Museums and Heritage Sites

MUSEUM OF ROMAN ANTIQUITIES 
 
The Roman Domus and the Museum of Roman Antiquities, situated in Rabat, is one of the more spectacular Roman building to be uncovered in the Maltese islands. Sited just outside the Mdina fortifications, this building must have belonged to a rich dignitary. The structure itself has been dated by the architecture and by the mosaics to the first half of the first century B.C. Its main feature is the peristyle in the Doric order that surrounded a courtyard paved with an attractive mosaic.
 
Around the peristyle were a series of rooms, one of which seems to have been a dining room. Both the peristyle and the surrounding rooms were decorated with floor mosaics that have survived in fragments. In the majority of cases they consisted of geometric designs in mosaic with centrally placed emblemata. Some architectural features like columns, capitals and cornices derived from other sites are also preserved and exhibited in the Museum of Roman Antiquities.