Victoria Citadel, Gozo, Malta

We visited the town of Victoria on Gozo briefly, restricting ourselves to the citadel that sits on top of the hill. The fortress was built in the early 1600s, a project inspired by the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. We parked just outside the tall walls and walked up and into the citadel.

View from our parking spot

A tough wall to climb

As we walked up, we saw a World War II shelter. The sign says it now houses modern art but, luckily or unluckily, it was locked and we could not go in.

War Time Shelters

We walked straight into the Cathedral Square, which includes the cathedral and the Old Prison, among other attractions.

Cathedral Square

The Old Prison

A fountain

Staircases all over the place lead up to the ramparts where soldiers would fight invaders.

Wall climbers

Ready to defend against invaders!

Victoria looks quite impressive from above, as do some of the other island towns.

Bastion and Victoria

More of Victoria

Kercem and St. Lucia in the distance

More of the island

While we were walking on the walls, L and J discovered a small lizard running along the warm stones.

Can you spot the lizard?

Easier to find in this picture

Some of the view include a good bit of the citadel itself.

Cathedral's bell tower

More of the walls

J and L loved to run ahead of us or sneak around behind us. With the openness of the ramparts, the game was very tough to play.

J way ahead of us

The citadel has a variety of museums, like the Folklore Museum or the Archeology Museum, but we wanted to enjoy the sunshine and clear skies as much as possible, so we stuck to wall walking. L asked for ice cream from one of the stands in Cathedral Square, so we bought her a snack on our way out of the citadel. It was fun to visit.

One last small memorial

Gozo Cathedral, Malta

The Gozo Cathedral is just inside the walls of the citadel of Victoria, the central town of the island. The current church is the third on the site. First was a Byzantine building from 535 that was replaced by a mosque when the Arabs took over the island in 870. The Norman conquest in 1127 saw the mosque turned into a church. The Turks ransacked the church in 1551 but it was functional again in 1554. An earthquake in January 1693 severely damaged the building. The third church was begun in 1697 and completed in 1716. When Gozo and Comino became a diocese independent from Malta, Pope Pius IX made it the bishop's cathedral.

Gozo Cathedral

The interior is the typical Baroque explosion of decorations. Beauty is everywhere on display.

Nave

On the left of the entrance is the baptismal font, which has a replica on the right of the entrance, making a nice balance.

Is this the baptismal font...

...or this one?

At the back of the church is  processional statue of the Virgin Mary. The Leone Philharmonic Society donated it in 1956. The statue is processed around Victoria every August 15, the Feast of the Assumption.

Processional statue

The main altar is highly ornate with the bishop's chair in the back.

Main altar

3/4 view of the main altar

The pulpit is also gilded marble.

Pulpit

Above is a perspective painting of a dome, fooling the eye into seeing a dome that isn't there!

Above the altar

Detail of the "dome"

On the south transept is an altar dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, with an effigy of Pope Pius IX below.

Pius IX, in effigy

Another altar has an effigy of St. Ursula, patron of Gozo.

St. Ursula, in effigy

A statue of Christ beneath the Cross (c. 1700) is another example of Baroque detail. This statue is taken around the town in procession on Good Friday.

Christ beneath the Cross

The cathedral also has a museum that we didn't visit.