Roman Gozo
Gaulos in the Roman world.
More than two thousand years ago, the island was home to Gaulos, a Roman municipium centred on the hill that became the Cittadella. Temples, villas, roads, inscriptions and burial sites reveal a Gozo that was closely connected to the wider Mediterranean world.
Gozo becomes Gaulos.
Rome took control of Malta and Gozo in 218 BC, during the Second Punic War. The older island settlement did not disappear: the central town developed into the Roman city of Gaulos, with the acropolis on the hill now occupied by the Cittadella and the town extending around it.
A Roman municipium
Gaulos had the status of a municipium. Inscriptions record a civic community with local officials, a council of decurions and prominent citizens who acted as patrons of the town.
The acropolis
The naturally defensible hill at the centre of Gozo remained the focus of the settlement. In Roman times it formed a complex acropolis overlooking the town and the surrounding countryside.
Mediterranean connections
Gozo was part of the Roman Mediterranean. Archaeological finds, inscriptions and imported material show that the island was connected to wider networks of trade, administration and culture.
Gaulos and the Cittadella.
The modern Cittadella preserves only part of the ancient landscape, but its position gives a strong impression of why the hill was important. Archaeological evidence places the Roman administrative, military and religious centre here, while the settlement continued beyond the hill.
The temple area
A major Roman temple stood on the summit of the acropolis. It is traditionally identified as a temple of Juno, and substantial Roman architectural remains were found during the construction of the present Gozo Cathedral between 1697 and 1711.
Roman walls
Traces of substantial ancient walls have been discovered outside the present fortifications, including along the area of Triq Putirjal. These remains help show that the Roman town extended beyond the hilltop of today's Cittadella.
Inscriptions
Latin inscriptions from Gaulos name local officials, patrons and members of the civic community. A number of these are among the most important surviving evidence for the political and social organisation of Roman Gozo.
A city beneath today's Victoria
The Roman settlement was not confined to the Cittadella. The ancient town occupied parts of the area now covered by Victoria, and traces of Roman structures have been found in and around the modern town.
A Roman villa by the sea.
At Ramla Bay, on the coast below Xagħra, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a substantial Roman villa in the early twentieth century. The complex included residential and bathing areas and provides a rare glimpse of life outside the urban centre of Gaulos.
Villa complex
Excavations begun in 1911 revealed rooms, architectural decoration and evidence of a sophisticated building complex close to the shore.
Bathing facilities
The remains include a Roman bathing establishment, with evidence of heating and drainage systems associated with the villa.
Changing coastline
Later surveys found additional ashlar remains exposed near the water's edge. Research has linked these remains to the wider villa complex originally investigated in 1911.
Ramla's Roman villa was much more than a farmhouse.
The archaeological evidence points to a substantial villa complex with domestic and bathing facilities. Most of the excavated remains were subsequently reburied for protection, so the site is best understood through archaeological records, photographs and museum material.
Gozo Album · archaeological photographs →Roman Gozo beyond the city.
Roman activity was spread across the island. Archaeological discoveries outside Victoria include remains associated with roads, buildings and rural occupation, showing that the countryside formed part of the same economic and social landscape.
Rabat–Kerċem area
Excavations along the Rabat–Kerċem road have revealed Roman remains, including stone structures and a cobbled pathway. The area forms part of the archaeological landscape surrounding ancient Gaulos.
Rural settlement
Roman villas were not simply urban residences. Across the Maltese islands, such complexes could combine living quarters with agricultural activity, and Gozo's Ramla villa belongs to this wider pattern of rural Roman occupation.
What survives
Much of Roman Gozo is archaeological rather than monumental. Walls, floors, pottery, inscriptions and architectural fragments can preserve evidence even where the original buildings have disappeared.
The landscape has changed
Modern roads, buildings, agriculture and coastal processes have altered the setting of many Roman sites. This is one reason why archaeological records and historic excavation photographs are important to the story.
Għar Gerduf.
At Wied Lunzjata near Kerċem is Għar Gerduf, a rare surviving Roman and early Christian burial complex. The Cultural Heritage Directorate dates the site to the 3rd–4th centuries and describes it as the only known late Roman and Byzantine catacomb in Gozo whose location is known and which remains visible.
Paleo-Christian Gozo
The catacomb belongs to the later Roman period, when Christianity had become an important part of life in the Maltese islands.
Rock-cut burials
The underground complex contains a corridor and rock-cut burial spaces, including arcosolia and trough tombs cut into the limestone.
A protected site
Għar Gerduf and a surrounding 100-metre buffer zone were scheduled as a Class A archaeological site in 2000, recognising its exceptional status within Gozo's cultural heritage.
A Roman island, not just a Roman ruin.
Roman Gozo is reconstructed from many different kinds of evidence. No single monument tells the whole story; together they reveal a civic centre, religious buildings, rural villas, roads, inscriptions and changing burial practices.
Explore the Roman landscape.
The Cittadella is the best place to begin, but Roman Gozo reaches well beyond the fortress walls. Ramla, Victoria and the valleys around Kerċem preserve important pieces of the island's classical and late Roman past.
Cittadella → More places in Gozo →