at Birgu instead. Mdina experienced a period of decline over the following centuries, although it saw a revival in the early 18th century during which several Baroque buildings were erected.

Mdina remained the centre of the Maltese nobility and religious authorities, and property largely continues to be passed down in families from generation to generation. The city has never regained the importance it had before 1530, giving rise to the popular nickname the "Silent City" among both locals and visitors.

Mdina, having largely maintained its medieval character, is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and has become one of the main tourist attractions in Malta.

The name of the city derives from the Arabic word madīnah (مدينة‎), meaning "town" or "city". The name Melite or Melita, associated with the former ancient settlement on the same site, has survived as the name of the island (Malta).

The plateau on which Mdina is built has been inhabited since prehistory, and by the Bronze Age it was a place of refuge since it was naturally defensible. The Phoenicians established a colony at the site, known as Ann after their name for the island, around the 8th century BC. The Roman Republic captured Malta in 218 BC, early in the Second Punic War. They continued to use Mdina as their centre of administration but renamed it Melita after the Greek and Latin name for the island, probably taken from the main Punic port on the Grand Harbour. The Punico-Roman city was about three times the size of present-day Mdina, extending into a large part of modern Rabat.

One of many horse and carts offering rides around Mdina or Rabat.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked on Malta in AD 60, greeted by its governor Publius, and miraculously cured the governor's sick father before leaving. Christian legend holds that the population of Malta then converted to Christianity, with Publius becoming Bishop of Malta and then Bishop of Athens before being martyred in 112.

Very few remains of the Punico-Roman city survive today. The most significant are the ruins of the Domus Romana, in which several well-preserved mosaics, statues and other remains were discovered. Remains of the podium of a Temple of Apollo, fragments of the city walls and some other sites have also been excavated.

At some point following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a retrenchment was built within the city, reducing it to its present size. This was done to make the city's perimeter more easily defensible, and similar reductions in city sizes were common around the Mediterranean region in the early Middle Ages. Although it was traditionally assumed that the retrenchment was built by the Arabs, it has been suggested that it was actually built by the Byzantine Empire in around the 8th century, when the threat from the Arabs increased.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint

Paul commonly known as St Paul's Cathedral or the Mdina Cathedral, is a Catholic cathedral in Mdina, Malta, dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle. The cathedral was founded in the 12th century, and according to tradition it stands on the site where Roman governor Publius met St. Paul following his shipwreck on Malta. The original cathedral was severely damaged in the 1693 Sicily earthquake, so it was dismantled and rebuilt in the Baroque style to a design of the Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafà between 1696 and 1705. The cathedral is regarded as Gafà's masterpiece.

In 870, Byzantine Melite, which was ruled by governor Amros (probably Ambrosios), was besieged by Aghlabids led by Halaf al-Hādim. He was killed in the fighting, and Sawāda Ibn Muḥammad was sent from Sicily to continue the siege following his death. The duration of the siege is unknown, but it probably lasted for some weeks or months. After Melite fell to the invaders, the inhabitants were massacred, the city was destroyed and its churches were looted. Marble from Melite's churches was used to build the castle of Sousse (Ribat of Sousse, Tunisia).

St Pauls Cathedral.

A relic of British rule in Malta, a red phone box, complete with a defibrillator.

According to tradition, the site of the Mdina cathedral was originally occupied by a palace belonging to Saint Publius, the Roman governor of Melite who greeted Paul the Apostle after he was shipwrecked in Malta. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul cured Publius' father and many other sick people on the island. Though there are remains of a Roman domus in the present crypt, and the tradition is a commonly believed legend, the version of event is not supported by archaeologists or historians. It is considered as part of a collection of Pauline mythologies in Malta.

The first cathedral which stood on the site is said to have been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, but it fell into disrepair during the Arab period (the churches in Melite were looted after the Aghlabid invasion in 870). In Arab times, as revealed by excavations, the site was used as a mosque.

We reached the Medieval Tavern in Triq Mesquita and I am desperate for the toilet.

Afterwards we have a Watermelon juice each, very refreshing.

Why Mdina was chosen:l for Game of Thrones.

For its atmosphere:

The ancient, timeless, and fortified atmosphere of Mdina made it a perfect fit for the fantasy world of Westeros.

