St. Paul's Catacombs
— — a city of small rooms cut into stone.
Not only on a wall.
“Under the streets of Rabat, just outside the walled city of Mdina, an interlocking complex of rock-cut tombs runs through the soft limestone. The catacombs were in use from about the third century into the eighth, the largest such complex on the Maltese islands. Pagan, Jewish and early Christian chambers share the same network. The agape tables where the living once kept feast with their dead are still cut into the floor. The air comes up cool from below.
St. Paul's Catacombs, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
St. Paul's Catacombs lie under the town of Rabat, on the central plateau of Malta, just outside the walls of the old capital Mdina. The complex is a network of interconnected underground tombs cut into the soft globigerina limestone, the largest such site on the Maltese islands. Burials began here in the late Roman period, around the third century, and continued into the eighth. The site is named for its proximity to St. Paul's Church and Grotto, where tradition holds the apostle sheltered after his shipwreck off Malta in 60 AD. Heritage Malta has managed the site as a public monument since 2000.
The limestone here is soft enough to cut by hand and hard enough to hold a chamber for a millennium and a half. Tomb forms include the canopied baldacchino, the floor-cut window grave, and the deep arcosolium niche carved into a wall. Two large round agape tables stand in the principal hall, where mourners reclined for the ritual meal kept with the dead in the early Christian centuries. Painted plaster has survived in patches; carved Christian, Jewish and pagan symbols share the same network of corridors, evidence of a multi-faith city above the rock.
St. Paul's Catacombs are open year-round under Heritage Malta, with adult admission in the order of six euros and reductions for students and children. About a dozen separate hypogea are open to visitors along marked routes; the temperature underground stays cool and the floors are uneven, so flat shoes and a light layer are sensible. The site reads best in the same morning as Mdina, the Domvs Romana and St. Paul's Church and Grotto, all within a few minutes' walk through Rabat. Bus routes 51, 52 and 53 link Valletta to Rabat in about forty minutes.