Stop 05 of 15
The Carmelite Priory
Where the Maltese rose against Napoleon
Keep going
Stop one of Mdina plays straight away. The other 14 are one payment:
- Every stop from here to St Agatha’s Crypt & Catacombs, narrated
- The map following you from stop to stop, hands free
- The whole tour saved to your phone — no signal, no roaming
Not sure yet? Start with Mdina Gate & the Ditch.
The written guide below is open either way.
Guide to The Carmelite Priory
A modest Carmelite church and priory on Villegaignon Street, built after the friars arrived in 1659, and the place where the Maltese rising against the French began on 2 September 1798. The priory is open as a museum; the uprising it started led, two years later, to British rule.
A mendicant church in a town of canons
The Carmelites came to Mdina in 1659 and completed the church of the Annunciation and its priory over the following fifteen years. Beside the cathedral it is plain, deliberately: a mendicant order in a town of nobles and canons built something that did not compete.
Two doors along, Palazzo Santa Sofia carries an inscription dating its ground floor to 1233. The date is doubted, but the lower storey is medieval; the upper one was added in 1938 to match.
The second of September 1798
Napoleon took Malta from the Knights in June 1798 and left a garrison. Within weeks the French administration was stripping churches to pay for it, and on 2 September it came to auction this church’s hangings and silver. The crowd in the street refused, the auction became a riot, and the French commander in Mdina was killed.
By nightfall the countryside was in revolt. The French withdrew into Valletta and the harbour fortresses, where a Maltese peasant army and then a British and Portuguese blockade held them until they surrendered in September 1800. Malta became British at the islanders’ own request, and the request began here.
Inside the priory
The refectory, the friars’ cells and the kitchens are open as a museum, much as they were used. It is the one place in Mdina where the everyday life of the people who ran its churches can be seen rather than imagined.
What to look at
- The plain church front, set back from the richer houses either side
- The 1233 inscription on Palazzo Santa Sofia, two doors along
- The balconies overlooking the street — the riot of 1798 was watched from them
Practical
- Priory
- The priory museum charges admission; the church is free when open.
- Terrain
- Level, on the main pedestrian street.
Walk to stop 06 · Palazzo Falson
Continue along Villegaignon Street towards the far end of the city. Palazzo Falson is on the left, the house with the small, high windows.
About 1 min · 50 m