Haunted places in Malta

It wouldn't be October without some spookiness, so today I am going to jump right on the bandwagon and write about some haunted places in Malta. Everybody knows that this history of this island goes back several millennia, so it won't come as a surprise to my readers to learn that several places are purported to be haunted. So let's take a look at some of the most famous haunted places in Malta.

Verdala Palace (Buskett)

Verdala Palace was built in 1585 by Grand Master de Verdalle as a hunting lodge. It is a square structure with four turrets, more in keeping with a castle than a palace, surrounded by numerous trees, orchards and orange groves. Verdala Palace is said to be haunted by the ghost of the Blue Lady. The ghost is thought to be that of a young woman, a niece of a later Grand Master (de Rohan) who was being forced into marriage with a man who was not to her liking. Tired of being rejected by the lady, the unwanted suitor locked her in her room in the castle. One day she tried to escape through her window and fell to her death. At the time of her death, she is said to have been wearing a blue dress.

Fort Saint Angelo (Birgu)

Fort Saint Angelo is located at the tip of the peninsula on which the town of Birgu is built. The current formidable fortress dates back to the mid-1500s but a castrum maris (castle by the sea) existed on this location since around the 1240s. The resident ghost of Fort St Angelo is the Grey Lady. The Grey Lady has been identified as the wife, or lover (it's not clear which), of a Sicilian Aragonese Captain called di Nava. At the time, Malta was a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Aragon (as was Sicily) and di Nava was a castellan - a type of governor who safeguarded the interests of the Aragonese crown. On one occasion, this lady tried to meet with di Nava at a time that was not convenient to him as he was dallying with another woman. He asked his guards to get rid of her and she was murdered and her body was thrown into one of the dungeons. Since then her ghost has haunted the fort. It would be easy to believe that this is just a piece of folklore but during restoration works being carried out during the last century, the body of a woman and two men (the guards?) were discovered in one of the deepest dungeons in the fort. 

The Chapel of Santa Maria (Rabat)

The chapel of Santa Maria is situated on top of a hill on the outskirts of the town of Rabat, in an area know as Tal-Virtu - which is where I grew up. The current chapel dates to 1717 but a previous chapel from 1483 stood on the site. Beneath the chapel are a number of tombs dating back to Punic and Roman times, together with some early Christian catacombs. A crypt underneath the chapel was used as a troglodytic place of worship. In 1923 an earthquake severely damaged the building and it gradually fell into a state of disrepair. While it was in this dilapidated state, several people claimed to have seen a priest celebrating mass in this chapel, which doesn't sound like a very unusual occurrence- except that when they looked closer they realised that he had no flesh on his skeletal hands.

The chapel has now been fully restored and is located on a private estate. It is no longer accessible to the public. No further cases of hauntings have been reported.

Fort Manoel (Manoel Island)

Manoel Island is a tiny islet connected to the town of Gzira with a bridge. In 1723 a fort was built on the islet, commissioned by Grand Master de Vilhena. A chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony formed part of the fort. During the second World War the chapel was severely damaged and it was during this time that the first sightings of a spectre known as the Black Knight were reported. It later turned out that the crypt underneath the chapel had been vandalised and that the remains of knights that were buried there were scattered around. The bones were reburied and the Black Knight was not seen again but, with the passing of the years, the fort and chapel fell into disrepair, the chapel was desecrated and the graves in the crypt were, once again, found open exposing their gruesome contents. At this point, the Black Knight, who is said to resemble very closely known portraits of grand Master de Vilhena, reappeared. The fort, chapel and crypt have, for the umpteenth time, been restored around 10 years ago but the legend of the Black  Knight lives on.

These are just some paces in Malta that are reputed to be haunted. Various stories exist about private residences and even public spaces where ghosts have been sighted. Hauntings are a controversial topic. Those that claim to have seen 'something' will not be swayed by logical explanations and the naysayers will not budge from their point of view that these are all old wives' tales. I sit on the fence whenever discussions about this topic arise. What about you? Do you believe in ghosts?