We had signed up for another Heritage Malta event, a Heritage Trail tour around Gozo. What better way to learn some interesting things about sites in Gozo than with experts who have worked to renovate and keep historical and archeological places preserved. But our challenge was to be in Gozo by 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning. This meant being on the #222 bus by its scheduled arrival time at our stop of 7:04, and then catching the 8:15 ferry in Cirkewwa.
So out the door we went at 6:55 a.m. The bus stop for going north is just down the block so no worries being there in time. But, the bus didn’t show up until about 7:20. With an estimated travel time of about 50 minutes to Cirkewwa, I was fearful we’d miss the ferry and then be late for the start of the tour. As we were getting on an already rather full bus, a nice gentleman stood up to give Christine his seat. Lo and behold, it was Carol’s husband Joe. What a surprise! How nice to see him. He’s such a dear man. He talked with Christine about a visit to the cemetery where some of the Caruana and Chetcuti family are buried. Joe has agreed to take us to the family chapel at Addolorata Cemetery. So that quick conversation ended as Joe left the bus in St. Julian’s to go to work.
After that, I was sweating bullets about the time. A seat was available next to an older woman who got on at our stop with 2 other people she was traveling with. We smiled and exchanged a few words. Later, I saw her on the ferry, so now I know why she looked at her watch every 2 minutes. I was getting more and more anxious and the bus was getting more and more crowded. What this did was slow the bus down. We have 3 especially steep hills to climb on the bus and with a loaded bus, the bus crawls up these steep hills.
We did get to Cirkewwa at 8:10, so everyone on the bus raced across the street and in to the terminal. Fortunately, we made it in time and we were off for the 25 minutes ferry ride to Mgarr, Gozo. We had met an expat from the UK, Rich, who was now living in Gozo, at our Ghar Dalam event. We learned that he was a volunteer with Heritage Malta and Wirt Ghawdex, Gozo’s heritage keeping organization, so we asked him about where to meet for our Gozo tour. He said there would be a greeter with a sign outside the ferry terminal. Well, out the door of the terminal we went looking for a Heritage Malta greeter. We didn’t see anyone, asked a couple of people if they knew where we should meet for a Heritage Malta tour, and got no help. I had read that one of the tour stops was to a restored boat at the Mgarr Harbor, so we asked a taxi driver where that was. He pointed us across the harbor and down a road along the harbor. Off we went to the Latini boat location. It took about 15 minutes to walk there, but we didn’t see anyone. So, we walked back to the ferry terminal, another 15 minutes. As we were getting to the terminal, Christine spotted Rich, and so we headed over to him. And wouldn’t you know it, the tour guy didn’t make the 8:15 ferry from Cirkewwa, and so the start of the tour was delayed until he arrived. Go figure!
Eventually, about 30 of us piled into a bus and headed to our first tour stop, the Latini boat across the harbor. This boat is an important part of navigation history in Gozo. Although the boat itself is not all that old, originally built around 1930, these types of boats were very important in Gozo as a means of getting produce to market in Valletta and bringing back supplies. The name of this type of boat is dghajsa tal-latini, and this boat on display is the last surviving one. Also known as the Gozo boat, this is a dghajsa on steroids!
The boat moved both cargo and passengers, but maybe not at the same time. Picture this boat with cows standing in it! Our tour guide did say that all things, including livestock, were moved in this boat.
One of its unique features was its sails. The Latini boat gets its name from the type of sails, lateen sails, it used. These lateen sails were Roman in origin and could be found around the Mediterranean, especially in Egypt. There are two masts in the Latini and when the sails are hoisted, they rather look like butterfly wings. Wind power was the only way this boat moved. Its an iconic image and even a town in Gozo has this image on its town crest.
The boat on display was originally built by a Caruana, and it was renovated by the original builder’s sons. Also, I was amazed to learn that during WWII, the British commandeered this boat and sailed it to Alexandria, where it was used to move cargo around the British fleet.
