Description of the attraction
You can get to the territory of Mdina through three gates: City, Greek and New City, created in the XX century by local residents to shorten the road to the bus station in Rabat, a suburb of Mdina.
Only slaves used the Greek gate in the Middle Ages. Now cars of local residents are passing through them. All tourists enter Mdina through the City Gate, also called the Main or Vilena Gate. They were built in the Baroque style in 1724 by the chief architect of Mdina, the Frenchman Charles François de Mondion, who worked on many palaces in the city. The construction was sponsored by the Grand Master Antoine Manuel de Vilena. We can see his coat of arms on the outer facade of the gate. This gate appeared on the site of a medieval building with a drawbridge. Due to the construction of the residence for Vilena, the entrance gate had to be moved to the left a few meters. Such interference in the fortification system of the city forced the architect to alter the medieval fortifications adjacent to the gate. The old tower of Turri Mastra has been replaced by the Torre della Standardto. The Mda Main Gate is depicted on a commemorative silver 2 Maltese lira coin minted in 1973. They, along with the neighboring Torre of the Standardto case, could also be seen on the 5 Maltese lira banknote circulated in 1989-2007.
In 2008, the gate was repaired by a department of the Road Maintenance Department. Currently, the City Gate is one of the main tourist attractions in Mdina. An attentive viewer watching Game of Thrones will recognize this gate in the third episode of the first season, where it is presented as part of Lord Snow's castle.
