Mdina and Cathedral of St. Paul.
Personally, I like Mdina even more Malta and I will still be sure to come here. It was Mdina, and not Valletta was the ancient capital of Malta. And if you love the story, old temples - do not miss Mdin. It is in Mdina that the Cathedral of Malta is located - St. Paul. According to the legend, the apostle Paul was chance here, he was nailed by a storm. Although the temple of St. John (or as it is called in English St. John) in Mdina is also there.
How to get to Mdina.
Eccurias in MDINA are sold in all tourist centers. Buses 51, 52, 53 are from the bus station, 52, 53. And buses 202/203 are from Santia and Sant Julians. You can still get from the west coast of the 201 bus, but the line goes only to the discount. And from the airport is the express x3, but through Valletta. And the easiest way to go from course to the car. There are two ways (you then look at the map or by navigator). Parking is located in the west of the city.
Mdina - tourist city. On it or walk or riding trees (Karozzin). It has several expensive and prestigious hotels with a list of people who lived in them and titled persons, good restaurants of Maltese cuisine. But in general, here usually just come to walk or on a tour.
Mdina streets
History MDina.
Officially, the population of MDina 200-300 people. But of course it is not quite so. There is still a close adjacent slave. Mdina is ancient settlement on the hill in the middle of the island. This is the settlement and called Malta. The Romans surrounded both cities with a wall. During the Arab conquest at the end of the 9th century, the city was called Mdina - a fortress wall.
Norman those who came here in the 12th century strengthened the city. After the city survived in 1422 against the Turks, he received the honorable name "Città Notabile". It was the city of an ancient Norman aristocracy. Mdina - tourist city. On it or walk or riding trees (karozzin)
The Knights of the Maltese Order In 1530, at first, also chose this city with their first residence. But to defend Malta was more comfortable on the coast and therefore they left at the beginning of Birgu, and in 1571 they declared Valletta with their residence.
Cathedral of St. Paul in Mdina.
The Cathedral on the legend stands at the very place where the Apostle Paul met in the future first Bishop of Malta. The first cathedral as the surviving facade was Norman. Palazzo Falcon has been preserved near the Cathedral as Norman House is the rarest surviving sample of the Norman architecture.
Right-Norman home (old architecture of Mdina, before the earthquake, on the left - Baroque)
After a terrible earthquake of 1693, the architect Lorenzo Gafa still received an order to rebuild the old cathedral. In 1703, the Cathedral was consecrated and since then its role as a cathedral never challenged. This is a baroque, on the facade of Cinnovsky columns. Since 1816, he divided the role of the Cathedral with CO-Cathedral of St. John in Vallette. The sample of this cathedral was then built by many cathedrals in Malta: the dome-median and two towers on the facade.
The half of the cathedral is also made of marble grave plates, as in the heocaffeon. In the cathedral the font for baptism and many details are very dark Irish oak, which gives the cathedral of rigor and elegance. In the finishing a lot of marble, lamps from Venice, the organ of their France. But in general, the cathedral is darker and stricter.
The painting of the arches - the scene of the life of the apostles Peter and Paul and their executions, the shipwreck scenes of the Apostle Paul. On the Tuscan painting Madonna with a baby in a red dress, which is certainly not completely canonical and there is no explanation for this. In the Cathedral Museum a lot of Durera engravings. Among the pictures of the most famous Mattio Petati "Appeal of St. Paul".
