page_title: Cittadella (Gozo)
section_title: Fortifications
hierarchical_section_title: Cittadella (Gozo) / Architecture / Fortifications
caption_attribution_description: English: Medieval sally-port on north enceinte - Citadel This media is about Maltese cultural property with inventory number 01472.
context_page_description: 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.
  During the medieval period, the acropolis was converted into a castle which served as a refuge for Gozo's population. A suburb began to develop outside its walls by the 15th century, and this area now forms the historic core of Victoria. The castle's defences were obsolete by the 16th century, and in 1551 an Ottoman force invaded Gozo and sacked the Cittadella.
  A major reconstruction of the southern walls of the Cittadella was undertaken between 1599 and 1622, transforming it into a gunpowder fortress. The northern walls were left intact, and today they still retain a largely medieval form. The new fortifications were criticized in later decades, and plans to demolish the entire citadel were made multiple times in the 17th and 18th centuries, but were never carried out.
context_section_description: The fortifications of the Cittadella consist of a semi-circular enceinte in the northern end of the city, and bastions linked together with curtain walls in the south. The northern walls are built on the perimeter of the natural plateau, so they were difficult to attack. They were originally built in the 15th century, although large portions of the walls were rebuilt by the Hospitallers or in modern times. The northern walls include the remains of a collapsed medieval wall tower, a blocked-up sally port, a lookout post and some walled-up windows. Masonry revetments are built in depressions within the cliff face below the northern walls.
  The southern perimeter of the city consists of a 17th-century bastioned enceinte which was built by the Hospitallers. A large arrowhead-shaped bastion known as St. Michael's Bastion is built at the southernmost end of the city, while two demi-bastions – St. Martin's and St. John's Demi-Bastions – are located at the west and east ends of the city. Flat-roofed échauguettes are built on the salient of each demi-bastion. St. Michael's Bastion also had an echaugette but this was replaced by a clock tower in 1858. A small gunpowder magazine is located at the junction between St. John's Demi-Bastion and the medieval enceinte.
  The bastions are linked together by curtain walls. The one between St. Martin's Demi-Bastion and St. Michael's Bastion contains the Main Gate, a modern arched opening and a clock tower. The wall between St. Michael's Bastion and St. John's Demi-Bastion is known as St. Philip's Curtain, and its upper part contains slit-like openings which open into a series of magazines which are now used as craft shops. These rooms support a walkway along the ramparts.
  Cavaliers were also built close to each demi-bastion. St. Martin's Cavalier is located between the medieval enceinte and St. Martin's Demi-Bastion, and it is only partially intact, its upper portions having been pulled down. St. John's Cavalier, which is found near St. John's Demi-Bastion and the rear of the cathedral, was completed in 1614. A freestanding room was constructed on its roof in 1701 for use as a gunpowder magazine.
  A pentagonal artillery battery known as the Low Battery is grafted below the walls at the easternmost extremity of the fortress, close to St. John's Demi-Bastion. The southern perimeter of the Cittadella is surrounded by a ditch, which originally extended from St. Martin's Demi-Bastion to the Low Battery but now begins at St. Michael's Bastion due to 19th-century alterations. A covertway with a single place-of-arms runs along the ditch. A steep glacis was located outside the covertway, but this has been built up. A small triangular ravelin stands near the entrance to the city, but this has lost most of its original stonework and has been converted into a garden, losing its legibility as part of the fortress in the process.
caption: The medieval sally port on northern enceinte of the Cittadella
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