Paola Things to Do

The old state prison now serves as Paola police station, but adjoining that is the current, more modern prison. The old prison building shown here actually bears the legend "Women's Prison" in the stonework above the door.
This was also the site of public executions and the last one was held there in 1945.

Malta's only serving mosque is in Paola, staning on Corradino Hill. There is a newly commissioned Muslim cemetary right next to it too, there having been no proper Muslim cemetary in Malta for many years until then.
Though the minaratte of the mosque was clearly visible from the town square it was the heat of mid-afternoon by now and we couldn't find the energy to walk to the mosque to see it up close. You can see from this picture (taken from the square) that the minarette is very colourful though.

The town square is surrounded by most of Paola's important buildings - the church, the band club and Hibernians FC (and the police station/prison is just around the corner) and in the centre of the square is a delightful elongated oval of a park. It's totally surrounded by trees to give shade and in the centre (but offset more towards the church end of the oval) is a kisok serving hot & cold food, drinks and beer.
The whole thing has an Art Deco look to it and it must be a quite vibrant meeting place in the early-to-late evening, hopefully having an atmosphere to match the square at Balutta. Unfortunately we weren't there then, we called in for lunch one afternoon. At that time the square was quite quiet, just a few peole around having lunch or falling asleep on a shady bench. That looked like a great idea, actually.
Lunch is decsribed in the Restaurants section.