Stop 12 of 15
Casa Bernard
A Rabat palazzo, lived in and open
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 Casa Bernard
A sixteenth-century palazzo on St Paul Street in Rabat, built over Roman foundations and named for the Bernard family, physicians to the Grand Masters in the eighteenth century. It is privately owned, restored by the family who live in it, and shown by them on guided tours.
A house shown by its owners
Casa Bernard is opened by the family who restored it and live in it, and the tours are given by them. Furniture, paintings and silver that have stood in Maltese houses for centuries, and never left the island, are shown as household possessions rather than museum pieces.
Rabat, not Mdina
St Paul Street runs through the middle of Rabat, which was never the same kind of town as the one on the hill. Mdina held the nobles and the clergy; Rabat held everyone who worked for them and, later, the market for this side of the island. The houses are lower, the doors wider, and the balconies made for watching the street rather than being seen from it.
What to look at
- The corner position, with two street fronts
- The wide carriage door, built for carts rather than for show
- Enclosed balconies along St Paul Street, plainer than Mdina’s
Practical
- Visiting
- Guided tours at set times on most days, admission charged. The house is not open outside those times.
- Terrain
- Level along St Paul Street.
Walk to stop 13 · St Paul's Grotto
Continue along St Paul Street to the parish square. The grotto entrance is through the Wignacourt Museum on College Street, beside the church; listen from the square outside.
About 3 min · 163 m