If you stroll alone in the quieter parts of Rabat and Mdina and let your mind wander, you just might hear the echoes of an angry throng assaulting a French officer in revenge for the looting of gold and silverware from our churches or the screams of those who ventured down into the entrails of dark catacombs and never found their way back. Or even the pitiful moans and last shallow breaths of cholera victims and the bells heralding another death in yet another pandemic. And you just might learn history’s greatest lesson: that all it does is repeat itself.

Some of the gruesome tales that took place in the streets, squares and palaces of Mdina, and also in the many catacombs scattered around Rabat, will be recounted by Heritage Malta during a virtual tour as part of a webinar on January 26.

A still from the Heritage Malta virtual tour.

In a span of 20 minutes, the unusual tour will transport participants from one century to another, acquainting them with murderers, traitors, troubled souls in an everlasting quest for peace and terrified people praying fervently to be delivered from the havoc wreaked by a heartless pandemic. For, indeed, as we grapple with our own outbreak, we might find solace in the fact that our forefathers fought harsher diseases armed with much less medical knowledge than we have today.

The cholera pandemic in 1837 claimed thousands of lives in just three months. Much like today, those displaying symptoms of the disease were quarantined in order to avoid contact with others while a detailed record was kept of how many people were infected daily, how many were cured and how many lost their lives. Mdina’s role in all this was that one of its palaces served as a temporary hospital for cholera patients.

The tour includes stories about people who ventured inside St Paul’s Catacombs, Rabat and never found their way back.

In a span of 20 minutes, the tour will transport participants from one century to another

The same palace later served as a sanatorium, a hospital dedicated to chronic diseases and, particularly, to tuberculosis patients. As cholera had done before it, tuberculosis instilled great fear among the Maltese population until the government embarked on a vaccination programme that yielded very good results.

But beyond panic and pandemics, other stories will unfold during the tour. There is, for instance, a tale about a house in Mdina where, it is said, there still lurks the ghost of a high-ranking French officer who was killed by a crowd of angry locals. The tragic incident happened a few months after Malta had succumbed to the French, when the latter had already infuriated the Maltese by seizing anything that took their fancy, including gold and silverware from churches,  and shipping it out of Malta.

One day, a mob, made up largely of farmers and peasants, stormed Mdina to express indignance at the French’s prepotency. No empathy was forthcoming from the French officer who, on the contrary, challenged the crowd by drawing his sword. The Maltese retaliated by giving him a sound beating. They then followed him inside the house where he sought refuge and killed him mercilessly.

Other stories to be recounted during the tour are said to have taken place at St Paul’s Catacombs, in Rabat. These are stories of rites involving humans offered in sacrifice and others of people and even animals who went down there and were never seen again.

The Carmelite church, Mdina

The tour will also wander into St Agatha’s Catacombs, named after the saint who is thought to have sought refuge there to escape Roman persecution in her homeland. Although she was safe and protected throughout her stay in Malta, her destiny took a turn for the worse upon her return to her country, where she was brutally tortured and killed. It is said, however, that Malta kept holding a special place in St Agatha’s heart, so much so that one of the tales to be told during the tour describes her aid to the Maltese as they fought the Turks.

More will be revealed during the virtual tour, which will be held on January 26 at 8.30pm and will be followed by a question and answer session. The virtual tour will be in Maltese, with English subtitles. Those interested have to register beforehand via this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RyQQecoLQEi-p5PpHJJtoQ

Daniela Attard Bezzina is communications executive at Heritage Malta.

Vilhena Palace, Mdina