Stop 07 of 10
The Greeks Gate
The door the city actually used
Narration · 3 min
Have it read to you while you look at the thing itself, hands in pockets.
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Guide to The Greeks Gate
The Greeks Gate is Mdina's other entrance, and it could hardly be less like the main one: no arms, no saints, no staged bridge — a medieval opening with a guardroom, remodelled in the 1720s along with the rest of the city. It was the working door, and the stonework around it reads as a summary of the city's history.
The tradesmen's entrance
The main gate was a statement: Vilhena's arms, carved trophies, patron saints and a bridge staged like a theatre entrance. This one was for carters, farmers, animals and anybody whose business lay in the fields rather than at court.
It is medieval in origin, given the same eighteenth-century treatment as everything else, and it has never pretended to be more than a way in.
Where the name comes from
Nobody is certain. The usual account points to a Greek community living in this quarter — possibly people who left Rhodes alongside the Order in 1530, when the Ottomans took that island, and resettled here.
It is plausible and unproven, which describes a good deal of Mdina.
Reading the wall
Look at the masonry either side as you pass through. Rough medieval courses sit at the bottom, tighter eighteenth-century blocks above them, and here and there a stone much older than either, obviously reused from something Roman.
Beyond the gate the ground falls away into Rabat — the suburb, where the Romans buried their dead and the living overflowed.
What to look at
- Reused Roman blocks in the lower courses, larger and greyer than the rest
- The guardroom slot beside the passage
- How the ditch narrows here, forcing anyone approaching into single file
Practical
- Terrain
- Steps and a slope down into Rabat. Handrail on one side only.
Walk to stop 08
Follow the road downhill and round to the left, back towards the main gate side. On your right, behind a low wall, is an excavated Roman house under a modern cover.
About 4 min · 300 m