Cathedral, Assumption of Mary, Cittadella

Cathedral, Assumption of Mary, Cittadella

A temple of Juno during Roman times is likely to have have been built on earlier pre-historic structures. This was, in time, superceded by a Byzantine church dedicated to the Dormizio (the sleeping) of Our Lady, a Greek Christian tradition referring to the three days prior to Her Assumption. As had happened to the Cathedral in Malta, the Byzantine church was destroyed by the Arabs who succeeded the Byzantines.

Following the return of Christianity to the islands, the earliest reference to a church within the Cittadella is of 1299 when Malta was a fiefdom under the rule of the Kingdom of Norman Sicily. The Normans where Roman (or Latin) Christians. The Assumption of Mary, a Latin Christian development of the Marian devotion of the “Dormizio” is celebrated on the 15th August and is one of the most popular Marian devotions in the Maltese islands. It is only in 1950, when Pius XII was pope, that this devotion – of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven – became Church dogma.

In 1551 the Citadel was besieged by Dragut and and the church was badly damaged in the attack. However, it was restored and services had resumed by 1554.

It was sadly, very badly damaged in the 1693 earthquake and as a consequence it was demolished and a new church constructed on the same site. The new church was designed by the same architect that designed the Mdina Cathedral, Lorenzo Gafa.

It was not before the 19th century that the church was elevated to a Cathedral when Gozo was elevated to Diocese in 1864.

From the Cathedral, we exit the Cittadella and head towards the ancient church known as Ta Savina, also in Rabat, Gozo before continuing on our way to the village of Gharb.

Piazza Savina in Rabat was the centre of trade and commerce, with open markets outside the Citadel gates for centuries. Just off this square is an old church dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, but known colloqually as Ta’ Savina church (deriving its name from the Rabat square). The first church on this site was one of the oldest in Gozo, arugably from the time of the Normans. It is also mentioned in notorial deeds of the 15th century (defore the advent of the knights of St. John). Together with the churches of St. George and St. James, also in Rabat, the Savina church used to attend to the spiritual needs of the faithful at night, after the Citadel gates were closed and the parish church of Assumption of Our Lady inaccessible for people living outide the city walls. Although both St James and ta’ Savina churches diminished in importance, the church yard of the latter was still in use until the late 19th century.

From the ta’ Savina Church we continue towards Gharb and the parish church of the Visitation of Our Lady.