Мальтийские бродилки. На земле, под землей и немного у воды Maltese wanderers. On the ground, underground and a little near the water

It seems like, and it was not very long ago... But in modern realities - already in a past life : )

Malta happened to us in February 2020. Then the Chinese were already banned from entering all countries. But no one has yet seriously thought about any border closures around the world in general and other lockdowns. But what happened happened. And time was divided into "before" and "after".

At the airport

I have already managed to fix something in text format for my own memory, and for usefulness to the future conquerors of Malta in the note Maltese weekend. About life and transport (without history and sights), but that's not all.

And then, sorting through a batch of photos from another trip around my native, so beautiful, but already a little fed up, expanses, I remembered that I still have unfinished pictures with "foreign" landscapes. So I decided to change views and stories in my laptop, well, in the site feed, respectively : )).

Mdina

We spent four full days in Malta. Many or few? - It will not be enough for a deep acquaintance and study, but quite enough for an easy and relaxed contact.

The island, of course, is tiny, but there are plenty of interesting things on it. Of course, the winter season was in full swing, so no distractions for beach idleness were planned, it would seem, more time for a cultural and educational program.

On the walls of Mdina

But we got into the carnival period. Ha, and culture, along with cognition, has been transformed into entertainment and entertainment activities. In any case, we often diverted from our intended goals. Actually, there was nothing supernatural in these carnival processions, but you will stop to stare, and then again and again : ).

Pictures from carnival events can be looked through in the story Ah, carnival-carnival! Or Maslenitsa in Maltese.

Realizing that we won’t see everything, we went along the most, in our opinion, from the already beaten tourist paths of Malta. And not very beaten, as it turned out : ).

First of all, we went straight from the plane to the magnificent Saint John's Cathedral. Something, and this luxury, being in Malta, is absolutely impossible to miss.

The interior of St. John's Cathedral

The cathedrals in Malta are magnificent, rich. And no matter where you go, you will see beautiful decoration.

Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin at the Carmelite Monastery in Mdina

It is especially surprising when, walking along the streets, you suddenly hear church hymns. Where? You look in the ajar door - well, wow, but what kind of temple or church is here. About the streets there is I have a separate topic.

Of course, every self-respecting tourist wants to visit the ancient capital of the island - Mdina. And we need to go there.

Mdina from the bus window

It is assumed that the city has existed on this site for more than 4000 years. In the VIII BC e. The Phoenicians built a wall around the top of the hill almost in the very center of the island, and called this village "Malet" or "refuge". With the arrival of the Romans in the III century. BC e. the city became known as Melita. And already in the IX century. AD, the Arabs renamed the city Mdina, which in Arabic means “walled city”.

In Mdina, Maltese aristocrats preferred to settle. Therefore, almost the entire city consists of magnificent palaces and palazzos. But after the devastating earthquake of 1693, the new capital of Valletta became the center of Maltese life, where the nobility gradually began to move.

Modern Mdina is an open-air museum.

St. Paul's Cathedral in Mdina

Life has left him, leaving a well-preserved history. To the delight of scientists and to please the eyes of tourists.

Everything here is so historical that it seems that now a knight will come around the corner, or a noble beauty will rustle past with a train.

But no, there are tourists, tourists and tourists around.

It is rare to find yourself alone in these narrow streets of an ancient city, but it happens. Then you can hear the TV humming, for example, or the ringing of the telephone. Where? How? Yes, it happens. That's where the mixing of eras is. Yeah, and such beauties are found on medieval streets. I'm talking about the car, if anything : ))

In fact, there are about three hundred permanent residents, if I remember correctly. But for the most part, of course, local residents only work here in museums and restaurants. The second unofficial name of the modern Mdina is the City of Silence (or Silence) due to the lack of a full-fledged city life.

From practical recommendations: in order not just to roam the ancient streets, but with benefit and interest, while walking around the city, we used the izi. TRAVEL application, after downloading the necessary tour.

