The Old Prison

The oldest surviving prison in Gozo still reverberates with the memories of its numerous inmates who have incised their mark on the aged walls of its cells and corridors. Presenting the largest known collection of historical graffiti in one single place on the Maltese Islands, this site provides an intriguing glimpse into the conditions in which inmates were kept at the time. Situated in the Citadel in Victoria, Gozo, the prison stands adjacent to the Courts of Justice, to which it was originally connected. In its present form, the prison complex is divided into two sections: an entrance hall which originally served as a common cell in the 19th century and now hosts a selection of graffiti casts, a 16th-century carrack graffito, some prison-related objects (including the surviving part of a wooden stocks); and a merchandise section, and a free-standing block with six individual cells. Soon after their arrival in Malta, the Knights of St John used this prison to intern their rowdy and di