The best museums Mdina

With its two bell towers and dome, the cathedral, dedicated to Saint Paul and Saint Peter, is located where Saint Paul is said to have converted the Roman governor Publius, who later became the first bishop of Malta, to Christianity. Originally, there was a small church there, dating from the 4th century, which Roger of Sicily had enlarged when he arrived in 1090, and you can still see the old wooden door of the time, now integrated into the current building and leading to the sacristy. Enlarged in the 15th century, the church was entirely rebuilt by Lorenzo Gafà after the earthquake of 1693, then consecrated a cathedral in 1702 and dedicated to Saint Paul. The monumental façade, with its mixture of vertical and horizontal lines, is in the purest Baroque Romanesque style. It is flanked by the coat of arms of the great masters Perellos y Roccaful and Palmieri. Like the Saint-Paul de La Valette cocathedral, its floor is covered with marble slabs from the tombs of great masters and other personalities, the most recent dating from 1996. It is located to the right of the cathedral, in Saint Paul Street.

Inside, during the visit, special mention should be made of the baptismal font, to the left of the main entrance door, the entrance door to the sacristy and a very beautiful painting by Mattia Preti. Be careful, during the visit, to follow the progress of the booklet, you must leave from the central entrance door of the cathedral and not from the one of the visit.

The cathedral museum. Baroque in style, you will find exposed Dürer's woodcuts, religious paintings and ancient scores of sacred music. Just next door is the 18th century Archbishops' Palace, built on the site of a 14th century building.

Here is another visit that will allow you to discover the history of Mdina, by visiting the old cellars that were used to store gunpowder. It took five years of work to create the 120 or so life-size, life-like paintings that evoke the mythical lives of the knights of the Order of Malta. It is a sort of two-dimensional Grévin museum. Explanations given in five languages including French.

This historic museum, with an architecture dating back to the xiiith century, is the best preserved of all medieval buildings in Mdina, located in the heart of the old town. This remains able to capture the history between xiiith and twentieth century. With its lovely garden, the second oldest building in the city belonged once to Captain Olof Frederick Gollcher, artist, philanthropic and scholar of the first half of the twentieth century. A splendid collection of art objects that includes baroque paintings, antique furniture, silverware, jewelry, weapons, gust watches (including a single revolutionary French watch), etc., etc. Audio tour in French possible, at your pace, by choosing your comments. On the roof of the museum you will find a magnificent panoramic view of the surrounding capital and fortress.

At the entrance to the old town, to the right of the main gate, the museum is housed in the Palacio de Vilhena, a large Baroque building of local limestone, with a sculpted pedimented entrance. The museum was inaugurated in June 1973. It is divided into different sections, highlighting local ecosystems such as the small islands exhibition, Maltese geology and paleontology (fossils), mammals, the marine section, skeletons, reptiles, human evolution, molluscs and birds. The museum houses over 1,000,000 specimens, from microscopic animals to whale bones. It is also a research center for local and foreign students of natural history.
The Palazzo Vilhena, before the earthquake of 1693, was the seat of the Università, the local government. Rebuilt in a superb Baroque style, it became the summer residence of Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena. This is the only building in Mdina built by the Knights of Malta. During the British period, it served as a military hospital. From 1909 to 1956, it served as a hospital for tuberculosis patients. It has been completely renovated and, if natural history isn't your favorite theme, you can always visit the building itself. The Corte Capitanale and adjacent rooms are no longer part of the museum, having been handed over to the local council of Mdina.