On a hilltop visible from all over Gozo, this walled town is the island's major landmark. You take in the views from its ramparts, then step inside a cathedral whose dome is only painted on its flat ceiling.
Fortress, Victoria. Meridian Dispatch.
From March to December the centre opens Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00. In January and February it is also closed on Wednesdays. It closes on 1 January, Good Friday and 24, 25 and 31 December.
Yes. The fortress is an open public heritage site, open all year round, 24 hours a day, free of charge. It can be visited even when the Visitors' Centre is closed.
The Heritage Malta Ċittadella ticket gives one admission each to the Gran Castello Historic House, the Old Prison and the Citadel Visitor Centre. It is sold through the Heritage Malta online store.
Bus route 301 runs from Mġarr Harbour to Victoria, and drivers can follow the road signs for Victoria from the harbour. From the centre of Victoria the Cittadella is reached on foot, and the last stretch climbs uphill.
Both need a separate ticket, sold at the Cathedral shop, because the Heritage Malta ticket does not cover them. As a rule neither opens on Sundays or public holidays, so plan them for another day of the week.
The entrance hall was a common cell in the 19th century and now hosts a selection of graffiti casts, including a 16th-century carrack graffito. Prison-related objects are also on show, among them part of a wooden set of stocks.
The Cittadella is a walled town on the hilltop above Victoria. Gozitans sheltered behind these walls during Ottoman and Barbary raids, and in July 1551 an Ottoman force besieged and sacked it.
The Cathedral of the Assumption stands within the walls, on the site of an earlier church. Look up once inside: the Sicilian artist Antonio Manuele painted the ceiling as a trompe-l'œil of the inside of a dome that was never built.
The Cathedral Museum fills a small building behind the cathedral. Elsewhere in the lanes are the Old Prison, the Gran Castello Historic House and the Gozo Nature Museum.
The old military buildings are part of the walk too: the Old Gunpowder Magazine, the Grain Silos, the Battery and a World War II Shelter.
From Independence Square (It-Tokk) in Victoria, turn right up It-Telgħa tal-Belt. The entrance is about five minutes' walk uphill, just beneath the bastion walls.
Start at the Cittadella Visitors' Centre by the entrance, set in two restored water reservoirs from the 1870s. Touch screens and printed panels cover the site's nature and its military, church and civil history, and a surround theatre shows a nine-minute film, all in eight languages. After the film, carry on uphill into the walled town and its lanes.
In summer the heat outdoors can be intense, so see the ticketed sites first and keep the ramparts for later in the day.
If you drive, the car park beneath the fortifications fills up quickly. There is street parking nearby, and the closest public car parks in Victoria are a 10 to 15 minute walk, mostly uphill.
Lifts have replaced most of the steps inside the walls, but most passages still have a steep gradient, so wheelchair users will need someone to help them around.
To go on to Ta' Pinu, take bus 308 from Victoria bus station.
You can walk the Cittadella's ramparts in Victoria, Gozo's capital, after dinner, and in the morning catch a bus from the terminal below to any corner of the island.
Read the Victoria guideExplore the rest of Victoria
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