Malta

Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo)

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The Citadel is located on a hilltop north of the city centre of Victoria on the island of Gozo.

The hill has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and became the administrative centre of the island in Phoenician and Roman times. During the medieval period the hill was converted into a castle. The most important landmark is the Cathedral of the Assumption built at the end of the 17th century.

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo) (ID: 981)
Country
Malta
Status
On tentative list 1998 Site history
History of Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo)
1998: Added to Tentative List
Added to tentative list
Criteria
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UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
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UNESCO.org

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  • Community Category
  • Urban landscape: Post-medieval European
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First published: 05/04/25.

Caspar

Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo)

Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo) (On tentative list)

Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo) by Caspar Dechmann

Victoria has a few things going for it: Firstly the view from the elevated citadel all over Gozo and beyond is spectacular. The is, when you enter the town walls, a nice compact square with stairs ascending to the Cathedral, with a cupola and impressive baroque tomb stones inside. Downtown, there is another basilica dedicated to St. George with a baldacchino which is an obvious smaller copy of the famous one in St. Peters in the Vatican by Bernini and a lovely, Byzantine chapel with mosaics. Like its sister-town of Mdina on Malta the high walls of the citadel are impressive site from far away and every direction. 

But that is about it! The citadel has very little left beyond the walls and the citadel, large parts consist only of walls and grass. If you compare it to Mdina, which in my opinion has no OUV, it has considerably less to offer. It is lovely as a visual centre of Gozos gorgeous landscape but then you would have to include the entire island. The most outstanding feature are its churches but there are even more impressive churches on Gozo alone, for example the neo-renaissance Parish church in Qala, the neo-baroque Nadur Parish Church, the Xaghra parish church with 20th century frescoes, the huge rotunda of Xewkija, and above all the really stunning Basilica of the National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of Ta' Pinu, imitating italian romanesque style in an english fashion, for me the most beautiful church on …

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First published: 08/05/19.

Ralf Regele

Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo)

Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo) (On tentative list)

Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo) by Ralf Regele

The Cittadella is a tiny walled city in the center of Victoria, the main city on the island of Gozo. However, most houses inside the walls have been abandoned and torn down, so only the church and a few other houses are standing. What is mostly intact are the defensive structures, with large walls, bastions and gun platforms. While there are a number of small museums and attractions inside the cittadella, the best thing to do is walk around the ramparts and enjoy the view. You can see almost the entire island from there.

The biggest problem for the cittadella nomination is that the Mdina tentative site is quite similar, but better. Mdina is bigger, more complete, more beautiful and has more history. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the cittadella, Mdina is just the better choice for a WHS site.

Visited in April 2019.
Importance 2/5 Beauty 3/5 Uniqueness 3/5 Environment 5/5 Experience 3/5

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