San Pawl Milqi is by far the largest and best-preserved remains of a Roman villa. It is located on a hillside near Burmarrad, next to and underneath a 17th century chapel dedicated to St Paul.

This site has a long and complex history. The villa was preceded by a Punic building and survived until the Arab conquest of the islands in the ninth century. The villa itself consisted of a residential area, which has brought to light some beautiful wall paintings, and of another section, which was intended for agricultural industry. The main activity here was without doubt the crushing of olives for the extraction of oil. Finds supporting this theory include an olive-pipper and huge rectangular blocks of stone on which the wooden structures of the olive-presses would have been mounted.

The present chapel of San Pawl Milqi dates from 1616 although it was built on the site of an earlier 15th century church. Tradition has it that this was the place where Publius, then the Island’s Roman governor, welcomed St Paul and where the Apostle preached after his shipwreck on Malta in around AD 60. However, studies and research that have been carried out are sometimes difficult to reconcile with this popular tradition. The most important aspect of the site still remains the finds of the villa, which shed light on the nature of the Maltese economy under the Romans.

Article provided by Heritage Malta