St Anne’s Chapel - Dwejra, Gozo - Remote Chapel in the Rocky Landscape

The small St Anne’s Chapel at Dwejra, standing amid the rugged limestone landscape near the Inland Sea and the famous Blue Hole.

This photograph shows St Anne’s Chapel at Dwejra on the western coast of Gozo. The small white church stands almost alone within the rugged limestone landscape, its simple façade reached by a short flight of steps and crowned by a modest bell-cot. A projecting entrance canopy supported by slender columns adds a distinctive modern element to the otherwise restrained design. The chapel occupies a remarkable setting close to some of Gozo’s best-known natural landmarks, including the Inland Sea and Blue Hole, as well as the site of the former Azure Window. The present chapel was built through the initiative of Dun Alwiġ Mizzi, a Salesian priest with a strong devotion to St Anne, and was designed by architect Joseph Mizzi of San Lawrenz. It was blessed on 25 July 1963 and is regarded as the last countryside chapel to have been built on Gozo. Its modest modern architecture contrasts strongly with the dramatic coastal scenery of Dwejra, making the chapel a distinctive religious landmark within one of Gozo’s most celebrated natural landscapes.