The fortifications of Mdina () are a series of defensive walls which surround the former capital city of Mdina, Malta. The city was founded as Maleth by the Phoenicians in around the 8th century BC, and it later became part of the Roman Empire under the name Melite. The ancient city was surrounded by walls, but very few remains of these have survived.
The city walls were rebuilt a number of times, including by the Byzantine Empire in around the 8th century AD, the Arabs in around the 11th century, and the Kingdom of Sicily in the medieval period until the 15th century. Most of the extant fortifications were built by the Order of Saint John between the 16th and 18th centuries.
The city has withstood a number of sieges, and it was defeated twice – first by the Aghlabids in 870 and then by Maltese rebels in 1798. Today, the city walls are still intact except for some outworks, and they are among the best preserved fortifications in Malta. Mdina has been on Malta's tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998.
Punic-Roman walls
The city of Mdina occupies the tip of a plateau located on high ground in the northern part of the island of Malta, far away from the sea. The site has been inhabited since prehistory, and by the Bronze Age it was a place of refuge since it was naturally defensible. The Phoenicians colonized Malta in around the 8th century BC, and they founded the city of Maleth on this plateau. It was taken over by the Roman Republic in 218 BC, becoming known as Melite. The Punic-Roman city was about three times the size of present-day Mdina, extending into a large part of modern Rabat. Melite's walls had a thickness of around and were surrounded by a -long ditch.
Very little remains of the Punic-Roman walls of Melite still survive. The remains of a city gate or tower were discovered in Saqqajja in modern Rabat, about below the current street level. Parts of the ditch have survived under present-day St. Rita Street and the Church of St. Paul. The lower foundations of some Punic-Roman ramparts, consisting of rusticated ashlar blocks three courses high still in situ, were found near the Magazine Curtain in the western part of Mdina. The only other remains of the ancient walls are Punic-Roman masonry blocks which were reused in the medieval period. These include a wall around Greeks Gate, and some stones which were discovered in excavations at Inguanez Street and the Xara Palace.
Medieval walls
At some point following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a retrenchment was built within the city, reducing it to its present size. This was done to make the city's perimeter more easily defensible, and similar reductions in city sizes were common around the Mediterranean region in the early Middle Ages. Although it was traditionally assumed that the retrenchment was built by the Arabs, it has been suggested that it was actually built by the Byzantine Empire in around the 8th century, when the threat from the Arabs increased.
In 870, Melite was captured by the Aghlabids, who massacred its inhabitants and "demolished its fortress" according to the chronicler Al-Himyarī. This account further mentions that Malta remained almost uninhabited until it was resettled in around 1048 or 1049 by a Muslim community and their slaves, who built a settlement called Medina on the site of Melite. Archaeological evidence suggests that the city was already a thriving Muslim settlement by the beginning of the 11th century, so 1048–49 might be the date when the city was officially founded and its walls were constructed. The Byzantines besieged Medina in 1053–54, but were repelled by its defenders.
Medina surrendered peacefully to Roger I of Sicily after a short siege in 1091, and Malta was subsequently incorporated into the County and later the Kingdom of Sicily, being dominated by a succession of feudal lords. The fortifications of Mdina were rebuilt and modified a number of times over the following centuries. A castle known as the Castellu di la Chitati or the castrum civitas was built on the southeast corner of the city near the main entrance, probably on the site of an earlier Byzantine fort. The city withstood a siege by Hafsid invaders in 1429.