Għasri Feast 2026: Il-Madonna tal-Patroċinju at Gozo’s Oldest Basilica

Walk down Wied il-Għasri towards the sea and you pass a small stone church. Most people give it a glance, maybe read the information on the placque and carry on to the more famous inlet. It is worth stopping, because that building has held the title of minor basilica since 1768, which makes it the oldest on Gozo. Older than Ta’ Pinu. Older than St George’s. Once a year the village comes down the valley to it, and in 2026 that falls on Sunday 11 October.

When Is the Għasri Feast 2026

The feast of Il-Madonna tal-Patroċinju falls on Sunday 11 October 2026. The parish sets it on the second Sunday of October each year.

Everything happens at the Basilica of the Patronage of Our Lady in Wied l-Għasri, the church locals call the Bażilka tal-Wied. This is not the parish church in the village square, which is Corpus Christi, and the difference matters if you are following directions on the day. The two buildings are about a kilometre apart and the feast belongs to the one down in the valley.

Top Tip: Għasri celebrates twice. Corpus Christi is the parish feast in June, held up in the village. The Patroċinju in October is the basilica’s own feast and a quieter, more devotional affair. If you have seen the October feast advertised and arrived expecting brass bands and petards, you have the wrong one.

Gozo’s Oldest Basilica

The Vatican granted the church the title of minor basilica by decree in 1768. According to the parish, that makes it the oldest basilica on Gozo and the third oldest in the Maltese islands. It was aggregated to the papal Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome, an arrangement secured through the efforts of Fra Angelo Bonnici.

Bishop Vincenzo Labini consecrated it in 1789, and for the next 161 years it was the only consecrated countryside church on the island.

None of which prepares you for the size of it. This is a small country church, vernacular in style, with a spacious parvis and a plain Baroque interior. The façade has pilasters rising to an entablature and a triangular pediment, with a central oval window letting light in, and it is topped by a dome with no lantern, which is unusual. If you know the chapel of St Publius nearby, the front will look familiar.

Inside, the titular painting is attributed to Francesco Zahra and shows the Virgin shielding a figure from Satan. The main altar is honey-coloured Gozitan alabaster and was blessed in 1789, the same year as the consecration. There is also a painting of Christ being taken down from the Cross, two side altars dedicated to St Paul and St Joseph, and a collection of silver lamps.

A chapel has stood on this spot since at least 1530, when a small village surrounded it. The present building is the third. Its cornerstone was laid on 16 September 1737 and it was blessed on 8 May 1739, then enlarged and blessed again on 5 October 1754 once the work was finished. Għasri itself sat under Żebbuġ’s jurisdiction until 1739.

The Feast That Came from Spain

The Patronage of Our Lady began as a Spanish devotion. At the request of King Philip IV, Pope Alexander VII decreed in July 1656 that it be kept on the Sunday after All Saints, in thanks for Our Lady’s protection of the country. By 1679 it was observed across Spanish territory, it reached Italy in the eighteenth century, and from there it arrived here.

At Wied l-Għasri a chapel dedicated to the Patronage went up in the late 1730s, and the village has kept the feast since.

The 2026 Programme

The 2026 programme is not out yet. What follows is the shape of 2025, which is the best guide we have until the parish publishes.

Rosary and sacramental blessing in the late afternoon, then Mass at 6pm on each of the three evenings. Confessions are heard in the sacristy on the Friday.

Wednesday to Friday: The Tridu

In 2025 the first evening of the tridu came with something worth knowing about. After Mass, Salvu Felice Pace introduced a booklet he had published: an English translation of the first part of the Għasri village chronicle written by Mons. Ġużeppi Zammit, covering the years from 1810 to the building of the new church. It was handed out free, and drinks followed on the zuntierm the open space in front of the church. A village history in English, published by the village, is not a common thing to come across on Gozo.

Saturday: The Eve

The pilgrimage sets off from the parish church in the late afternoon and makes its way down to the basilica with the statue, saying the rosary as it goes. Concelebration at the basilica follows, with the Lauda Sion choir, and the evening ends with a meal and music on the parvis.

If you can only manage one evening, make it this one.

Sunday: The Feast Day

Masses run from early morning through the day, with the solemn concelebration in the late afternoon and a final Mass in the early evening. The plenary indulgence applies to anyone taking part.

Visiting Outside the Feast

This is the part most guides miss. The basilica is not one of those Gozitan country chapels you can only ever look at from outside. Mass is celebrated there every Sunday of the year, at 5pm in winter and 6pm in summer, and on Marian Wednesdays.

The valley itself is a good walk in its own right, particularly in winter and spring, and it ends at a narrow inlet between high cliffs that divers and swimmers know well. There are salt pans further along. Combining the two, the church and the sea, makes a decent half day.

Two Films Shot at the Bottom of the Valley

Keep going past the basilica, and you’ll reach the coast, where some steep stone steps descend to a pebble beach between high cliffs.

This dramatic ravine has been used in two productions, Warlords of Atlantis and The Whale.

Warlords of Atlantis surfaced its diving bell here in 1978. Doug McClure and the crew escape it and swim ashore onto the Wied il-Għasri pebbles, and the film goes on to use the Ġgantija Temples in Xagħra as the Atlantean city of Troy.

The Whale used the same beach in 2013 for something considerably grimmer. John Boyega plays a crew member of the Essex, the Nantucket whaler whose sinking gave Hermen Melville the idea for Moby Dick. The survivors drag their rowboat up onto Wied il-Għasri and camp there overnight.

Top Tip: Both were shot at the mouth of the valley, not at the basilica. You pass the church on the way down to the beach, which is the argument for doing the two together rather than making separate trips.

Where to Stay for the Għasri Feast

Għasri is one of the smallest villages on Gozo and there is not much accommodation in it, though there are farmhouses scattered along the valley road. Victoria is a short drive away and central for everywhere else on the island, and Marsalforn is closer still if you want to be near the north coast. Our guide to where to stay on Gozo goes through the villages one by one.

Getting There and Home Again

Għasri sits in the northwest of the island, between Żebbuġ and Għarb, with the Ta’ Ġurdan lighthouse on the hill nearby. If you are coming over for the day, our guide to getting to and around Gozo covers the ferries and the bus network.

The village holds its Traditions, Wine, Olive Oil and Honey Festival in the square on 19 September 2026, from 7pm. It is free, and for a village this size it is a surprisingly good evening. Everything else happening on the island that month is in our October events guide.

Planning a Trip to Gozo?

Every village feast date for the year, from February through to December, is in our Gozo village feasts guide. If you are covering the bigger island as well, the Malta feasts guide has all of those dates too.