St Paul's Catacombs
St Paul's Catacombs are a typical complex of interconnected, underground Roman cemeteries that were in use up to the 4th century. They were then located on the outskirts of Mdina because Roman law prohibited burials within the city. The largest burial...
St Paul's Catacombs are a typical complex of interconnected, underground Roman cemeteries that were in use up to the 4th century. They were then located on the outskirts of Mdina because Roman law prohibited burials within the city. The largest burial complex in the area, it comprises a large number of catacombs.
St Paul's Catacombs represent the earliest archaeological evidence of Christianity in Malta and were named after St Paul because of their vicinity to St Paul's church and grotto.
They were cleared up and investigated in 1894 by A. A. Caruana, the pioneer of Christian archaeology in Malta. When compared with those of Rome, Sicily and North Africa, they are somewhat smaller, but have a wider variety and richness of tomb architecture.
An imposing hall is found in the centre of St Paul's Catacombs, with passages leading off it in several directions into a bewildering series of tomb galleries.
The few surviving murals are of considerable interest because they constitute the only surviving evidence on the islands of paintings from the late Roman and early mediaeval periods.
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