Our next stop was St. Cecilia’s Chapel. Probably built in the late 1400s or early 1500s, this is the oldest surviving chapel in Gozo. Dedicated to St Cecilia, patroness of sacred music, it functioned intermittently as a church until 1644 when it was declared unfit for the celebration of mass and deconsecrated. After that, it was used in multiple ways, including as a barn.
This small stone church is the best example of the many unaisled chapels that once dotted the countryside of Gozo. Like other late medieval chapels it is a plain cube except for the slight pitch of the roof. Its floor measures seven by seven meters, nearly a perfect square. It is divided into four bays by three slightly pointed arches rising from wall piers to hold up the shallow pitched stone roof. At the entrance, three steps lead down to the chapel floor which is about a meter below ground level. The only light source inside is a single rectangular window over the door. In 1613, a neighboring tower was built which afforded some protection to the farming community around the chapel.
During its renovation by Wirt Ghawdex, in order to structurally support the chapel’s main wall which was deteriorating badly, an adjoining small stone building was constructed in such a way that its arches support the chapel wall.
One interesting little tidbit is that over the years, people carved images into the chapel walls as a way of seeking blessings and protection. So, as you look around the chapel, you can still find small images, rather like petroglyphs, carved into the wall, especially boats by fishermen asking for safe passage.
Next to the chapel were some lovely little farm fields and we were surprised to see that one was growing palm trees. It looked beautiful.
Then it was off to ir-Rabat, or Victoria, and the Citadel. As are many fortified cities, the Citadel is visible from far away as it sits at the top of a limestone hill. This area has been inhabited since the Bronze Age. The Phoenicians and then the Romans further developed the city into an acropolis. During Medieval times, the settlement was turned into a castle known as the Gran Castello. This area became too small for the growing population, so the suburb of Rabat began growing outside the castle walls. During the control of the Aragonese, the Ottomans invaded the area in 1551 and took 5,000-6,000 people from the Citadel as slaves. Then the Knights took over and the Citadel was enlarged and bigger, better bastions and gunneries were built. But over time, the Citadel deteriorated and was pretty much in ruins. An extensive renovation has been undertaken for the past couple of decades, and is still going on. There is so much construction going on that I found it to be a detraction to the historical feeling of the place.
One thing for sure is that the view from the bastions of the Citadel are spectacular.
We toured the gunpowder magazine, which was recently renovated. Then we toured the grain silos, which were quite interesting. The Knights had dug these huge grain storage silos directly down into the limestone. Three of them have been found and renovated. They are vast vase-shaped openings having a narrow neck and wide bottom. When the British took control in the 1800s, these grain silos were converted into water reservoirs. To get to the silos, one has to walk hunched over down this long, dark tunnel through the limestone and then you enter a silo chamber. It was all pretty dark, so photos weren’t very good, but it was quite something to be in these chambers.
We then walked around the bastions. There are various levels so lots of stairs were involved. But the views were great. During our tour it was noon and the cathedral bells were ringing, a special Corpus Christi day, so the bells rang for a long time and there were, what sounded like, some cannon shots as well. During WWII, this massive stone fortress was used to shelter people and many, many small square rooms were dug into the limestone.
Here’s a bit of video that recorded the church bells.
After our Citadel tour, we walked back down into Rabat. We were more than ready for a sit-down and lunch, so we persuaded our guide to break then, and not wait for the next stop. Christine and I sat in a café in Independence Square. We had been in this square during our last visit to Gozo. After lunch, we were to meet up with our tour group in St. George’s Square. Before everyone arrived, St. George’s church doors opened so we took a quick peek inside. What a beautiful church!
The church, which is now a basilica, was built between 1672 and 1678. It was commissioned by Grand Master Wignacourt, the same guy who built some of the garrison watch towers that you’ve seen photos of in earlier posts.
