Rabat Attractions
Rabat (pop. 12,000) has a Roman villa discovered in 1881, with a beautiful mosaic pavement; two Early Christian burial-places, St Paul's Catacombs and Ste Agatha's Catacombs; and St Paul's Church, built over the prison in which the Apostle was confined after his shipwreck off Malta in A.D. 60.
The Parish Church of St Paul (1656-81) in Rabat was one of the first on the island to be built on a grand Latin-cross scale and has been altered many times. The author of the slightly overworked three-pediment Baroque facade is probably Francesco Buonamici. Lorenzo Gafa is thought to have had a hand in the vaulting and dome in 1692 while working on the neighboring sanctuary. In an enormous gilded frame, the famous painting "The Shipwreck of St Paul" (1683) by Stefano Erardi depicts a very dry St Paul shaking off the viper in front of an astonished gathering of "barbarians" and Romans, as his ship is pounded by the stormy seas.
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Roman Villa and Museum, Rabat
