Victoria is the capital of Gozo and sits in the exact middle of the island, which means every bus, road and errand passes through it. Locals still call it Rabat, its older name, and the two names are used interchangeably on signs. Above the town, on a flat-topped hill, stands the Cittadella: a small fortified city with a cathedral, museums and a wall you can walk in twenty minutes with a view of the entire island.
By Gozo Activities Team 4 September 2026 3 min read
The Citadel
People have lived on this hill since the Bronze Age. The Romans fortified it, the medieval Gozitans were required by law to sleep inside its walls at night for protection from corsairs, and after the disastrous raid of 1551, when the Ottomans carried off most of the island’s population into slavery, the Knights of St John rebuilt the walls into the fortress you see today.
Walk in through the main gate and up to the cathedral square. The Cathedral of the Assumption, built around 1700, has no dome; the money ran out, so a painter created a trompe-l’oeil ceiling that looks like one from below. It is worth the small entry fee for that alone.
Then walk the ramparts. The full circuit takes about twenty minutes and shows you every village on the island, the church domes marking each one, the Malta coast to the south and, on clear days, the Sicilian outline to the north. This is the view to start a Gozo trip with, because everything you do afterwards will be somewhere you saw from here.
The northern half of the Citadel is a maze of ruined medieval houses, restored streets and small museums: archaeology, natural history, folklore and the old prison, whose walls are covered in centuries of prisoners’ graffiti. A combined ticket covers them all.
Victoria below the walls
The town beneath is where Gozo runs its life. It-Tokk, the main square, has a small morning market and the cafés where the island reads the paper. St George’s Basilica, a few streets back, is the opposite of the plain cathedral: every surface is marble and gold. The narrow streets around it are the oldest in town and the best for a wander.
Victoria is also the best place on Gozo to eat and to stock up: bakeries for ftira and pastizzi, the market for fruit and Gozo cheese, and a good spread of restaurants from village cheap to properly good.
When to go
The Citadel is open all day, every day, and free to enter; only the museums and the cathedral charge. Go early in the morning or an hour before sunset for the light and the temperature. Midday in summer on the ramparts is brutal. Festa week in July for St George and in August for the Assumption fills the town with bands, lights and fireworks.
Practical notes
- Getting there. Every bus on Gozo terminates in Victoria, 15 minutes from the Mġarr ferry. Car parks sit below the walls.
- Time. An hour for the walls and the cathedral, half a day with the museums and the town.
- Combine with. Everything. Victoria is the natural start of a Gozo day: north to Marsalforn and the salt pans, west to Dwejra, east to Ġgantija and Ramla, south to Xlendi. Our eBike routes all start here.
For the full picture, read our guide to things to do in Gozo.