Knowing people will immediately ask the question: what about door handles? No, well, without them, nothing. Of course, according to the fashionable travel trends, I also have my own collection of door handles : )

Mdina - yes, a museum, dusty history. But right next to it, in the neighbors, as they say, there is a lively and quite a residential town Rabat. You can find a lot of Rabats on the world map, the most famous settlement, perhaps, is the capital of Morocco. Since the word is of Arabic origin, and the Arabs pretty much inherited it in Malta, their own Rabat appeared here. According to Wikipedia, the full name of the city is Ribat al-Fath, which means "victory village".

Once it was part of Roman Melita, rather a suburb outside the powerful defensive walls, which was often captured by enemies. Now it is an independent administrative unit of Malta.

The streets of Rabat are quite ornate and intricate.

Tourists wander through them in search of Paul's catacombs and Saint Agatha - probably the most significant sights of the city. Although, due to all the observed antiquity, the whole city is a solid attraction.

Every house keeps its own saint

Moreover, these catacombs are two different museum objects. The catacombs of St. Agatha are considered more authentic, but there are some troubles with visiting, at a certain time, with mandatory escort... Therefore, "Pavlovsk" ones are more popular with tourists, they are more freely available. Perhaps everything has changed since then.

Catacombs in Malta is an underground burial complex of the Roman period. According to the chronicles, after the shipwreck off the coast of Malta, the Apostle Paul, in anticipation of a new ship, spent time there in prayers in one of the caves. In 1675, the magnificent St. Paul's Cathedral was built over this cave. But the entrance to the catacombs is not there, which is why most tourists get confused.

Saint Paul's Cathedral in Rabat

During the persecution of Christians, secret services of the first Christians were held in the catacombs. Saint Agatha, who is considered the patroness of Malta, was hiding there from the persecution of the Roman emperor.

In general, the network of underground labyrinths under Rabat has not been fully explored. In addition to underground cemeteries, residential underground houses are also found. And it may very well be that the inhabitants of the Roman period simply adapted the underground structures of their predecessors to their needs. Rumor has it that local residents often "fall through" in their basements into the void, but they prefer not to inform the authorities about this in order to avoid all sorts of, let's say, nuances. And the same will begin, excavations there, studies, etc. , etc.

So, we went to the catacombs, but did not reach... Or rather, we reached, but to others. Passing by the small church of St. Cataldo, which is almost opposite St. Paul's Cathedral, we saw a poster about something about the catacombs. Isn't that what we're looking for? We looked into the church, and there are catacombs. And you can see them for how much, well, yes, a donation to the temple. What we did.

A visit to the catacombs of the Apostle Paul for February 2020, it seems, cost 6 euros, there is no audio guide in Russian. In general, we decided that in order to get an idea of ​ ​ the underground world of Malta, what we have already seen in the Church of St. Cataldo is enough for us, since there is still a lot of interesting and unsuccessful on the surface.

Marsachlokk is a popular village among the tourist fraternity.

The name comes from the combination of the words of the Arabic "marsa" - port and the Italian "sirroco" - southeast wind. In general, this is a typical fishing village, the main part of the male population of which continues to do what the locals have been feeding for many centuries - fishing.

Traditional luzzu (or luzzu) boats are still used.

It cannot be said that they are exactly the same as before, of course, they are somewhat modernized and improved, but they are painted according to very ancient traditions, brightly and necessarily with eyes. All this helps fishermen to protect themselves from various misfortunes at sea, well, and a boat with eyes finds its way home in the most violent storms and impenetrable fogs. Probably, this is how it really is. In any case, the fishermen are very fond of their boats, groom and cherish. I don't remember a single one that was even somewhat shabby, a lot of them just went through the coloring process.

The entire promenade of Marsaxlokk is strewn with fish restaurants.

It is believed that only here you can taste the freshest and most delicious lampuki fish - Dorado in our opinion (although "lampuki" sounds tastier). We walked between the tables, shamelessly looking into other people's plates, but nothing whetted our appetite.

