Għajn Rażul Fountain, St Paul’s Bay

The history of this fountain is significantly linked to the tradition of St Paul’s shipwreck in the Maltese islands. The Acts of the Apostles vividly describe how following the shipwreck, the locals (assumingly the Maltese) went to help the shipwrecked. Adding to the Acts, local legend narrates that the locals took clothes, food and water with them but more water was needed.

Seeing this, St Paul took his staff, hit the ground three times and a spring started to flow and reputedly a fountain was built on the spot. The placename rażul is a derivation from the Phoenician meaning apostle.

It is not certain when the fountain was first erected but one source claims that the lower part of the fountain was carved out of a single ancient block of granite of uncertain date and provenance. The upper part of the fountain consists of a statue of St Paul housed within a niche, and an inscription which bears the coat-of-arms of Grand Master de Vilhena and records that this was added in 1725.

This historical fountain seems to have been moved during road widening works in the 1900s and has since been restored at least twice.

The Għajn Rażul fountain at St Paul’s Bay was included in the Antiquities Protection List of 1932 and was scheduled by Mepa as a Grade 1 national monument as per Government Notice number 1082/09 in the Government Gazette dated December 22, 2009.