For Minimal Changes:

The filmmakers made only minor, subtle changes to the existing landscape, such as adding rustic awnings and reddening the ground, to transform Mdina into King's Landing.

We visited the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady, Mdina, Malta.

The Church of the Annunciation also known as The Carmelite Church is a rich Baroque priory church of the Priory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel located in Mdina, Malta.

The interior is enriched with baroque sculpture and paintings by notable artists such as Mattia Preti, Stefano Erardi, Michele Bellanti and Giuseppe Calì. The ornately carved and gilded wooden frame around the titular painting is the work of Pietro Paolo Troisi, and the processional statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel the work of Maltese sculptor Andrea Imbroll.

A bit more browsing in the many souvenir shops.

We reach the Plaza de Bastion and the city walls.

The city walls were rebuilt a number of times, including by the Byzantine Empire in around the 8th century AD, the Arabs in around the 11th century, and the Kingdom of Sicily in the medieval period until the 15th century. Most of the extant fortifications were built by the Order of Saint John between the 16th and 18th centuries.

The city has withstood a number of sieges, and it was defeated twice – first by the Aghlabids in 870 and then by Maltese rebels in 1798. Today, the city walls are still intact except for some outworks, and they are among the best preserved fortifications in Malta. Mdina has been on Malta's tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998.

According to Al-Himyarī, Malta remained almost uninhabited until it was resettled in 1048 or 1049 by Muslims from Sicily and their slaves, who built a settlement called Madina on the site of Melite. Archaeological evidence suggests that the city was already a thriving Muslim settlement by the beginning of the 11th century, so 1048–49 might be the date when the city was officially founded and its walls were constructed. The layout of the new city was completely different to that of ancient Melite. Some aspects of present-day Mdina's layout, such as its narrow and maze-like streets, may still reflect the legacy of this period and share some similarities with historic North African medinas.

The Byzantines besieged Medina in 1053–54, but were repelled by its defenders. The city surrendered peacefully to Roger I of Sicily after a short siege in 1091, and Malta was subsequently incorporated into the County and later the Kingdom of Sicily, being dominated by a succession of feudal lords. A castle known as the Castellu di la Chitati was built on the southeast corner of the city near the main entrance, probably on the site of an earlier Byzantine fort.

In the 12th century, the town's fortifications were rebuilt and expanded. By this time, the city had also been reduced to around its present-day size. The area to the south that had formerly been part of Roman Melite, now situated outside the city walls, was turned into a suburb, present-day Rabat.

The population of Malta during the fifteenth century was about 10,000, with town life limited to Mdina, Birgu and the Gozo Citadel. Mdina was comparatively small and partly uninhabited and by 1419, it was already outgrown by its suburb, Rabat. Under Aragonese rule, local government rested on the Università, a communal body based in Mdina, which collected taxation and administered the islands' limited resources. At various points during the fifteenth century, this town council complained to its Aragonese overlords that the islands were at the mercy of the sea and the saracens.

The city withstood a siege by Hafsid invaders in 1429. While the exact number of casualties or Maltese who were carried into slavery is unknown, the islands suffered depopulation in this raid.

We leave Mdina and walk across the road to visit the town of Rabat.

We pass The Church of the Nativity of Our Lady, commonly known as ta' Ġieżu, is a Roman Catholic church in Rabat, Malta. The church was built in 1500 and it was enlarged in 1757. It is adjoined by a Franciscan convent.

The Franciscans opened their first friary in Malta in Rabat, having arrived on the islands in 1492. The church was built some years later in 1500. The first Hospitaller Grand Master in Malta, Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, had a room in the friary, and he died there in 1534. The room still exists and it has been restored. The church was enlarged in 1757 with the help of contributions from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It was dedicated on 31 October 1790.

We walk into Plaza San Pawl (St Pauls Square).

Just up from the square was St Cataldus Church with the catacombe beneath.

St Cataldus Church in Rabat, Malta is home to the St Cataldus Catacombs, a unique archaeological site dedicated to an obscure Irish saint. The catacombs are smaller than others but offer a fascinating glimpse into ancient history. Visitors can explore the well-preserved hypogeum beneath the 1745 chapel, featuring different types of tombs and a chamber called the Triclinum.

We walk about to look for something to eat, Mel is hungry but I still feel ill. We find a cafe on Triq Santa Rita. I manage some toast and water.