Mqabba, where Malta's stone comes from

Almost every building you see in Malta owes something to villages like this one. Visit Malta puts Mqabba at the heart of the island’s limestone quarries, some still being worked, others long abandoned and turned into fields and orchards. To see how that stone is actually worked, the Limestone Heritage Park tells the story in a restored quarry, with an audio guide in 17 languages. Mqabba isn’t a tourist village, but it has a couple of things I’d stop for.

A small village in quarry country

The NSO counted 3,734 residents at the end of 2025, only 284 of them foreign. That’s the fourth-lowest share of any locality in Malta, and you can feel it. Visit Malta mentions a village core with carved stone façades and balconies that recall Moorish and Spanish styles.

Its history is bound up with the airfield next door. Visit Malta and the local council both say that being so close to the airport cost Mqabba badly in the Second World War, including damage to the parish church, which was rebuilt almost as it had been apart from the dome.

Ta’ Mintna, the catacombs hardly anyone sees

On the southern edge of the village are the Ta’ Mintna Catacombs, three hypogea that began as separate burial places and were linked up much later so they could be used as a well. Heritage Malta says A. A. Caruana climbed down that well in 1860 with Captain Strickland, and that the central hypogeum still has a triclinium cut into the rock, a table for commemorative meals, with two rows of lamp-holes facing it. The side chambers stand out for the carving on some of the tombs.

The catch is simple. It’s a closed site you can only enter by appointment, accompanied by Heritage Malta staff, arranged by email. Its 2026 calendar includes an open day in October, but I couldn’t make out the exact date in the document, so check with them first. If this sort of place is your thing, I’ve covered the rest in catacombs in Malta.

Four churches in a few streets

St Basil’s is the one that draws me most. The council describes it as one of the 30 medieval churches left on the islands and the only one dedicated to that saint. It was extended three times, last in 1515, and it’s rectangular, with pointed arches and a rose window showing Siculo-Norman influence. It served as Mqabba’s first parish church when the village won that status on 16 September 1595, and its feast is now kept on 2 January.

The present parish church of the Assumption was begun in 1699 and finished in 1774 with the villagers’ own labour; according to the council, they worked unpaid on Sundays in return for wine, bread or cheese. Opposite stands St Catherine’s, from 1764, with a circular interior, and a little further off Our Lady of Sorrows, ringed by palms and olive trees, where Mass is said in the square on 15 September.

Getting there

From Valletta, the 74 heads through Ħamrun, Marsa, Luqa and Mqabba, so it’s easy to hop off on the way south. Heritage Malta puts the nearest stop to Ta’ Mintna five minutes’ walk away. Beds are scarce, with just six holiday lets on the MTA register. I’d pair it with Żurrieq and Qrendi, both a stone’s throw away.