Mdina

Mdina, town, west-central Malta, adjoining Rabat, west of Valletta. Possibly Bronze Age in origin, it has Punic, Greek, and Roman ruins. The name derives from the Arabic word madīnah (“town,” or “city”). It was also named Notabile in the 15th century, possibly by the Castilian rulers who made it the Maltese capital until the mid-16th century, when Valletta, the new capital, was nearly completed; thereafter it received the appellation of Città Vecchia (“Old City”). Mdina retains intact its remarkable fortifications with a complete set of bastions and contains several 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century palaces. Its chief building is the Baroque cathedral church of Malta (restored after a devastating earthquake in 1693), said to occupy the site of the house of the Roman governor Publius, whose father was cured by the Apostle Paul. Beneath both Mdina and Rabat are catacombs, partly pre-Christian, showing early Christian burials. Some damage occurred during World War II, but the city retains its medieval atmosphere. Pop. (2007 est.) 239.