According to the New Testament, when the Apostle Saint Paul was shipwrecked in 60 AD, the island was called Melita. This event was celebrated with a cathedral which was first built during the 13th century in nearby Mdina. Shortly after construction started on the new city of Valletta, the Collegiate Parish Church of St. Paul’s Shipwreck was finished in 1582. This Baroque façade was added in 1885. Inside the Roman Catholic church is the saint’s wrist bone plus part of a wood column where the apostle was bound when he was beheaded in 67 AD.
