Victoria, also known among the native Maltese as Rabat or by its title Città Victoria, is an administrative unit of Malta, the largest and most prominent city of Gozo,. Victoria has a total population of 6,901, and by population, is the largest locality in Gozo.
Fort St. Angelo is a bastioned fort in Birgu, Malta, located at the centre of the Grand Harbour. It was originally built in the medieval period as a castle called the Castrum Maris. It was rebuilt by the Order of Saint John as a bastioned fort called Fort Saint Angelo between the 1530s and the 1560s, and it is best known for its role as the Order's headquarters during the Great Siege of Malta of 1565. A major reconstruction to designs of Carlos de Grunenbergh took place in the 1690s, giving the fort its current appearance.
Wignacourt Tower, also known as Saint Paul's Bay Tower, is a bastioned watchtower in St. Paul's Bay, Malta. It was the first of six Wignacourt towers to be built, and it was completed in 1610. It replaced the role of Ta' Tabibu farmhouse which was previously known as Dejma Tower. An artillery battery was added a century later in 1715. Today the tower is a museum.
The Grandmaster's Palace, officially known as The Palace, is a palace in Valletta, Malta. It was built between the 16th and 18th centuries as the palace of the Grand Master of the Order of St. John, who ruled Malta, and was also known as the Magisterial Palace. It eventually became the Governor's Palace, and it currently houses the Office of the President of Malta. Parts of the building, namely the Palace State Rooms and the Palace Armouryare open to the public as a museum run by Heritage Malta. The building is currently undergoing a major restoration project with only part of the armoury accessible to the public via the entrance on Merchant's Street.
Maltese architecture has its origins in prehistory, and some of the oldest free-standing structures on Earth – a series of megalithic temples – can be found on Malta. The islands were colonized by the Phoenicians and later the Romans, who established the cities of Melite and Gaulos. Although these were substantial settlements and are known to have had numerous temples, churches and palaces, few remains have survived apart from some architectural fragments.
Heritage Malta is the Maltese national agency for museums, conservation practice and cultural heritage. Created by the Cultural Heritage Act, enacted in 2002, the national agency replaced the former Museums Department.
The Cittadella, also known as the Castello, is the citadel of Victoria on the island of Gozo, Malta. The area has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, and the site now occupied by the Cittadella is believed to have been the acropolis of the Punic-Roman city of Gaulos or Glauconis Civitas.
The Inquisitor's Palace, also known as the Sacred Palace, is a palace in Birgu, Malta. It was the seat of the Maltese Inquisition from 1574 to 1798, under the name Palazzo del Sant'Officio. The building was originally constructed as a courthouse known as the Castellania in the early 16th century, but little remains of the original building due to major alterations and renovations carried out in the subsequent centuries.
The Gozo Museum of Archaeology is a museum in the Cittadella of Victoria in Gozo, Malta. The museum of was opened in 1960 as the first public museum in Gozo and was known as the Gozo Museum. The museum was redesigned and reopened in 1986 as the Archaeology Museum of Gozo. Today it is known as the Gozo Museum of Archaeology or the National Museum of Archaeology. The museum features archaeological artifacts and relics and displays covering the cultural history of the Island of Gozo from the prehistoric era to the early modern period. Its exhibits include the Maymūnah Stone.
The Gozo Nature Museum, formerly known as the Natural Science Museum, is a museum in Victoria, on the island of Gozo, Malta. It has been open to public since 1991. It is housed in a group of houses within the Cittadella, the oldest part of the city. These houses date back to various ages: the older one, which was an inn, to 1495; the other to the 17th century.
Fort Chambray or Fort Chambrai is a bastioned fort located in the precincts of Għajnsielem, on the island of Gozo, Malta. It was built in the mid-18th century by the Order of Saint John, in an area known as Ras it-Tafal, between the port of Mġarr and Xatt l-Aħmar. The fort was meant to be the citadel of a new city which was to replace the Cittadella as the island's capital, but this plan never materialized.
The Gozitan Nation, commonly known as Gozo, was an unrecognised state located on the island of Gozo between 1798 and 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was a monarchy ruled by King Ferdinand III of Sicily with a provisional government led by Governor-general Saverio Cassar. Its capital was Rabat. The country was established between 28 and 29 October 1798 from the territory of French-occupied Malta and was eventually incorporated into Malta Protectorate on 20 August 1801.
The fortifications of Malta consist of a number of walled cities, citadels, forts, towers, batteries, redoubts, entrenchments and pillboxes. The fortifications were built over thousands of years, from around 1450 BC to the mid-20th century, and they are a result of the Maltese islands' strategic position and natural harbours, which have made them very desirable for various powers.
The fortifications of Birgu are a series of defensive walls and other fortifications which surround the city of Birgu, Malta. The first fortification to be built was Fort Saint Angelo in the Middle Ages, and the majority of the fortifications were built between the 16th and 18th centuries by the Order of Saint John. Most of the fortifications remain largely intact today.
The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Cittadella of Victoria in Gozo, Malta. The cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, and it has been the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gozo since the formation of the diocese in 1864.
Ras il-Wardija is a promontory in the limits of San Lawrenz, on the southwest coast of Gozo, Malta. It contains the remains of a Punic-Roman sanctuary, which was excavated by Italian archaeologists in the 1960s. The area is privately owned and it is currently in a dilapidated state.
Wardija is a hamlet in St. Paul's Bay, Malta, about 363 feet above sea level. Its name is corrupted from the Sicilian or Italian word guardia, meaning 'to watch'). Although the name of the hamlet has Arabic lexicons, it was probably named later when Maltese, then an Arabic dialect, remained a dominant language. The hamlet is bordered with Bidnija, Buġibba, San Martin and Pwales. Several archeological remains are found in the whereabouts, proving that it was inhabited in pre-history and the Roman period, and it has always been mainly a rural village. From the 16th till the 18th-centuries it saw a shift into a hunting zone with the construction of several hunting lodges and chapels.
Castello Dei Baroni is a 20th-century residence in Wardija, Malta. In the 18th-century, during the magistracy of Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc, a rural building was constructed on site. The Montalto family owned the whereabouts of its site in the 20th-century, and built the Castello Dei Baroni, incorporating the old structure. It was then purchased by Adrian Busietta and Maria Caruana, when it was renovated into a mock castle and given its name. It has since then mainly served as a wedding reception.
