Mdina

Where it sits. Mdina stands on a limestone plateau close to the geographic centre of Malta, roughly 12 kilometres west of Valletta and about 150 metres above the sea. The site was chosen for its sightlines. From the northern bastions the land drops away across the full width of the island, so the dome of the Mosta Rotunda, the long ridge carrying the Victoria Lines, the inlets of St Paul's Bay and, in clear weather, the spires of Valletta all fall inside a single sweep of view. The walled city is small — a rough triangle of some nine hectares — and on its landward flank a deep rock-cut ditch separates it from Rabat, the town that was once its suburb. Almost everything above ground is honey-coloured globigerina limestone, cut from quarries within a few kilometres of where it now stands.

Three thousand years of capital. The plateau was settled in the Bronze Age, fortified by Phoenician settlers who knew it as Maleth, and enlarged by Rome into the municipium of Melite, a city perhaps three times the area of the present walls and reaching well into modern Rabat. The decisive change came after the Aghlabid conquest of 870. The new rulers pulled the perimeter back to the defensible tip of the plateau and cut the ditch that still divides the two towns; the shrunken citadel became medina, the walled city, and the excluded suburb became rabaḍ, hence Rabat. Norman, Angevin and Aragonese rule followed, and in 1428 the islanders bought back their freedom from feudal pledge, for which Alfonso V granted the city the title Città Notabile. When the Order of St John arrived in 1530 it chose the harbour at Birgu instead, and Mdina became the quiet seat of the Maltese nobility, the cathedral chapter and the town council.

The 1693 rupture. The earthquake that flattened south-eastern Sicily in January 1693 shook Mdina hard, bringing down the medieval cathedral and cracking much of the town. Reconstruction under Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena in the 1720s gave the city its second face. His French military engineer, Charles François de Mondion, rebuilt the whole south-eastern front: a new Baroque main gate in 1724, the Magisterial Palace on the square inside it, the Torre dello Standardo signal tower and the Corte Capitanale, the courthouse whose open loggia carries the motto Legibus et Armis. The result is the city's defining quality — a medieval street plan of deliberately crooked, shaded lanes wearing an eighteenth-century Baroque mask at its entrance.

Walking Villegaignon Street. The main spine runs from the gate to the northern bastions and takes about ten minutes on foot if nothing detains you. Casa Inguanez, seat of Malta's oldest titled family, sits near the start. Palazzo Santa Sofia carries a claim to be the oldest building in the city, its lower course traditionally dated 1233. Halfway along, the street opens into St Paul's Square before the cathedral, then narrows again past Palazzo Falson and the Carmelite priory, where in September 1798 the confiscation and auction of church property triggered the Maltese uprising against Napoleon's garrison. At the far end, Bastion Square gives the view, with a café terrace built into the parapet. Side lanes such as Mesquita Square and Triq is-Sur are worth the detour precisely because they lead nowhere.

The Silent City. Fewer than three hundred people live inside the walls. Vehicle access is restricted to residents, deliveries and weddings, so the dominant sounds are footsteps, church bells and the hooves of the karozzin horse cabs that wait outside the gate. The nickname earns itself twice a day: once in the early morning before the coaches arrive, and again after the last day-trippers leave, when the lamps come on and the limestone turns amber. Only a handful of buildings are open to the public — the cathedral and its museum, Palazzo Falson, the natural history museum and the Carmelite church — which means Mdina is experienced chiefly as a place to walk rather than to tour.

On screen. The first season of Game of Thrones used Mdina for the exteriors of King's Landing. The main gate and its bridge served as the city gate the royal party rides through, and the small enclosed square of Pjazza Mesquita appears in the street scenes around Littlefinger's establishment. Production moved to Croatia afterwards, which makes the Maltese footage a single-season curiosity, and the corner is still identifiable from the show.

Getting there and timing. Buses 51, 52 and 53 run from Valletta to Rabat in about 35 minutes; from the terminus it is a five-minute walk across Howard Gardens and over the ditch. Cars have to be left in Rabat. Spring and late autumn are the comfortable seasons; July and August combine heat with the thickest cruise-ship traffic. Evening visits are the reward, since the restaurants inside the walls stay open after the crowds have gone.