By the way, a curious fact: until the 17th century. local residents did not eat fish, supposedly there was some kind of ban. But what and how, nobody really can tell. Perhaps the whole catch was simply sent to the table of the nobility or they ate, after all, but very little, and legends about the ban have survived to this day?... Actually, even now the locals prefer meat and pasta, but seafood is also on the table.

Marsaxlokk is not only the fishery of the island, but also a rather interesting historical site.

Church of Our Lady of Pompeii

Here, one might say, the destinies of peoples were decided. The harbor has long been chosen by people for its calmness, they say there are no storms here. And because of the convenience of its location, it was often captured by various conquerors there, respectively, for the purpose of parking their fleets. From the recent history of Marsaxlokk, one can note the meeting in 1989 between Gorbachev and Bush on a yacht in the harbor of the village. Yes, that's right, the security services considered the place the most secure for such a date.

Despite its popularity with tourists and, in general, the rather active life of the village, its architecture has hardly changed over the past centuries.

Typical Maltese phone boxes : )

The same cannot be said about another village - Marsaskala. No, this is, of course, not a village, but quite a city by Maltese standards. And not so ancient by the same standards.

Fish shop in Marsaskala

The first settlement was founded in 1756 by immigrants from Sicily, hence the name: Marsa - Port and Skala - Sicily. Although there are many different versions about the settlement in general, and about the translation of the name. The only thing that everyone is sure of is the Arabic “marsa”.

Since then, the remains of fortifications have still been preserved, but they are so “remains”, and even abandoned, that they are of little interest to most tourists.

You can see the ruins of the once decent four-star Jerma Palace Hotel, 1982. It belonged to Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company and managed by Corinthia Hotels International. It was closed in March 2007. Everything of value was stolen from its interior: carpets, marble floors, doors, tiles and even bricks. Muammar Gaddafi had a personal number. (taken from https://yarowind.livejournal.com/910400.html)

A special period of prosperity fell on the period of the Second World War and after. From the bombed-out Maltese cities, people rushed to the comparatively calm Marsaskala. And the town began to actively grow and develop. Here and now you can observe the rapid construction. We got the impression that we were walking along one large construction site.

Processing the embankment

As usual, the embankment is strewn with all sorts of restaurants, but personally we were not pleased with the price tags, it seemed that it was more expensive than in other places in Malta. I can be wrong in my perceptions, since I didn’t keep records : ).

According to Internet sources, the city is more popular among the Maltese themselves for recreation, some Europeans rent apartments for a relaxing pastime.

But we did not come here for architectural masterpieces, but for landscapes that are very unusual for us. We had time before returning to Moscow. By that moment, they had already pretty much grown up and cultured, had seen enough of everyone and carnivalized, that they just wanted silence and tranquility, serene contemplation and doing nothing. But with some "salt" : )

I learned about this place in one of the many reports I studied before my trip to Malta. I was not sure what I would need, although the pictures attracted attention.

So it surfaced from the storehouses of memory on the final day in Malta, where you can go inactive, but interesting. So, these are abandoned salt baths.

Sea salt has been mined in Malta since ancient times. The fishery reached a special peak in the 19th century. The task is simple, but laborious. Recesses were hollowed out on rocky seashores, water was either poured into buckets, well, or when a storm helped. The water evaporated, the salt remained, and they scraped it off. This is easy to tell, but in fact, of course, there are a lot of nuances: the season, wind direction and speed, etc.

In the modern world on an industrial scale, of course, salt is not mined in this way. But even now there are still small private farms engaged in manual production. We met a family on the shore collecting shells. I don’t know why, rather for making souvenirs.

And then there was the airport, a night flight to Moscow, and. . . the rampage of 2020. . . But that's later, but for now. . .

So we ran through some of the Turkish towns of Malta. I really want to believe that the World will soon return to full-fledged open communication. And my notes will not sink into oblivion, and will be useful to someone for making routes. In any case, I made notes for my own memories : )). What the hell is not kidding, maybe these “memoirs” still have to be continued, because Malta, oh how, I haven’t studied enough : ))