Mosta, the town of the dome and a bit more

Almost everyone comes to Mosta for the same thing, the enormous dome you can see from half the island, and almost everyone leaves without looking at anything else. Fair enough, since the Rotunda justifies the trip on its own. But Mosta is a big town, Malta’s third largest by population, and it hides a couple of extras worth the stop if the calendar plays along.

A big town in the middle of the island

The NSO counted 25,845 residents at the end of 2025, putting it behind only St Paul’s Bay and Birkirkara. It sits in the centre of Malta, halfway between Valletta and the north, which makes it a natural stop if you’re heading for Mellieħa or Ċirkewwa. Most people living here are Maltese, 21,102 against 4,743 foreign nationals, the opposite of neighbouring St Paul’s Bay.

The Rotunda and its bomb

The Basilica of St Mary, the Assumption, is the Rotunda everyone photographs. Work began in 1833 and dragged on for more than two decades, partly because the new church grew around the one it replaced. On Thursday 9 April 1942, during a raid by fifty bombers, a bomb pierced the dome at 16:40 and landed on the floor without exploding. The parish is keen to point out that no lives were lost and the building survived.

Measurements, opening times, the two ticket types and what you’ll see inside are all on my Mosta Rotunda page. I’ll just say that the full €8 ticket, which gets you onto the inner balcony of the dome, is the one I’d buy.

Ta’ Bistra, catacombs that open one Sunday a month

Halfway between ancient Melite and the old harbour at Salina, Heritage Malta looks after the Ta’ Bistra catacombs, which it describes as the largest set of tombs and catacombs beyond the confines of the ancient city. They were recorded in the late 1800s, investigated by Captain Charles Zammit in 1933, and part of the site was lost under the road down to Burmarrad.

There’s now a farmhouse visitor centre, a children’s area, plenty of parking and full wheelchair access. The catch is the timetable. They open only on the last Sunday of each month, 10:00 to 16:00, and adult entry is €5. If they interest you, I compare them with the others under catacombs in Malta.

The Victoria Lines fort

Mosta sits on the Great Fault, the natural barrier crossing the island north of Mdina. The British fortified it in the 19th century, and UNESCO’s Tentative List names three forts, Madliena in the east, Binġemma in the west and Mosta in the centre. When the line lost its military value in 1907, Mosta was the one fort that didn’t stay armed. What remains to see is covered on my Victoria Lines page.

Bidnija and its 500-year-old olives

Bidnija is one of the areas the Mosta parish counts as its own, and there Heritage Malta protects a small living treasure. It’s a grove of around twenty olive trees, legally protected since 1933, holding the oldest known specimens of the Bidni variety. Carbon dating of the oldest trunks puts them at about 500 years, and Heritage Malta says they carry a genetic signature of their own and resist pests that attack other olives. Next door, a joint project with the University of Malta is studying remains, possibly Roman, linked to oil production. The listing gives no clear visiting hours, so I’d check before going.

Magical Mosta on Tuesdays

The parish runs a full-day visit on Tuesdays, 10:30 to 15:30. It includes the Rotunda, the wartime shelter, an old farmhouse turned arts centre, the Speranza chapel in the valley of the same name, a guided walk round the old streets and a Maltese buffet at Dar Mustija, a house of 1800 that three siblings left to the parish in 1974. It’s €25 per adult, with under-12s free alongside an adult. On a first trip it’s a lot of time; on a return visit, with an appetite for village life, it’s a good day.

Getting there

The parish recommends five routes from the capital, listed in the fact box above, two from Mellieħa, the 41 and 44, and five more from the Qawra terminus. If you’re staying in St Paul’s Bay, Mosta is one bus away and easily done in a morning.