St Paul's Catacombs
Rock-cut Roman and Byzantine burial complex outside Mdina, the largest early Christian site in Malta.
The catacombs lie just outside the walls of Mdina, in what was the Roman town of Melite, where the law required burial beyond the city boundary. Cutting began in the late Punic and Roman periods and continued into Byzantine times, producing a network of galleries, shaft tombs, canopied graves and stepped chambers spread over more than two thousand square metres. Together with smaller hypogea nearby they form the earliest and largest surviving evidence of Christianity on the islands.
Distinctive features include circular agape tables carved from the living rock, where mourners took a commemorative meal, and window tombs framed by pillars. Symbols scratched or painted on the walls show that the same cemeteries served Christian, Jewish and pagan families. The site has a visitor centre explaining the burial customs, and a marked path leads between several of the underground complexes; in 2018 it became the first place in Malta to receive the European Heritage Label.
Highlights
- Rock-cut agape tables used for funerary meals
- Canopied and window tombs carved from the living rock
- Christian, Jewish and pagan burials side by side
- First site in Malta awarded the European Heritage Label
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