Għasri, Gozo's smallest community, under Ta' Ġurdan lighthouse

Għasri is a farming village tucked between two hills, with more old farmhouses than streets. There’s no promenade and no museum, yet it’s one of the corners of Gozo I find most appealing, because in a very small space you get a lighthouse with views over the entire island, a chapel with a proper story and the most dramatic gorge on the north coast.

Gozo’s least populated village

The NSO counted 519 people living in L-Għasri on 31 December 2025, two more than a year earlier. That makes it the smallest community on Gozo by population and the least densely populated locality anywhere in Malta, with just 104 inhabitants per km². For comparison, Senglea packs in more than 15,000. Only Mdina, back on the main island, has fewer people.

The Ministry for Gozo says the name is Arabic in origin and probably comes from the verb to press, since olives may once have been pressed here for oil. The village hides between Żebbuġ hill and Għammar hill. From Victoria you take the Għarb road and fork right just after the aqueduct.

Is Ta’ Ġurdan lighthouse worth the climb?

Yes, and I’d put it top of the list. The lighthouse crowns Ta’ Ġurdan hill above the village and you can spot it from almost anywhere in western Gozo. The British built it in 1851 to cope with growing shipping traffic, and it was first lit on 15 October 1853. Originally it had 21 oil lamps, seven on each of its three faces, backed by silver-plated brass reflectors. It’s automated now, and its beam is weaker than it was, partly because of light pollution from street lamps.

The walk up is steep but short. At the top there’s a flat area with the remains of an old military post and a full 360-degree view. The Ministry notes that if the keeper is around you might get a look inside and even climb the spiral staircase. I wouldn’t count on it, because the view alone repays the effort.

A 20th-century church and Gozo’s first consecrated country chapel

The parish church was designed by a local priest, Dun Ġużepp Diacono, and its foundation stone went down in 1903. Bishop Giovanni Maria Camilleri made Għasri an independent parish on 16 December 1921. The Corpus Christi festa is held in early June, on the 7th in 2026.

The building that interests me more is the chapel of Our Lady of Patronage, on the edge of the village on the way to the gorge. It went up in 1738, was rebuilt on a larger scale in 1754 and consecrated in 1789, the first countryside chapel on Gozo to be consecrated. According to the Ministry it stayed the only one for 161 years. It served as the village’s vice-parish church from 1872 to 1921, and its altarpiece, attributed to Francesco Zahra, shows the Virgin sheltering a person hiding from Satan under her mantle. Its feast falls on the second Sunday in October.

From the square to the sea at Wied il-Għasri

A lane leads from the square down to the Wied il-Għasri gorge, past farmhouses that are mostly let to visitors. The Ministry recommends the area for walking and cycling, particularly in winter and spring. At the bottom the valley opens to the sea between high cliffs, with a tiny cove for swimming, snorkelling and diving.

Carry on east along the coast and you reach the Xwejni salt pans. The Ministry also describes a cliff-edge route from Għasri to the Wied il-Mielaħ rock window in Għarb.

Fitting Għasri into a day in the north-west

Għasri is somewhere you pass through rather than stay put, and it works best paired with its neighbours. The cycling route the Ministry for Gozo suggests leaves Victoria, calls at Ta’ Pinu Basilica, crosses Għasri with the lighthouse in sight and climbs to Żebbuġ before dropping down to Xwejni and Marsalforn. By car you can cover it in a morning.

For a bed, the MTA register lists no hotels in Għasri but 71 holiday flats and houses. It’s a good choice if you’re after silence and have hired a car. If you’re relying on the bus, I’d base myself in Victoria, since the bus station doesn’t list Għasri among its main routes.