Gozo museum publishes a book that's five metres long
Innovative fold-out book on Gozo Cathedral history designed by photographer Daniel Cilia
The Gozo Cathedral Museum has published a 4.8-metre fold-out book tracing the history of the cathedral and the fortified Ċittadella, spanning from 5,900BC to the present day.
The book, titled The Gozo Cathedral – A Place in Time, consists of a tripartite visual timeline presented as a single, two-page spread. It was written by historian Mgr Joseph Bezzina and designed by photographer Daniel Cilia, both Gozitans.
The publication, which contains over 220 photographs and graphics, was printed and partly hand-stitched due to its peculiar layout. Only 200 copies were printed, and they are available at the cathedral gift shop.
Bezzina said the book mimics a large timeline already on display at the Cathedral Museum. He explained it was inspired by similar works he had stumbled upon throughout his trips abroad.
The book’s timeline. Photo: Daniel Cilia“Two of these immediately spring to my mind. A timeline that ran around the whole perimeter of a large hall on the history of the world-famous Jerónimos Monastery, in Lisbon; and a state-of-the-art digital timeline displayed on the 100th-floor observatory of One World Trade Centre, New York,” he said.
The spread is split into three stacked tiers moving in chronological sync. The central, main tier tells the story of pivotal events that shaped the cathedral’s history.
The publication, which contains over 220 photographs and graphics, was printed and partly hand-stitched due to its peculiar layout. Only 200 copies were printed, and they are available at the cathedral gift shop
Above it, the timeline anchors these events within Maltese and Gozitan history, and the lower tier is dedicated to major world history.
Bezzina simplified how this tripartite timeline works.
“In 1450, it is known that, from the Matrice church, the present cathedral, three parishes had been established in Rabat, below the Ċittadella. Gozo had by then fully recovered from an attack by a large Berber army that ravaged Gozo in 1429 (upper tier); at the same time, when the Gutenberg Bible became the first printed and mass-produced book (lower tier),” he said.
The timeline also includes well-known historical events such as the Neolithic period up to the 1429 Berber raid, the 1530 arrival of the Knights of St John and the construction of the present baroque cathedral. The spread ends with Cardinal Mario Grech, the first Gozitan cardinal to take part in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.
“The whole setting of this foldable timeline is one of the first in Malta,” Bezzina said.
Cilia said the book took a month to complete and involved a lot of trial and error to ensure it remained fully readable.
He said the book was “entirely new and innovative”, adding that it is not every day that someone would have the opportunity to design a five-metre foldable book from scratch.