What it is like
Gozo’s only town, and the one place on the island where you queue: at the bank, at the pharmacy, at the lights on the ring road. It-Tokk, properly Pjazza Indipendenza, is the centre of it, with the Banca Giuratale of 1733 to 1738 on one side and a morning market smaller than the guidebooks imply. The Ċittadella sits above the town, walled and visible from most of the island.
What is actually here
Inside the Ċittadella: the Cathedral, the Museum of Archaeology, the Folklore Museum, the Nature Museum, the Old Prison, the Old Gunpowder Magazine, grain silos and a WWII shelter. The Cathedral’s dome is a painting on a flat roof, done in 1739. The Old Prison holds the largest known collection of historical graffiti in the Maltese islands, cut into the walls by inmates; La Valette served four months in it in 1538.
Down in the town, St George’s Basilica is buried in a knot of narrow streets and is easy to walk past from the outside. Villa Rundle Gardens, laid out by the British in 1910, is the only real shade in the centre.
The two band clubs
Victoria has two rival band clubs, La Stella and the Leone, and each owns an opera house: the Astra and the Aurora. In October both stage a major production, so a town of some seven thousand people puts on two operas in the same month. The rivalry is not a show for visitors. It runs through the shops, the families and the colour of the bunting.
Getting there
Every bus route on Gozo passes through the central terminus, so almost any journey on the island starts or ends here. Parking is the problem: the streets inside the ring road are mostly full by mid morning, and the car parks on the edge of the centre are the realistic option.
When to come
July or mid August for a festa, October for the opera. The Sweet Tooth Festival fills Villa Rundle in early November, and the Ċittadella is lit for the Festival of Lights in spring. Summer afternoons in the centre are hot and there is very little shade.
Questions about Victoria (Rabat)
What is there to see in the Ċittadella?
The Cathedral, the Museum of Archaeology, the Folklore Museum, the Nature Museum, the Old Prison and the Old Gunpowder Magazine, plus grain silos cut into the rock and a WWII shelter. The Visitors Centre charges €5 and some of the museums are ticketed on top of that. Half a day covers it if you go inside everything.
Why does Victoria have two festas?
Because it has two parishes. St George's Basilica celebrates in the week before the third Sunday of July, and the Cathedral in the Ċittadella keeps the Assumption on 15 August. Each parish has its own band club, La Stella and the Leone, and the rivalry between them is what drives both weeks.
Is the Cathedral dome real?
No. The Cathedral has a flat roof, and the dome you appear to be standing under is a trompe l'oeil painting dating from 1739. The belfry is at the back of the building rather than on the front, and it holds five bells.
Where is the moon rock in Gozo?
In the Nature Museum inside the Ċittadella. It is a fragment brought back by Apollo 11 and donated by President Nixon. The museum is small and most visitors walk past it on the way to the Folklore Museum next door.