Onward our tour went to the Ta’ Kola windmill. I really liked this place. It was interesting and I learned about what it was like to be a miller. The Knights had lots of windmills built around Gozo. Bread was the major food consumed by the Maltese and so the Knights had windmills built to ensure that flour was available for making bread. Ta’ Kola was built in 1725.
The miller rented the windmill from the Knights, and later the local government, but the windmill was essentially passed down from father to son so the same family would perform the milling operation for generations. Farmers would grow wheat. When there was a harvest and wheat to be milled, the miller would create a sound from the top of the tower to indicate that milling would be done that day. Farmers brought their wheat, it was weighted, and then milled communally. The farmers would then receive whatever amount of flour they were owed by weight.
The grinding mechanisms were located at the top of the tower. I can’t imagine how they got those huge grindstones up to the top. The wheat would also be hauled to the top of the tower and fed into the grindstones. The milled flour would be bagged and lowered down to the ground. The grindstones were powered entirely by wind. The top of the windmill tower was also able to be revolved towards whatever direction the wind was blowing. There were six windmill arms that were covered in cloth to catch the wind which then turned the grindstone mechanism.
The miller and his family lived in the building surrounding the tower. This was an entirely stone structure and so it was pretty rugged living as the walls and floor were hard, bare stone. The miller had to be both a carpenter and a blacksmith because he had to do all the maintenance and repairs required to keep the mill working. His community depended upon him and his mill. Also, weaving was required in order to make the sails for the windmill arms. The last miller to live in and operate this windmill was there until 1987. These types of windmills essentially became extinct, so it’s great that this neat place is being preserved.
Our final stop on the tour was the Ggantija temples, Ggantija translated as Giant’s Tower. It got this name because of the size of the stones used in building the temple. Because they were so big, it was thought that giants moved the stones. The Ggantija temples are the earliest Megalithic temples in Malta. There are two temples built side-by-side and enclosed within a wall. The temples are built in the typical clover-leaf shape, with inner facing blocks marking the shape which was then filled in with rubble. This led to the construction of a series of semi-circular apses connected with a central passages. Archeologists believe that the apses were originally covered by roofing. The structures are all the more impressive for having been constructed at a time when no metal tools were available to the natives of the Maltese Islands, and when the wheel had not yet been introduced. Small, spherical stones have been discovered. They are believed to have been used as ball-bearings to transport the enormous stone blocks required for the temples’ construction. Items found in and around the temple demonstrate the use of personal decorative items. And, the animal bones found indicate there may have been animal sacrifices occurring. But, as with all the other temples in Malta, we really do not know why these temples were built or how they were used.
And so our tour came to an end and we returned to the ferry terminal. We were smart earlier in the day because we bought our return tickets this morning, having learned from our last trip to Gozo that the terminal is a crazy zoo of disorganized lines trying to buy tickets and get through the turnstiles. We were able to get through the turnstiles with relative ease and were happily on the ferry for our 25 minute ride to Cirkewwa.
And then to the bus stop. Our time there was a bit easier than last time, since we kind of knew the drill. Our bus came within about 15 or 20 minutes and we got seats. But then, a near fight broke out between a passenger trying to board and the bus driver. The driver really lit in to this guy about not having paid for tickets for his group, or something. The driver stormed off the bus after very heated words were exchanged. The driver called for a bus monitor to come, but that didn’t cool things down any. There was a shove, and I thought fists were going to fly. I couldn’t believe how they were yelling at each other. The monitor finally got the passenger away from the driver, who got back into his seat. Some people left the bus and Christine and I wondered if the driver would be in any frame of mind to drive safely, seeing how angry he was. But, we stayed on and off we went. Fortunately, there were no further problems, but wow, was it scary there with all the “in your face” yelling that had gone on.
We were very happy to get home, kick off our shoes, have a beverage and something to eat, and relax for the rest of the evening. All in all, it was an interesting and educational day and we saw some neat things.