Mdina

Mdina is the old capital of the island of Malta, a hilltop fortified city in the centre of the island that was originally founded around 700 BCE by Phoenician traders who chose the elevated position for defensive advantage and named it from the Semitic root for city — a name that survives, substantially altered by millennia of linguistic change, as the modern toponym. The city became the Roman capital of Malta and its administrative centre through antiquity and the medieval period, retaining that function until the construction of Valletta in the 1570s under Grand Master Jean de la Valette, after which the seat of government moved to the new fortified port city and Mdina's political importance declined sharply. The city was substantially rebuilt after a devastating earthquake in 1693 that destroyed much of the original medieval structure, giving the present-day city its predominantly Baroque character — elegant stone facades, church squares and a street plan that reflects centuries of organic settlement rather than a single planned grid, unlike the military rationality of Valletta's streets.

The Vilhena Gate — the main northern gate — was built in the early 18th century in a French-inspired neoclassical style and sets a monumental tone for what lies within, a decorative excess that contrasts sharply with the plain limestone walls of the fortifications themselves. Inside the gate, narrow lanes lined with limestone buildings dating largely from the 18th and 19th centuries open into small squares and unexpected vistas that reward walking without a fixed route, and the city is noticeably cooler and quieter than the surrounding modern towns. The city is sometimes called the Silent City because of its relative quiet — cars are restricted to a very small number and the streets are used mainly by residents on foot or on bicycles, giving the city a quality of atmosphere quite unlike anywhere else on the island. Most buildings within the old city walls are private residences, many belonging to old Maltese families whose names appear throughout the island's history, and several have small museums or galleries open to visitors.

The city walls themselves date mainly from the Arab period in the 9th and 10th centuries and were reinforced and extended by the Normans in the 11th and 12th centuries, with their highest points commanding panoramic views across the island to the sea in every direction — a circuit of the ramparts on foot takes less than an hour and gives one of the best introductions to the city's layered history of construction and modification over more than two thousand years of continuous occupation.

The city's near-total quiet and restriction of cars give it an atmosphere unlike any other town on Malta, an unusual quality that is immediately perceptible on entering.

The stratigraphy of the walls — Arab, Norman, Baroque and later periods visible in a single circuit — makes the rampart walk a compressed course in Maltese history.

The contrast with Valletta's military grid and Baroque formality gives Mdina's organic medieval plan a distinctly different character that rewards comparison.