Walled Cities – Ċittadella Gozo

At the centre: the Citadel in the town of Victoria on Gozo, shown from the south-east with its pointed tip prominent. Above the design: the inscription "ĊITTADELLA GOZO". The issuing state "MALTA" to the left and the year "2024" to the right flank the lower field. To the right edge: the designer Noel Galea Bason's initials "NGB".

The Ċittadella — also known in Maltese as the Citadel or Il-Kastell — sits atop a rocky plateau in the centre of the Maltese island of Gozo and has been the island's inhabited focal point for millennia. Its origins date back to the Bronze Age; Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs successively made use of the strategically favourable elevated position as a fortification. Today's walls date largely from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when the Knights of St John systematically expanded the complex after a devastating Ottoman raid in 1551. Following that attack, in which almost the entire population of Gozo is said to have been enslaved, islanders were for a time required to sleep within the walls until sunset. The citadel today houses a 17th-century cathedral, several museums, and remains from the Roman and Arab periods.

Gozo is Malta's second-largest island and has been closely linked culturally and administratively with the main island since antiquity, while always preserving its own distinct identity. The island is also connected to the Odyssey tradition: ancient sources placed here the island of Ogygia, where Calypso is said to have kept Odysseus. Today, Gozo is known for its traditional crafts, its agricultural landscape and an unusually dense concentration of historic monuments. The Ċittadella is the island's best-known architectural ensemble and the starting point of an ongoing UNESCO World Heritage nomination process. Malta honours it in 2024 as part of the Maltese Walled Cities series with a 2-euro commemorative coin — the second issue in this series after the one dedicated to the fortified capital, Valletta.