The Azure Window, which was Malta’s world-renowned limestone arch has collapsed after heavy storms.
Tieqa tad Dwejra, as it is known in Malta, was lost to the sea, according to the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat, who tweeted the news. He described the news as “heartbreaking”.
The limestone arch near Dwejra Bay on Gozo, an island in the Maltese archipelago, is one of the most recognisable locations in Europe, having featured in the HBO television series Games of Thrones and been notorious as a cliff-jumping location.
In a statement to the media, the Gozo Tourism Association said that, the flagship of the Gozitan touristic site has sunk in its same birthplace from where for thousands of years.
Images taken from the coast show not only that the arch has given way, but also the stacks either side of it.
From Instagram to Twitter, people from all over the world mourned the loss. News of the collapse brought hundreds of the island’s residents to the coast to pay their respects.
The Azure Window has long been a popular sight for tourists, who were able to take a boat tour that followed the cliffs before spying the grand arch.
