Mdina, the walled city that falls quiet in the late afternoon

Mdina is the place in Malta that best keeps the look of an old city, and I say that knowing how built-up the island is. Walls, narrow lanes of honey-coloured stone, palaces with coats of arms over the doors and hardly anyone living inside. The NSO counted 201 residents at the end of 2025, which makes it the smallest locality in the country, one of my favourite Malta facts. It’s one of my favourite visits in Malta, as long as you pick your moment.

From Roman Melite to the Silent City

Long before Valletta existed, this was where the island was run from. Dingli’s local council puts it neatly, reminding readers that until the Middle Ages the centre of Malta was Rabat and then Mdina, not the coast. In Roman times the two were a single town, Melite, much larger than today’s walled city, and Heritage Malta places the cemetery now visited as St Paul’s Catacombs just outside its walls.

What survives inside is mostly Baroque. The 1693 earthquake damaged a great many buildings and the cathedral was rebuilt almost from scratch. In 1724 Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena ordered the palace that still bears his name, designed by the Frenchman Charles François de Mondion. Malta Public Transport uses the nickname everyone uses, the Silent City, and UNESCO has had Mdina on Malta’s Tentative List since 1998, though it isn’t inscribed.

What to see inside the walls

Mdina Cathedral, dedicated to St Paul, fills the main square. Lorenzo Cafà designed it after the earthquake and it was consecrated in 1703. It’s the seat of the Archbishop of Malta, and the €15 ticket includes the museum in the former seminary next door. Of everything that charges admission in Mdina, this is the one I’d choose.

Palazzo Falson is my other recommendation. It’s a 13th-century house that a collector, Captain Olof Gollcher, filled with furniture, arms, paintings and silver, and it has been a historic house museum since 2007. It costs €12.50 and includes an audio guide.

Palazzo Vilhena, home to the National Museum of Natural History, charges €5 and holds over 12,000 bird and mammal specimens, which makes it a decent shout with children. The city also has the Mdina Dungeons, a walk-through in the dark with mannequins that I’d file under entertainment rather than history.

When is the best time to visit Mdina?

Most visitors time it badly. Mdina is small and most organised groups arrive in the same morning window, so the main streets are busiest exactly when it’s hottest. I’d go late in the afternoon. The cathedral closes at 16:30 and Palazzo Falson’s last entry is 16:00, so if you want both, do them around midday and stay on to wander afterwards.

Staying overnight is the other answer. The MTA register lists just one hotel in Mdina, the five-star Xara Palace with 17 rooms, plus a single guesthouse. It isn’t cheap, but you get the city at night. If that’s beyond the budget, Rabat is next door with far more choice.

Buses, and where to park

From the Valletta terminus, five routes serve Rabat, numbered 50 to 53 plus the 56. Palazzo Falson suggests alighting in Rabat and strolling through Howard Gardens towards the Main Gate, the photo everyone wants. From the airport there’s the TD1, at €3.50, and route 214. For tickets and passes, see buses in Malta.

By car, don’t try to drive in. Parking is banned inside the walls, and the car parks are outside the Main Gate, outside Greeks’ Gate and by the Domvs Romana. Remember you’ll be driving on the left, as at home. With a hire car I’d put Mdina, Rabat and the Dingli Cliffs into the same day.

Mdina and Game of Thrones

The Main Gate appeared in Game of Thrones, and Malta Public Transport mentions it on its own page, which explains the queue for photos on the bridge. I like the gate more for what it is, a Baroque entrance to a medieval city, than for the series, but if the filming is what brought you here, it’s covered in Game of Thrones locations in Malta.

How I’d spend a day in Mdina and Rabat

I’d start in Rabat in the morning, visiting St Paul’s Catacombs and then the Domvs Romana, which open at 09:00. Around midday I’d walk up to Mdina for the cathedral and Palazzo Falson, and have lunch nearby. Then I’d keep the afternoon free for an aimless wander, finishing on Bastion Square looking out over the fields. With daylight to spare, the Dingli Cliffs make a fine sunset finale, not far by bus. If the British era interests you, Mtarfa, next to Mdina and Rabat, grew up around barracks built from 1890 onwards.