St George's was also listed as one of the parishes in Gozo where indulgences could be obtained on a papal bull by Pope Nicholas V for the Holy Year of 1450.

It is also recorded that the parish priest of St George's church during the half of the 16th century, Reverend Lorenzo de Apapis (1501–1586), was taken prisoner together with most of the inhabitants of the island by the invading Ottomans in 1551 to Constantinople.

Reverend De Apapis managed to buy his freedom some years later and returned to Gozo and rebuilt the church of St George which had been badly damaged.

[1] The present church was planned by Vittorio Cassar when he also demolished the buildings that could serve to cover an enemy attack on the town of Gozo today called the Cittadella.

The church's construction was completed by in 1678 and it was consecrated on 21 September 1755 by Bishop Paul Alphéran de Bussan.

This union went on for the next 266 years until 1 August 1955, when the Bishop of Gozo, Giuseppe Pace, dissolved this union between the two parishes by signing the decree Cum hodiernis temporibus in which he established St George as a new parish independent from its mother church, the Gozo Cathedral.

In 1880 the associate priest here was Joseph Diacono and under his leadership the Franciscan Sisters of the Heart of Jesus was formed here.

In time, Diacono wanted to end the organisation but local Religious Virginia De Brincat disagreed and she became the Superior General.

On 6 September 1958 Archpriest Cefai announced to the gathered congregation that the church was honoured with the title of Basilica.

The decree, Merito dilaudatur templum, dated 6 September 1958, confirmed Pope Pius XII's decision that the parish church was now a Basilica.

Also the church acquired the right to include the papal symbol of the crossed keys on a basilica's banners, furnishings and seal.

In 1678 the governor of Gozo Don Francesco de Corduba commissioned a new altarpiece for the parish church of St George from Mattia Preti.

Next, is the side entrance chapel of St Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori which does not contain an altar though has an oval oil canvas depicting the saint by Maltese painter Ramiro Cali commissioned in 1925.

Next, is the chapel of St Michael the Archangel who is depicted in a mosaic made in Rome in 1963 based on an older painting now located in the basilica museum.

The next chapel contains a baroque altar designed by Francesco Zahra and produced between 1759 and 1761 by Giovanni Antonio Durante.

The following chapel is dedicated to St Joseph and contains a baroque altar and a painting by Giuseppe Cali depicting the Holy Family (1899).

The altar was fully restored in 2011 and was formally inaugurated and exhibited in Valletta at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura.

But the main attraction is the wooden statue of the patron saint, St George, sculpted in wood by Pietru Pawl Azzopardi in 1839.

The ciborium dates from Medieval times (12th century) and is mentioned in various manuscripts and records about the parish church.

Something which one may not expect to see in a traditionally classic Baroque building, such as St George's, is a Byzantine style chapel.

The door, named Porta Salutis, is made entirely of bronze and was manufactured in Verona on a design by John Grima.

St George's Basilica's first organ was first introduced towards the late 17th or early 18th century, after the parish church had been rebuilt in the size and shape that it largely is today.

[13] The basilica is the host of various events such as: The liturgical feast of St George Martyr, protector of the island of Gozo and patron saint of the city, falls on 23 April, but external festivities are celebrated with great pomp in the city during the week leading to the third Sunday of July.

Services are celebrated at frequent intervals throughout the morning and in the evening and people come from all over the island knowing that St George's basilica is always open to welcome them.

The Christmas Midnight Mass is attended by hundreds of faithful from all over the country to the extent where there is no more space for people to fit inside the church.

Another novena is celebrated in preparation for the feast of the patron Saint George which also draws many people through doors of the basilica.

The museum and cultural centre, named as Heart of Gozo: Il-Hagar, displays a rich collection of historical and artistic artefacts previously inaccessible to the general public.

[18][19] The second time the choir visited the church was on 23 February 2013, as part of the celebrations of the opening of the new museum, Heart of Gozo: Il-Hagar.

[20][21] Interesting to note is that this was the last time that the Sistine Chapel Choir sang during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned five days later.

On 8 December 1975, Bishop Nikol Joseph Cauchi established the first collegiate chapter of canons of St George's.