View of the Outside of the Citadel, Gozo
Victoria’s citadel, like Mdina’s, sits on a high ledge. From the semicircular battlements running from east to west there is an unrivalled panorama of Gozo, each of the pocket-sized villages being identifiable by their anything but pocket-sized churches. The immense dome of the Xewkija rotunda to the east looks even more splendidly over-the-top from here. Apart from its dramatic vantage point, the citadel’s attraction lies in the colour of its old limestone buildings, whose pallor has warmed with age. There is a diversity of styles within the fortifications.: the Baroque cathedral, diminutive Palazzo Bondi, the derelict Norman area, the bastions and the gutted little alleys.
The original citadel dates back to the Romans, who probably used the 500 foot high bluff, in the centre of the island, as an acropolis for their settlement below. Hardly any traces of this or the 9th-century Arab occupation have survived, however. The 12th-century Norman citadel or Gran Castello was destroyed by Dragut Rais during he disastrous short siege of 1551 (until 1637, the island’s population had to pass the night in the citadel in order to avoid being captured by pirates). The town, within its fortified walls, was rebuilt in fits and starts on the existing plan by a series of grand masters. The present entrance to the citadel was cut through into Cathedral Square in 1957; the original and much smaller on 25 yards further on, known as the Mdina Door, is marked by a Roman inscription dating back to the 2nd century AD.
View of the Outside of the Citadel, Gozo
Victoria’s citadel, like Mdina’s, sits on a high ledge. From the semicircular battlements running from east to west there is an unrivalled panorama of Gozo, each of the pocket-sized villages being identifiable by their anything but pocket-sized churches. The immense dome of the Xewkija rotunda to the east looks even more splendidly over-the-top from here. Apart from its dramatic vantage point, the citadel’s attraction lies in the colour of its old limestone buildings, whose pallor has warmed with age. There is a diversity of styles within the fortifications.: the Baroque cathedral, diminutive Palazzo Bondi, the derelict Norman area, the bastions and the gutted little alleys.
The original citadel dates back to the Romans, who probably used the 500 foot high bluff, in the centre of the island, as an acropolis for their settlement below. Hardly any traces of this or the 9th-century Arab occupation have survived, however. The 12th-century Norman citadel or Gran Castello was destroyed by Dragut Rais during he disastrous short siege of 1551 (until 1637, the island’s population had to pass the night in the citadel in order to avoid being captured by pirates). The town, within its fortified walls, was rebuilt in fits and starts on the existing plan by a series of grand masters. The present entrance to the citadel was cut through into Cathedral Square in 1957; the original and much smaller on 25 yards further on, known as the Mdina Door, is marked by a Roman inscription dating back to the 2nd century AD.