Tour Audio a Victoria

The locals still call it Rabat. The official name Victoria was imposed in 1887 to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and after 140 years the Gozitans have not entirely forgiven the imposition. On the island of Gozo in the Maltese archipelago, the capital sits in the center on a hill, visible from the sea in three directions. The Cittadella, the fortress on the hilltop, has been continuously fortified since the Phoenicians, extended by Romans, rebuilt by Arabs, and finally given its current form by the Knights of St. John after 1599, following the catastrophic Ottoman raid of 1551 that enslaved the entire population of the island.

The Cathedral of the Assumption, inside the Cittadella, was begun in the 17th century but the funds ran out before the dome could be built.

The solution was a trompe-l'oeil ceiling painting that depicts a dome from below, so convincingly rendered that visitors who do not know tend not to notice until they step back. The architect was Lorenzo Gafa. The ceiling is one of the better architectural deceptions in the Mediterranean. Twenty-three churches serve a town of fewer than 7,000 people.