Mdina

Town in Malta, adjoining Rabat, 9 km/6 mi west of Valletta; population 420. It dates from Roman times, and was the capital of Malta until superseded by Valletta in 1570. The cathedral of St Paul, founded by the Normans in the 12th century, was rebuilt in baroque style after being ruined by an earthquake in 1693. There is a 16th–17th-century Carmelite church.

Mdina has numerous small stone palaces, their first floors lit by two-light windows of early Gothic form, dating from the end of the 15th century.