A very conventional-looking friary in Floriana is home to one creepy secret…

In 1588, a community of Capuchins built a church and friary (both of which are still standing) in the area nowadays known as Floriana. Almost 150 years later – between 1725 and 1730 – the Friars cut a crypt into the rock beneath their convent.

It was in this very spot that dead friars would soon be displayed.

Taking to Facebook group Expats Malta, a certain Gordon Pace explained how within the crypt’s walls are “20 niches in which dead friars were displayed as a final farewell.”

“When a friar died, they would disembowel the corpse and place it in heated chamber where it would eventually dry out. The corpse would be chained, upright, in one of the niches and left there to decay. When, by time, the mummy collapsed, they would gather the bones and nail them on the walls of the crypt as decoration,” he explained.

Creepy, right?

Floriana-based NGO Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA) noted how the friars’ mummification process, which took place before they were displayed, lasted for around a year.

Over the years, space in the crypt started becoming scarce, so older burials would be moved out to make space for newer ones.

“Unfortunately, the convent was heavily damaged when it was bombed on 5th April 1942, during WWII, but it was re-opened in 1979. Today, the niches are empty, except for one which holds an eerie fibreglass reproduction of a corpse,” Gordon added.

Currently, only two mummified friars remain housed within the crypt’s walls, both of which are situated in separate glass cases. One of the bodies belongs to Brother Crispin Zammit of Gozo, who died aged 79, whilst the other corpse is of an unknown friar.

Would you ever visit this spot?

Friars Minor Capuchin - Floriana / Facebook, Gordon Pace via Expats Malta / Facebook