Land of Mist and Memory

Photo by Kevin Casha

Around the General’s Rock in Dwejra, the waves are lapping gently today. Still, even on its more docile days, the massive expanse of rock, sea and sky inspires a sense of awe and mystery… on the days when the sea is pounding, the sky overcast and the rocks covered in dull shadows, the effect is even more intense. Almost wherever you turn, the vista is one of undisturbed sky, sea and rock, as far as the eye can see.

Charming in summer and aweinspiring in winter, Dwejra’s bleak and rugged beauty seems to look back to an age when the island was still lost in the mists of time, legends sighed around the rocks and the raging winds stirred more than just fine grains of dust. Here sun, sea and stone have played themselves out in fierce and desolate majesty for longer than any of us can hope to remember. A sense of timeless myth pervades the area, surrounding the General’s Rock and blurring its edges in mist, enveloping the Azure Window, and spreading over the mysterious cart ruts behind the chapel.

This area, a Natura 2000 site and the first heritage park on the island of Gozo, spans not only the famous Azure Window and General’s Rock but also a little shingle beach known as the Inland Sea, from which boat trips are organised regularly in summer. At the top of the road leading to it, a small seaside chapel dedicated to St Anne stands peacefully, a sign of civilisation in an area known for its rugged and windswept beauty.

Despite its apparent bleakness, however, the area around Dwejra includes many typical ecological systems of the Maltese islands as well as less frequent systems. These habitats support a rich biota that includes several species or subspecies that are endemic, rare or that have a restricted distribution in the Maltese islands. The area also provides a habitat for several resident and migratory birds. And beneath the surface of its restless waters, Dwejra is also well-known as a diving destination and one of its diving sites, the Blue Hole, has over the years been voted Best Dive of the Mediterranean by several international diving clubs and magazines.

On the road leading down to Dwejra, slightly removed from the Window and cliffs, Dwejra Tower watches silently, its position commanding an effortless view of all that goes on in the area. Here, in the past, shivering in the cold in winter and sweltering in summer, a guard and his two wardens scanned the horizon for possible attacks from pirates and corsairs. Here, also, they guarded the legendary fungus which grows on the General’s Rock, surrounded by swirling seas and the mists of myth which, at the time, was believed to have miraculous healing properties. So jealously guarded was this plant that in 1744 Grandmaster Pinto had the rock’s sides smoothened, to make it harder for any locals to steal it. Only those closest to the highest powers, or the wealthy, could make use of it and, even then, access was only through a box suspended on two ropes high above the sea. Anyone caught stealing the plant was sentenced to death or to three years in the galleys. Built in 1652 under Grandmaster Lascaris and paid for by the Universita’, the tower was restored by Din L-Art Helwa in 1998, after it had fallen into a state of disrepair and currently acts as a visitors’ centre for the park; a flying flag indicates when it is open.

Leaving Dwejra behind, at the end of the long winding road leading back up to civilisation, the peaceful village of San Lawrenz looks down at Dwejra from a safe distance. Life goes on peacefully in the village closest to Dwejra, while the elements play themselves out undisturbed in the vast theatre below, timeless and enduring, as the world changes around them through the ages.

Partly based on Dwejra Heritage Park Gozo published by Nature Trust Malta, www.naturetrustmalta.org