Facade of the Gozo Cathedral

Statue of Santa Marija

Interior of the Church

The Cathedral Church is dedicated to Santa Marija, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. In 1864 Pope Pius IX, whose monument can be seen inside, declared the church the Cathedral of the new diocese of Gozo and Comino. The Cathedral a fine baroque structure in the form of a Latin cross, is built entirely of the local limestone on a plan by the Maltese architect Lorenzo Gafa. The façade is framed by quoin pilasters topped by inverted urn finals. The richly ornate entrance with pedimented overdoor is echoed above by a deeply recessed niche with a statue of the Blessed Virgin. Instead of bell towers, a tall campanile with five bells is attached to the north east side at the back.

The interior is very graceful and well-proportioned. A flat ceiling in perspective closes the aperture of the dome. This ingenious painting raised in place in 1739, is one of the Cathedral’s major attractions. It is so cleverly painted that it takes time to notice that there is no real dome. A second attraction, missed by many the beautiful inlaid marble floor executed between the seventeenth and the nineteenth century. A third attraction is the statue of Santa Marija executed in Rome in 1897. On 15 August, it is taken shoulder-high in a procession around the streets of Rabat. Since 1897, the ecclesiastical authorities entrusted the external celebration of the feast to the Il Leone Philarmonic Society.