Why Gozo's old citadel failed in 1551

Gozo's Citadella developed from a Bronze Age site and a Punic-Roman acropolis into a medieval refuge for the island's population. By the fifteenth century, settlement had expanded well beyond the walls. The castle still concentrated civilians during attack, but its defences had become badly outdated by the sixteenth century. This background explains the rapid Ottoman success in 1551 and the danger of relying on an old refuge without modernizing it.