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Malta – Ta’l-Imdina Gate
1973 Silver 2 Liri / 2 Pounds 38mm (20.03 grams) 0.987 Silver (0.6347 oz ASW)
Reference: KM# 20 | Mintage: 30,000
MALTA, Coat-of-arms.
IL BIEB TA’L-IMDINA, Mdina Gate.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 Mdina Gate (Maltese: Il-Bieb tal-Imdina), also known as the Main Gate or the Vilhena Gate, is the main gate into the fortified city of Mdina, Malta. It was built in the Baroque style in 1724 to designs of Charles François de Mondion, during the magistracy of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena.
The city of Maleth was founded by the Phoenicians in around 700 BC, and it later became part of the Roman Empire under the name Melite. The Punic-Roman city occupied all of present-day Mdina, and its walls also extended into part of Rabat. The city was reduced to its present size sometime during the early medieval period, either by the Byzantines or the Arabs. By the 15th century, the city (now known as Mdina) was defended by a system of double walls on the land front, with the main entrance being located close to the southeast corner of the city, near a tower known as the Turri Mastra.
In the medieval period, the main entrance to Mdina consisted of three gates which were separated by courtyards. The outer gate was called the Prima Porta Principale or the Porta di Santa Maria, and it was decorated with the coat of arms of Sua Cesarea Majestati in 1527. A barbican was built to protect the gate sometime after 1448, but it was demolished in 1551 since it was no longer regarded as being suitable for defence. It is believed that this gate was reconstructed by the Order of St. John in the early 17th century.
In 1722, Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena issued orders for the restoration and renovation of Mdina. The city entrance was completely rebuilt, and a new Baroque gate was built to designs of the French architect Charles François de Mondion in 1724. Since the courtyards behind the old gate were demolished to make way for the Palazzo Vilhena, the original gate was walled up and the new one was built a couple of metres to its left. The city’s medieval fortifications were also rebuilt at this point, and the Turri Mastra was demolished and replaced by the Torre dello Standardo.
The Mdina Gate was depicted on a Lm2 commemorative silver coin minted by the Central Bank of Malta in 1973. The rear of the gate, along with the Torre dello Standardo, was depicted on the Lm5 banknote that was in circulation between 1989 and 2007.
The gate was restored in 2008 by the Restoration Unit of the Works Department.
Today, the Mdina Gate is one of the main tourist attractions of Mdina. The gate was included on the Antiquities List of 1925. It is now scheduled as a Grade 1 national monument, and it is also listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.
The Mdina Gate consists of a Baroque portal and a superstructure serving as a gatehouse. The portal is decorated with double pilasters, the coats of arms of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena and the city of Mdina, a trophy of arms and a Latin inscription reading:
ANTIQUISSIMÆ HUJUS URBIS, QUAM PATRES DIXERE NOTABILEM,
INSULÆ METROPOLEOS,
QUÆ DIVI PAULI PROVIDO NAUFRAGIO FIDEM EDOCTA
PRIMUM PRÆSULEM DIVUM PUBLIUM PATRITIUM HABUIT,
D: ANT: MANOEL DE VILHENA M: M:, EGREGIUS, ET PIISSIMUS PRINCEPS;
IN HONOREM APOSTOLI EJUSQ.’ DISCIPULI, AMOREM, ET TUTELAM POPULI;
MUNIMENTA PENÉ COLLAPSA RESTAURAVIT, ET AUXIT.
ANNO SAL: MDCCXXIV. PRINCIPATUS SUI III.
The rear of the gate is decorated with reliefs of St. Publius, St. Agatha and St. Paul, who are the patron saints of Malta.
An arched stone bridge, which is decorated by statues of lions holding the coat of arms of Vilhena or the town of Rabat, leads to the gate. A wooden à la Vauban drawbridge originally linked the bridge to the gate.
In popular culture
The Mdina Gate represented King’s Landing Gate in the filming of Lord Snow, the third episode of the first season of Game of Thrones.
 Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta’ Malta), is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km (50 mi) south of Italy, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia, and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya. With a population of about 475,000 over an area of 316 km2 (122 sq mi), Malta is the world’s tenth smallest and fifth most densely-populated country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at 0.8 km.2 The official languages are Maltese and English, with Maltese officially recognised as the national language and the only Semitic language in the European Union.
 Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Its location in the centre of the Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base, with a succession of powers having contested and ruled the islands, including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Sicilians, Spanish, Knights of St. John, French, and British. Most of these foreign influences have left some sort of mark on the country’s ancient culture.
 Malta became a British colony in 1815, serving as a way station for ships and the headquarters for the British Mediterranean Fleet. It played an important role in the Allied war effort during the Second World War, and was subsequently awarded the George Cross for its bravery in the face of an Axis siege, and the George Cross appears on Malta’s national flag. The British Parliament passed the Malta Independence Act in 1964, giving Malta independence from the United Kingdom as the State of Malta, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and queen. The country became a republic in 1974. It has been a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations since independence, and joined the European Union in 2004; it became part of the eurozone monetary union in 2008.
Malta has a long Christian legacy and its Archdiocese is claimed to be an apostolic see because Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked on “Melita”, according to Acts of the Apostles, which is now widely taken to be Malta. While Catholicism is the official religion in Malta, Article 40 of the Constitution states that “all persons in Malta shall have full freedom of conscience and enjoy the free exercise of their respective mode of religious worship.”
Malta is a popular tourist destination with its warm climate, numerous recreational areas, and architectural and historical monuments, including three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni, Valletta, and seven megalithic temples which are some of the oldest free-standing structures in the world.
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