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Rabat and Mdina
October 2013 28 |
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Mdina and Rabat go back at least the Phoenicians, who built a fortress named "Malet" in this place. Later, the Romans had their settlement Melita in this place. When Malta was Arabic, part of the city was fortified, and this part is current Mdina (Arabic for fortified town), while the rest became Rabat (Arabic for suburb). Upon arrival, the knights of St. John moved their residence to the coast, while Mdina and Rabat remained the seat of the local aristocracy.
Mdina is more a tourist attraction than an actual town – visitors can't enter by car, and there are not a lot of residents. Businesses are the typical tourist businesses. Mdina also has the Malta cathedral, St. Paul's, which is actually only half of a cathedral, since the bishop has two of them – the other in Valletta.
Rabat, in contrast, is a normal town. The center (adjacent to Mdina) is medieval as well, but it has suburbs of all ages, it has the normal set of shops and other businesses that serve locals, and has modern streets with cars on them.
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This page has been created on Sunday 12. April 2015 from galleries.xml using galleries.xsl.