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Xewkija
lies 3 kms east of Victoria. It's name is derived from the Maltese
word 'Xewk', meaning thistles or thorns. It is dominated by a huge
rotunda church completed in 1971 having taken around 20 years to build.
It was built to rival the Mosta Rotunda in Malta and it succeeds in
height, but not in diameter. The dome is larger than St Paul's
Cathedral in London, and can hold a congregation of 3000 - around the
entire population of Xewkija. The village was the first parish
outside the capital, and it is said to be the first place on Gozo to
convert to Christianity.
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