PAOLA

also spelled Pawla, or Paula, town, eastern Malta, just south of Valletta and adjacent to Tarxien to the southeast. Founded in 1626 by the Grand Master of the Hospitalers (Knights of St. John of Jerusalem), Antoine de Paule, it remained a small village until the late 19th century, when it grew rapidly as a residential district for workers from the adjacent Grand Harbour dockyards. It has a well-preserved Neolithic temple and the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum (catacombs), discovered in 1902. Pop. (1983 est.) 12,362.