It would be very difficult undertaking to understand the importance of the cities of Mdina, Citadel also known as Victoria in Gozo, Birgu also known as Vittoriosa and Valletta the capital city without featuring the history embraced during the centuries.
During the Bronze Age, the last period of the prehistoric times it was necessary for the people to set up their villages on top of flat topped hills. Both Mdina and the Citadel in Gozo seem to have originated during the Bronze age period.
Around 750 BC, the Phoenicians chose the archipelago as a place to settle. The arrival of the Phoenicians would have introduced better building techniques. The Carthaginians and the Romans would have continued to upgrade the defense system during their centuries of occupation of the islands. The Romans occupied Malta from 218 BC and Christianity reached Malta in 60 AD when Saint Paul was shipwrecked near the islands.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the Maltese Islands passed through a difficult period. Due to a lack of evidence, Malta’s history appears quite nebulous however there are many accounts and legends that refer to this time when the main land was attacked by barbarian tribes.
Then, the islands passed under the control of the Byzantine Empire. Malta’s medieval town life was concentrated in its former capital Mdina and in the harbour city Birgu. The Birgu peninsula might have been founded by the Byzantines at the beginning of the ninth century.
Neither the Byzantines who had conquered Malta in 535, nor the Muslims who took over the island in 870, left any considerable architectural marks. The Medieval Period continued with the conquest of the islands by the Arabs, who crossed over from Sicily.
During the eleventh century, whilst he First Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, Christians and Muslims battled over land throughout the Mediterranean. Muslim pirates, used Malta as their military base to raid southern Europe. Until Roger I, king of Sicily, retaliated and gained control of Malta in 1090. Thus Malta came under the rule of the Norman kings of Sicily.
Norman control of the island did little to change the way of life of Malta's inhabitants and ironically the Muslims who were living on the island during the previous Rule were not abolished to leave the mainland as long as they pay tribute to the Normal rulers. So much so, that the worship of Islam continued on the islands during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. After the treaty singed in 1184, Sicily and Malta became part of the domains of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Disputes with the papacy evoked out of proportion and upon the death of Constance, Pope Innocent III, Frederick became Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Kingdom of Sicily, including Malta in 1220.
Frederick II went on crusade in 1227 and secured the return of Jerusalem by treaty. He married Isabella, heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The papacy opposed his plans to impose Hohenstaufen rule and Frederick died excommunicate in 1250. Pope Clement IV supported the French candidate, Charles of Anjou, who took control of Sicily in 1266. In 1282, the revolt known as the Sicilian Vespers acclaimed Peter of Aragon the new king and the Aragonese now controlled Sicily and Malta.
Malta became part of a loose confederation of states known as the Crown of Aragon. The head of the confederation, the king of Aragon, tried to exploit the islands' resources while also defending it against invasion. The Spanish rulers of Malta awarded the islands to noble followers as a fief. But in the late 14th century the islands served as a base for disaffected Sicilian nobles. It is said that Gonsalvo de Monroy was dispelled by the islanders and a rebellion was invoked in 1426 so much so that the King of Sicily Alfonso V promised that Malta would remain under the direct rule of the monarch. He also agreed that the Maltese under the name of Università, a municipal government based in Mdina, was to adminster local resources. The Maltese however were unable to sustain or resource the defence of the island due to the growing threat of the Ottoman Turks.
After the loss of Rhodes in 1522, the Knights of the Order of St. John were left without a home. In 1530, Charles V offered Malta to the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in 1530, for a yearly rent of a Maltese falcon. The Knights initially did not think Malta was a good location, citing its rocky landscape and lack of fresh water. However, they accepted the offer and they settled in the maritime Fort St Angelo and within the village of Birgu.
The reason for this decision was that Mdina was too far away from the maritime activity and the harbour while Birgu was there for further development by the Order. After the building of Valletta, they moved all of their administrative buildings to the new city, and Mdina became the old capital city.
