St Paul's Grotto and the Wignacourt Museum, beneath Rabat's parish church

St Paul’s Grotto is where, by Maltese tradition, Christianity on the island begins. It’s a cave beneath Rabat’s parish church, visited through the Wignacourt Museum, which turns out to be far more interesting than its name suggests. I’d come for the grotto and stay for everything else.

The apostle’s cave

The Acts of the Apostles tell how St Paul was shipwrecked on Malta on his way to trial in Rome. The Wignacourt Museum records the tradition that, during his three months on the island in AD 60, he lived in this cave and preached from it. That made the grotto a place of worship and pilgrimage early on. The museum lists some of its better-known visitors, among them John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Fabio Chigi, later Pope Alexander VII, and Admiral Lord Nelson in 1800.

What you see today is a cave with a statue of St Paul donated by Grand Master Pinto in 1748 and a silver vessel made in 1960 for the 1,900th anniversary of the shipwreck. My honest view is that the grotto on its own says little unless you arrive with faith or with the story already read, which is why I’m telling you before you go down.

A Spanish hermit and the Knights

The grotto’s later history has a Spanish lead. According to the museum, the hermit Juan Benegas de Córdoba arrived in 1600, bought the land above it and used it as a base to spread devotion to the saint. In 1617 he handed it to the Order of St John, which saw in it both a religious and a political asset. Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt then founded a college of chaplains to look after the grotto day and night.

That same year, 1617, the Sanctuary of St Publius was added to St Paul’s Church, dedicated to the Roman governor who, by tradition, became Malta’s first bishop. The museum tells a story I love. The two churches share a façade, and Buonamici, its architect, made the two doorways equally grand to avoid stoking the rivalry between the Church and the Order, so most people assume it’s a single building.

The Wignacourt Museum, from the bottom up

The museum building, completed in 1749, was the residence of the Knights’ chaplains. It’s on three levels, and I’d work from the bottom up.

Underground is a warren of Punic, Roman and Christian hypogea, part of the same cemetery as St Paul’s Catacombs, and a set of Second World War shelters with around fifty rooms, where about 350 people sheltered. The museum explains that the government dug the main corridors and each family paid to have its own room cut, which is why they’re numbered. For me it’s the best part of the visit, because it makes the Maltese experience of the war very real. For the wider story, see Malta in the Second World War.

On the ground floor is the garden, with the old refectory and an oven that, according to the museum, turned out more than 2,000 loaves a day for the people of Rabat during the war. On the first floor is the picture gallery, with works by Mattia Preti, Antoine Favray and Francesco Zahra, silver from the 17th to the 19th centuries, a wooden portable altar used for Mass aboard the Order’s galleys, and a Baroque chapel.

Tickets and opening hours

Adults pay €6, over-61s and students aged 12 and over, and €3.50 for children aged 7 to 11; under-7s go free. The audio guide is €2 extra. The museum opens every day from 09:30 to 17:00, with last admission at 16:00. Its website isn’t dated, so I’d confirm prices and times on arrival. The museum describes itself as a Quality Assured Visitor Attraction, and among the more curious exhibits it lists a replica of the Turin Shroud and Cosmana Navarra’s death mask, the noblewoman who paid for St Paul’s Church.

How to combine it

It’s on Parish Square, off College Street, in the middle of Rabat. The museum and the catacombs are close neighbours, part of the same ancient cemetery, which is handy if you’re doing both on foot. I’d do the catacombs at opening, then the grotto and museum, and Mdina in the afternoon, once the coach parties have gone.