Church of St Paul's Shipwreck

Valletta


In AD 60 St Paul was shipwrecked on Malta and brought Christianity to the population. This church has a 19th-century facade, but the interior dates from the 16th century and houses many treasures, including a dazzling gilded statue of St Paul, carved in Rome in the 1650s and carried shoulder-high through the streets of Valletta on the saint's feast day (10 February).

There's also a golden reliquary containing some bones from the saint's wrist, and part of the column on which he is said to have been beheaded in Rome.