The Magisterial Palace at Mdina, Palazzo Vilhena is a glorious example of Charles Francois de Mondion’s French Baroque remodelling of Mdina. Originally serving as the Universita’, or local Government, Vilhena Palace now serves as Malta’s National History Museum.
Priests, especially in the Christian tradition, are rarely militant or warmongering. Even in the days of the Crusades, priests were not at the front doing the fighting. So why did Roman Catholic priests revolt in Malta in the late eighteenth century? In 1773 Malta was ruled by the Knights of St John. The island had […]
The background of wayside chapels that dot the Maltese and Gozitan countryside is much more complex and fascinating than their simple structures might suggest.
In my view, the Xagħra Twins figurine found on the Maltese island of Gozo epitomizes a belief system steeped in gender equality that fostered a harmony with nature to create a sustainable regenerative environment.
Valletta is an ornate and Baroque city built by the Knights of Malta, however one of its most famous historical buildings is in the Neo-Classical style which contrasts with the rest of the city. Welcome to Malta’s (Polish) National Library!
440 to 530AD was a bloody period as Germanic Vandals and Ostrogoths warred over southern Europe, however Byzantium’s 533AD victory over the Vandals in Sicily led to Byzantium ruling Malta for more than three centuries as an outlying guard and Muslim target.
Die Phönizier waren ein Seefahrervolk das ursprünglich aus dem Libanon stammte, das mit ihren Seereisen die Grenzen der damals bekannten Welt überschritt. Obwohl sie eine Schrift erfunden hatte, haben sie keine schriftlichen Aufzeichnung hinterlassen. Dank Töpferwaren und dem Entschlüsseln von verschlüsselten Nachrichten auf Maltas „cippus“ wissen wir mehr über dieses geheimnisvolle Volk. Naturkatastrophen fanden am […]
The cippi of Malta are to Phoenician script what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphics, the key to finally decoding the world’s first written script. The cippi (plural of cippus) of Malta are a pair of ornamental pillars with engravings dedicated to the god Melqart, the most important Phoenician god. Around the 4th century […]
Malta’s highest archaeological remains attributed to the Phoenician period are found in the garden of the parish priest’s house at Zurrieq. Several courses of well-fitted sizable ashlar blocks, laid without mortar, form the two visible sides of a quadrangular structure. An Egyptian gorge cornice of roll and hollow moulding crowns these walls, the whole building […]
Set on a high coastal headland, visible from the sea and from other sites in Gozo and Malta, the Phoenician sanctuary at Ras il-Wardija was a landmark for boats sailing between the Malta and North Africa and is similar to magnificent Greek terrace sanctuaries..
This piece critically looks at the way ancient religion is, and can be (or cannot be), reconstructed on the islands of Malta and Gozo during the Phoenician and Punic periods
Même si nous savons que la période romaine fut mentionnée dans les archives romaines, et que la période arabe maltaise fut couverte par des historiens arabes à son tour, les siècles intermédiaires demeurent un mystère. Toutes les recherches d’informations sur les décennies de contrôle germanique, durant le siècle où Malte est passée de la domination […]
PHOENICIAN SETTLEMENT – HOW IT UNFOLDED IN MALTA* Claudia SAGONA Abstract: With fine harbours, central location and life sustaining provisions, the Maltese Archipelago may have played a significant role in the settlement of the western Mediterranean as a safe port of call. Stages in the colonisation process of the islands can be traced in the […]
The Majmuna Stone or Tombstone (in Maltese: il-Ġebla ta’ Majmuna), the tombstone of a girl called Majmuna, who died on 21 March 1174, is Malta’s most important Arab-period archaeological find,
It is rare that construction contributes positively to the preservation of Malta’s heritage, but on the 3rd of February 1881, a Public Works employee digging in the area known as it-Tomba, outside Mdina, unearthed a splendid mosaic pavement. Architect Luigi Emanuele Galizia, head of Public Works, investigated and the public was so excited by the […]
Many archaeological remains are found by chance, when digging for other reasons. The remains of Roman baths at Għajn Tuffieħa are such a case, discovered in 1929 during government works to use a fresh water spring to water fields in the area. This and other nearby springs might explain why the baths, which needed a […]
In his travel account ‘A Tour through Sicily and Malta’ published in London in 1773, Patrick Brydone provides us with a vivid account of his personal encounter with the Portuguese Grand Master Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca during the last years of his reign. “He has now been at the head of this singular little state […]
If there is one site in Malta that transcends the ages, it is that of San Pawl Milqi, the ruin of a prehistoric site, the largest Roman agricultural villa in Malta and the site of a Catholic church. This site overlooks Burmarrad plain, one of Malta’s most fertile valleys, however in Roman times it had […]
As early as the 16th century, France founded its first naval school in Malta gleaning all it could from the wealth of experience the chivalric Order of the Knights of St John had established here after Rhodes.
The Early Christian Remains at Tas-Silġ and San Pawl Milqi, Malta: a reconsideration of the archaeological evidence Mario Buhagiar The important remains at Tas-Silġ and San Pawl Milqi have since their investigation by an Italian Mission from the University of Rome, between 1963 and 1970, been generally regarded as important testimonies to early Christianity in […]
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