In 1551 the Ottomans attacked Gozo. After a few days of bombardment,the citadel capitulated. About 300 people escaped from the citadel by climbing down its walls and hid from the Ottomans. The other 6,000 people, including the governor and the Knights, were taken captive and ended up in slavery, being sailed to Tripoli on 30 July. The Ottomans only spared a monk and forty elderly Gozitans.
According to legend, one of the defenders named Bernardo Dupuo fought bravely when Ottomans breached the city walls, and killed his own wife and two daughters preferring death over slavery before he himself was killed by the invading forces. I remember reading this grisly story in one of the Maltese readers we had in primary school. The black and white picture of the Knight standing at his door is still vivid in my mind
