Heritage Malta is next Sunday between 10am and 5pm holding an open day at San Pawl Milqi near Burmarrad, where visitors will be able to view the Roman remains and chapel which are not normally open to the public. For the event, which is supported by the St Paul’s Bay Local Council, Heritage Malta will be erecting two viewing platforms to provide better viewing facilities.

San Pawl Milqi is situated on a flat plateau up the slopes of Wardija Hill and overlooking the Burmarrad plain. It gets its name from the small chapel of San Pawl Milqi that replaced the 15th century chapel of San Pawl Bindichi in the mid-17th century. The chapels were built on the remains of a villa. In the 17th century it was claimed that the visible remains are those of Publius’ villa and the place where St Paul was welcomed by the First Citizen. This claim consolidated local belief and strongly prejudiced the directors of the Italian Archaeological Mission which was in Malta between 1963 and 1968.

The excavations of the Italian Mission were not the first ‘investigations’ of the site. It was partially cleared by Vincenzo Fenech between 1878 and 1879 and suffered considerable damage by military earthworks that were dug during the course of World War I. A small Palaeochristian Hypogeum was excavated by Sir Temi Zammit around 1905 but its exact location was lost immediately after.

The site uncovered by the Italian Mission shows an area with a long history of use or occupation. The first attested use of the site was in the Zebbug phase (4100 – 3800 BC) the evidence for which comes from three Zebbug phase tombs. Scatters of Borg in-Nadur pottery shards show that the site or its immediate vicinities were also occupied during the Borg in-Nadur phase (1500–700BC).

Although structural remains are scant, occupation of the site during the Phoenicio-Punic period is clearly attested by the various pottery remains and by two third century BC tombs also discovered on the site.

Entry to the site costs e4 for adults, and e2 for senior citizens and students. Children under 12 enter free of charge.