Gozo’s rich early history makes for some fascinating archaeological tourism. The Ġgantija Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are also sites from the Bronze Age and the mysterious cart ruts.
The story goes that Malta has enough churches to visit a different one every day of the year. This is very nearly true and the concentration of churches in Gozo is just as dense. Every little village has its own church. They are often huge in comparison with the population they serve, but a good church is a matter of religious pride and Gozo’s villages are traditionally religious.
The churches vary enormously, from seventeenth-century baroque to twentieth-century neoclassical, from small and intimate to one of the largest dome in the world, from serving simple parish duties to the welcoming pilgrims from all over the world. The churches are usually open for mass in the early morning and evening and in Gozo they rarely close during the day so you can drop in whenever you wish – to pray or just to take a look around.
A string of holy niches (street shrines) bearing the statues of esteemed saints garland Gozo’s towns and villages. They are often closely connected with local cultural, historical and religious heritage as well as myth and legend. Our forefathers openly displayed their devotion to a particular saint by displaying his or her image in a decorative niche on the façade or corner of their home and many have been carefully maintained for generations.
A string of holy niches (street shrines) bearing the statues of esteemed saints garland Gozo’s towns and villages. They are often closely connected with local cultural, historical and religious heritage as well as myth and legend. Our forefathers openly displayed their devotion to a particular saint by displaying his or her image in a decorative niche on the façade or corner of their home and many have been carefully maintained for generations.
Gozo’s holy niches are dedicated to a variety of saints, but due to a particular historical attachment to Our Lady, the majority of niches venerate the Holy Mother under one or other of her titles. Many of the niches were carved by amateurs and a few by established artists. They vary hugely in quality from the basic to the highly skilled. A fine example is the niche of St. John the Baptist in ix-Xewkija that was carved by the famous Gozitan sculptor Wistin Camilleri Cauchi.
Some niches were placed at the beginning of a street that bore the saint’s name. Conversely, some streets have taken their names from nearby niches (for example St Mary Street in ir-Rabat). Other niches were erected to commemorate a holy event or anniversary, while still others were constructed following a vow or in gratitude for deliverance from an accident disease or shipwreck. In certain cases, special graces or Indulgences were granted by the Church to those who stopped for a while to pray in front of a niche.