Victoria (in Gozo) and the Cittadella!

Victoria is the capital city of the island of Gozo. It has a population of around 7000 people, and has been settled since the Neolithic Times (at least 4000 years!) Victoria is its British name, given in 1887, but its original name was Rabat. You can still see the name Rabat on signs in some places.

We often walk into Victoria because that is where the restaurants are... and the best gelato 😀 The walk in is about 2 km to the outskirts of town. We used google maps at first to find our way, which involves a big walk down into the valley, and then up a big hill before winding through the small streets. After walking this very hilly route multiple times, we met up with some new friends in Kercem who showed us the easier walk into Victoria! Just go left instead of right and you'll end up right at the main street. 😀 Google maps, why do you torture us so??!!

The small streets are beautiful!

Many of the houses have these beautiful old wooden balconies.

Victoria has no less than 20 churches! That is a substantial amount for a population of nearly 7000 people. It seems that everywhere you turn you see a church!

One of the most interesting things to see in Malta is the Cittadella. From the main street you head up this cute street (notice more of those beautiful wooden balconies!)

The Cittadella is a large fortified city that was populated as far back as the Bronze Age. In medieval times it was transformed into a castle and called the Gran Castello (I think that is what I will call my house when I win the lottery 😉 ). Over time it became too small to house its population and the rest of Victoria was built out around it.

In 1551 they were attacked by the Ottomans and most of the Gozitans were taken as slaves. We read that a few managed to escape by scaling down the walls... which must have been incredibly frightening. I could barely look over the edge of the walls in some places!

The view from the Cittadella is quite breath-taking (just don't look straight down!)

The Cittadella is also quite interesting inside. There are lots of historical places and museums you can visit. They seem to cost about 3 Euros each, but it looked like you could get a pass to see 4 for 8 Euros. We didn't do this as everything was closing at 4:00 and it was already 3:00 when we arrived. We'll go back another day. 😀

One of the places that looked interesting was the old prisons. This was just outside the door...

Without going into the museums and exhibitions you could still see a lot of interesting things. The ruins at the back side of the Cittadella were particularly fascinating for me.

There were lots of little passages and interesting buildings to peek into!

I said to Steve, "It feels like we have a lot of photos of me peeking into windows and holes in the wall!"

One place we did go inside was the old grain silos. These were deep underground in case of attack. It was very cool to walk into the tunnels and then inside the silos.

One of the other things you could see in this area was the WWII bomb shelters. Quite a frightening reminder of what it must have been like when they were under attack during the war.

If you are in Gozo, definitely take a walk up to the Cittadella. There are lots of interesting historical things to see, and amazing views around the island of Gozo!