The Gozo Citadel will have its own Master and Conservation Plan that forms the basis of all future interventions on this historical site. Funding has been recently secured under the EEA Financial Mechanisms. The Ministry for Gozo has already set up a working group to formulate the necessary tender for the carrying out of the required studies.

The project was launched on the 10th of May, during a press conference by the Honorable Giovanna Debono, Minister for Gozo, at the Citadel. By a fortunate coincidence, the National Archives (Gozo section) had planned some months back that the exhibition on the occasion of the Archives Awareness Week for the year 2007 would be related to the Gozo Citadel.

The National Archives (Gozo section) - the NAG - serves as the deposit for the records produced or received by Government entities in Gozo in the transaction of their affairs. It is housed in a purposely built hall adjacent to the Public Library of Gozo. It was officially inaugurated on the 24th of November 1989 by Dr Ugo Mifsud-Bonnici, then Minister of Education, and Anton Tabone, then Minister for Gozo. Eighteen years later, the NAG has received deposits from twenty-six different Government entities. Each entity is divided into as many sections as is deemed necessary to reflect the various responsibilities or activities of that entity. The number of items deposited is nearing 10,000.

Gozo has been inhabited by humans for the past 7000 years and, it is possible, that the Citadel has been the main centre of activity since early times. Its position together with its covering of red top soil made it an ideal temple site but successive generations wiped away any remains. The present buildings and fortifications date to late medieval and early modern times. The Gozo Citadel, it was affirmed by Minister Debono, is important both as a heritage site, as well as a tourist attraction.

The exhibition will feature a number of documents related to the Citadel, plans of the fortifications, maps, and old photographs. These were selected from several of the twenty-six entities whose records are deposited at the Archives.

Concurrently, there will also be an exhibition of three hundred and fifty photographs shot by Daniel Cilia, a photographer of international fame, at the beginning of his photographic career. These photos are a picture record on the state of the Citadel of Gozo in the 1980s. Since then, a good amount of restoration has taken place.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on Thursday the 18th of October, by the Minister for Gozo, Giovanna Debono, to coincide with the Archives Awareness Week, to be held between the 22nd and 27th of October. The exhibition will however run up to Saturday the 3rd of November. It is mounted within the premises of the National Archives, Gozo Section, in Triq Vajringa, Victoria, Gozo. It will be open from Monday to Saturday from 8.00am to 1.00pm and on Wednesdays, up to 6.00pm. Entrance is free of charge.

This year the exhibition is being sponsored by HSBC (Gozo) and an exhibition catalogue will be available.

The photograph above, which can be enlarged by clicking on it, is of an artistic impression of the Citadel as depicted in the map of Malta and Gozo reproduced by Jean Quintin d'Autun in his book Insulae Melitae Descriptio ex commentariis rerum quotidianarum, printed in Lugduni (Lyons) in the year 1536.

The bell-tower of the Matrice - built sometime after 1424 - dominates the Citadel - one of the pictorial exhibits at the exhibition - The Citadel - the crown of Gozo.