With an Ancient Roman house and hidden catacombs, Rabat is an interesting Maltese town.
Rabat, Malta, started out as Mdina’s suburb. Rabat even means “suburb” in Arabic. In fact, part of what now is today’s Rabat was once Ancient Mdina. The population of the “suburb” is now about 11,000, while Mdina’s has shrunk to around 300.
During the medieval period, Mdina shrunk behind its walls, leaving its ancient past outside, undisturbed. In 1881, an Ancient Roman domus (town house) was found not far outside the walls of Mdina. While the house was mostly destroyed and a Muslim cemetery had been dug into it, several mosaics were preserved over the centuries.
Entrance to the Domvs Romana museum.
The roman domus, or town house, was most likely built in the beginning of the 1st century BCE and remained in use until the 2nd century CE. A few beautiful mosaics were preserved liked this one that would have been found in the peristyle.
I quite like this mosaic. I have never seen the center type in situ before and I love the varying colors in the border.
On the way to the next destination, I saw a bit of the town.
Maltese balconies! If you’ve seen my last two posts, you know how in love I am with these. I really like the one on the far right. So unique.
Wrap around balconies are here as well.
The streets are adorable here in Rabat as well.
Rabat is most famous for its catacombs. During Roman times, due to custom, the dead had to be buried outside of the city walls. Suburbs were fair game. Rabat’s stone was perfect for carving. Today, the city is littered with tunnels under its surface with entrances all over the place. They were used from the 3rd to 8th centuries. Contrary to popular belief, they were not hiding places for Christians here, but places for Christians, Pagans and Jews to be buried side by side for centuries. Some catacombs were used again in the 13th century after Christians reconquered them islands from the Arabs.
The catacombs in Rabat are associated with three churches, that of St. Agatha, St. Paul and St. Catald. I toured all three. St. Catald is fairly small, self-guided and by donation. St. Agatha is by guided tour only and not for the squeamish. There are still bodies in this one, but it is the best preserved and the guides are excellent. St. Paul’s is the most famous. It is self-guided and super extensive. I didn’t even see it all.
The Catacombs of St. Agatha’s doesn’t allow photos, so here’s the church for filler.
St. Catald (or San Cataldo) is a small chapel built over the catacombs. I randomly walked inside, dropped a donation in a box, and headed down a not so safe staircase.
You enter the catacomb by going through a large circular room with an agape table, a circular table or depression for a circular table. It was used for ceremonial meals commemorating dead relatives, basically an early Christina wake. The small shelves were for probably for the remains for small children.
Common to Maltese catacombs are these baldacchino tombs, which have canopies, usually reserved for nuclear families. Some are completely extant, and you can completely walk around them. Others, like the one in the back are sided by the tunnels.
Catacombs were carved as they were needed. A tunnel would be carved, then baldacchino would be added on the side. Customers would buy the baldacchino on for their families and new tombs would be carved as needed out of those, fitting multiple adults and children depending on the size.
The 17th century church of St. Paul. According to legend, the actual St. Paul lived and preached in a grotto below the church for three months in 60 CE after he shipwrecked in Malta.
One of the first things I saw in the St. Paul’s Catacomb complex was this unexcavated baldacchino tomb, with a weird tunnel underneath, but it does give you an example what one would have looked like before they started burying people in them.
The first catacomb system you enter is the largest, with a large open cavern with lots of cavities for remains, and lots of side tunnels to get lost in. I think I went around the same loop three times. The rear left has a baldacchino. The floor has space for a couple of floor burials, which were the cheapest. There were spaces for some single wall burials as well. New cavities were usually single burials but remains could be added and the tombs resealed.
Sealing slabs disappeared out of most catacombs. But this shows how they sealed off the tombs. They just but stone, or marble if they could afford it (why it went missing), or the tomb. On the wall tombs, they were also plastered over. The small cavities would have been used for small children.
Baldacchino, after baldacchino, after baldacchino. The tomb in front would have fit two bodies, most likely a husband and wife.
The tomb was a bit unusual because it had two headrests, which means that two bodies were buried in the same tomb. The couple must have died around the same time.
This is like a super tomb. It just kept going back in the tunnel without a break. Maybe the family kept excavating the tomb back through the generations.
The tunnels stretch on and on.
An agape table, this time carved out of the stone of the catacomb, surrounded by the sad little tombs of babies or cremated remains. With the cavity on the right, you can still see the ridge where the sealing slab would have fit into the wall.
The catacombs seemed very polished.
Rare find down in the damp catacombs, a baldacchino that still has a bit of paint.
Hard to see, but there are painted flowers.
A bit more on the other side.
Other art can be found in carvings.
It wasn’t just Christians down here. Here you can just make out a Jewish menorah.
By the time I escaped from the catacombs, it was almost dark. A nice walk took me back towards the city gate of Mdina, where I parked the car earlier in the day. On the way, I found a nice little church, St. Maria of Jesus.
Nice little place to stumble into.
Rabat is the perfect place to go to explore Malta’s history, or ancient history. With Roman ruins and catacombs and other museums, there is much to see and do. I only had half a day to explore, and I saw a lot, but there is much I didn’t see in that time. I guess I will have to go back some day. What a shame.
Check out my next update where I explore the little town of Birgu!
Or
Explore more catacombs in Naples, Italy!
