Stop 06 of 9
The Grain Silos
How long an island can hold out
Narration · 2 min
Have it read to you while you look at the thing itself, hands in pockets.
3 of 3 free listens remaining · unlock every tour
Guide to The Grain Silos
Set into the rock underfoot are circular stone caps, and beneath each is a bell-shaped pit cut into the living stone. These are the Citadella's grain silos, and they are the least romantic and most consequential thing on the hill.
Walls decide entry, food decides duration
Fortification determines whether an attacker can get in. Stored grain determines how long you can sit there while they try.
The design is ancient and effective: a pit narrow at the neck and wide at the base, sealed with a stone cap, keeps grain cool, dark and dry, and the constricted opening limits the air and moisture reaching it. Wheat stored this way keeps for years.
The arithmetic of this hill
Every fortified place in the Mediterranean did some version of this, and two islands that could never reliably feed themselves took it particularly seriously.
Set the silos beside the law requiring the whole population to sleep inside these walls until 1637 and the sums become clear: several thousand people, in a space this size, needing to be fed if the walls were ever invested again. The pits are the answer to a question nobody on Gozo wanted to ask twice.
What to look at
- Circular stone caps set flush into the rock underfoot
- The wear pattern around the necks, from centuries of lifting
- How much of the citadel’s open ground is given over to storage rather than building
Practical
- Care
- Uneven rock underfoot; some caps stand slightly proud. Watch children here.
Walk to stop 07
Carry on north-west across the open ground to the cluster of old houses at the far side.
About 2 min · 90 m