Victoria is officially European Capital of Culture 2031 — and down here, beneath our 17th-century limestone vaults, we are raising a glass.
On Wednesday 23 September, an independent panel appointed by the European Commission and national authorities confirmed that Victoria — Rabat, to those of us who live here — will carry the title in 2031. Gozo’s capital becomes only the second Maltese city to do so, after Valletta in 2018, and it will share the year with a city in Spain.
The decision closes a bid more than two years in the making. To the Victoria 2031 team, the artists, and every Gozitan who turned up, spoke up and believed: grazzi.
The winning bid is built around the theme “Island of Islands”. It pictures Gozo not as one place but as an archipelago of connected communities, landscapes and traditions, explored through three strands: Coast, Salt and Waves.
It is honest, too. The bid faces the harder realities of island life head-on, including the right of young Gozitans to stay and build their future here. That matters to a small, local kitchen like ours.
Culture is not only found in theatres and galleries. It lives in the food we share, the stories told around a table and the old stone that holds them.
Our wine-tasting dinners and cooking classes are, in their small way, part of that same story — a chance to taste Gozo slowly and learn it with your hands.
Five years may sound a long way off, but the programme will grow year by year, and Victoria will change with it. We will be sharing what is happening across the city as it unfolds.
Whether you are planning your first trip to Gozo or live just around the corner, come down the steps and join us.
Awguri to 2031!!