Mdina
was the original capital city of Malta until 1530. The city is a
walled fortress in the north central part of the island. We spent the
afternoon there.
The entrance to the city was
across a drawbridge and through the main gate. There were quite a few
tourists around this area. We opted to take a horse and carriage tour
so that we could get the general lay of the land. I think for us this
was a good choice. At some points I was surprised that the carriage
could actually fit along the very narrow streets. We saw one man almost
get stepped on by the horse and another woman almost got run over by
the back wheel of the carriage. Later, we retraced some of this route
on foot, always being careful to listen to the clattering hooves of any
horse approaching from behind us.
Of particular
interest were the two clocks of St. Paul’s Cathedral. This church was
competed in 1702, replacing a medieval version which had been destroyed
by an earthquake. It is believed that the cathedral was built on the
site of the villa belonging to Publius, the Roman governor of Malta who
was in charge when St. Paul was shipwrecked on the nearby shores.
However, the clocks were a sign of modern day culture in that they both
showed the same time. In days of old, two clocks on the church face
were set at different times in order to confuse the devil as to the
presence of the faithful.
We climbed the
steps to the top of the city wall which was the lookout at the highest
point of the island. It was too high for me to see anything, but Lyle
could see the waters of the Mediterranean in the distance.
Our
horse and carriage tour took us past two of the other gates of the city
- the English and the Greek gates. The island of Malta is a mix of so
many different cultures. The city itself predates Stonehenge and the
Egyptian pyramids. There is so much history wrapped up in this one
site.
There are four pictures with this post.
Picture 1 - Sue standing on the drawbridge of the main Mdina gate.
Picture 2 - Our horse and carriage.
Picture 3 - The two clocks at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Picture 4- Sue on one of the very narrow and steep streets.
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