History & Haunting of : The Convent ,Gibraltar The Convent has been the official residence of the Governor of Gibraltar since 1728.It was originally a convent of Franciscan friars, hence its name, and was completed in 1531. The dining room at the Convent has the most extensive display of heraldry in the Commonwealth of Nations The convent is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a nun, known as Lady in Grey who is said to roam the corridor outside one of the guest rooms. It is said that she considers it to be her room, as she was walled up alive in it. There are various versions of the Grey Lady story, the most popular being that she was the daughter of an affluent Spanish family who had married against her fathers wishes. When he learnt of it, he placed her in the Convent of Santa Clara situated in the Main Street, where under the eyes of the Mother Superior, the girl was forced to take her vows and become a nun. Her lover was not discouraged; he joined the Franciscan Order and settled in the Convent. The couple are said to have met in the confessional of the Kings Chapel where they hatched plans for their escape. On the night of their escape they made their way to the harbour where a boat was waiting for them. However, the alarm was raised and in the ensuing chase the lover fell into the water and drowned. The bride was arrested for breaking her vows and as punishment was walled up alive in one of the rooms in the Convent People who have worked there speak of the ghost of a nun which appears where a garden once was. en.wikipedia.org Access to the Instituto will be through a doorway which is also the access to M H Bland. As you go in, there is a lift - and behind the lift there is a blocked-up access to a secret underground passageway or tunnel which linked what was once the Convento de la Merced to other convents in the town area. The Merced convent goes back to the 1500s. It was founded by friar Juan Bernal and was known as the convent of the White Friars. When the British captured Gibraltar, much of it was destroyed. A plan of 1757 shows that the Merced convent was turned into naval stores and also used as the home of naval officers, including the admiral although he found a safer abode in what became known as the Mount after shelling by the Spaniards during the Great Siege of 1779-83. The area of what was the Merced convent extends from Cloister Building to the back of the Post Office. At 75 Irish Town, right at the end of what was Panoramas offices until recently, there is another entrance to a tunnel. Someone told us of a trap door that leads to the catacombs. Someone who, as a child, used to play in the area tells us that he had seen human skeletons in the underground passageways, including a baby skeleton. When excavating for Blands in the 1890s human remains were also found there. To this day, remains of the convent are in that area, such as old columns believed to be made of marble. Some of the columns have engraved inscriptions, of dates for example. These columns are said to have been part of what was known as el patio de la Merced or el patio de los Naranjos. The Merced convent was linked to other convents by a series of underground passages. It is said that nuns could traverse underground and visit the friars, and vice versa. Someone who knows about these things has been inside a well-like excavation to the north of The Convent, the Governors residence, where tunnels meet. It has not been established how far in any direction such tunnels go, but it is said that there is one of these underground passageways that extends out of The Convent and was meant to be an escape route. The Governors residence was a nunss convent, so it is wondered if through these tunnels they made their way to the La Merced. There is a love story behind the ghost of a nun that has reputedly been seen in The Convent. This ghost was talked about some 300 years ago. The apparitions are not exclusive to children, as the wife of a former Governor - Lady Anderson - is on record as having seen this lady in grey disappear into a bedroom that was locked. More recently Lady Luces niece saw it. And just a year ago, a Maltese guest described the nuns appearance at a dinner in The Convent. There were quite a number of convents during Spanish days. The one at Cloister Building now becomes topical because of the impending conversion of a floor there as the Instituto... panorama.gi/localnews/ Photo 1 by RedCoat Photo 2 The_Convent_Guard_House,_Gibraltar_at_night.j Photo bygibraltar-intro.blogspot.co.uk/Mid 19th century photograph of an admittedly rather drab looking entrance to the Convent
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 16:04:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015