The largest dome you’ve never heard of...

Malta, not a big place, right? Thus, not likely to have anything big, is it? Well, it seems that we were both wrong, for just as Invercargill, New Zealand is the location of the largest pyramid in the Southern Hemisphere, Malta possesses, it is claimed, the third-largest unsupported dome in the world, at Mosta.

We visited it as part of a tour to Mdina, the so-called Silent City, and it is a rather impressive sight, with splendid acoustics. It is also a minor basilica, following what can only be described as a miracle. If you look very closely at the picture, you will see a slightly scruffy looking section - it isn’t very large.

On 9 April 1942, during one of the many Luftwaffe raids on Malta, three 500kg high-explosive bombs fell on the church whilst three hundred or so parishioners were gathered in anticipation of the early evening mass. Two of them were deflected and fell outside, but the third penetrated the dome, falling amongst the gathered throng. It didn’t go off. The Royal Engineers bomb disposal team were able to retrieve it, make it safe and dispose of it in the sea.

But our main mission was to see Mdina, probably the most significant tourist attraction in Malta. Mdina was an Arab city built on the ruins of a much larger Roman one, and then a Palace for the head of the Order of Saint John, and has a similar feel to the Old City of Jerusalem, but without the craziness that Jerusalem possesses. Indeed, it has only 250 permanent residents, thus once the tourists have gone, it becomes quiet, almost empty.

And it is rather something, atmospheric and intriguing, with huge doorways, a cathedral, and narrow twisting alleyways designed to make a successful attack all the more difficult.

It was, unfortunately, fairly crowded with people standing around, oblivious to what was going on around them, getting in the way of the traffic, spoiling other people’s attempts to take photographs, and whilst this may sound a bit awful, you got the impression that, for some people, it was simply the tourist equivalent of a contractual obligation.

We’ve decided to come back later in the trip, with dinner in a nice restaurant the purpose, but which should allow us to get a better sense of the place.