We decided that we couldn’t leave the archipelago without getting to know Malta’s “little sister”, so we took a ferry and crossed over to the island of Gozo. As soon as we arrived at the port, we felt that everything was much calmer, greener and more rural here. As soon as we reached the shore, we stopped at a small local street vendor and bought some freshly baked Maltese delicacies, and then, snacking on them, we set off with renewed strength to explore the surrounding attractions and the island’s wildly romantic landscapes.
Gozo’s history is lost in the dim past, and its legends go far beyond the mere facts. The island was inhabited as early as the Stone Age, the most significant monument of which is the Ġgantija temple complex. This monumental structure is one of the oldest free-standing stone structures of humanity, built around 3600 BC and, according to folk tradition, built by giantesses. For mythology lovers, Gozo has another name: it is the island of Ogygia, where in Homer’s Odyssey the nymph Calypso held Odysseus captive for seven years with her spell, in a cave overlooking Ramla Bay that can still be visited today.
In ancient times, Gozo (then known as Gaulos) followed the fate of Malta. It came under Phoenician, Carthaginian and then Roman rule, and functioned as an important trading post. In the early Middle Ages, the Arabs and then the Sicilian Normans left their mark here, but this was a very uncertain period for the island’s inhabitants. The coastal settlements were constantly under threat from pirates and Muslim raiders, so the population retreated to the Citadel, a fortress built on a high hill in the middle of the island, for protection at night.
The island’s most tragic event occurred in 1551, when a large Ottoman army attacked Gozo under the rule of the Knights of the Order. The invaders captured almost the entire population – some 5,000 to 6,000 people – and took them as slaves to Libya. Gozo was virtually depopulated and it took decades for it to be repopulated with settlers from Malta. The Knights subsequently fortified the Citadel and the island’s agricultural importance began to grow again, supplying the Order with food and cotton.
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Gozo made history again when it existed as a formally independent state for a short time during the Napoleonic Wars, between 1798 and 1800, under the name of the State of Gozo, before becoming a British protectorate. Under British rule, the island’s isolation slowly eased and infrastructure developed, but Gozo has always maintained a more conservative, religious and traditional character than the bustling mainland.
Today, Gozo is an integral part of modern Malta, yet it is a completely different world. Its economy is now based on quality tourism, crafts and agriculture. Although the famous Azure Window was lost to the sea during a storm in 2017, the island continues to attract divers and hikers with its pristine beaches and baroque churches, such as the Ta’ Pinu Basilica. Today, Gozo aims to be a model of ecological development, where the silence of millennia of history and modern hospitality live in perfect balance.
