the ghosts of Malta

The Jerma Palace

The Jerma Palace Hotel was built on a headland called il-Hamriga, close to the 17th-century Saint Thomas Tower. The land originally belonged to Franciscan Conventuals and Ivan Burridge, who sold it to San Tumas Holdings. In 1976, San Tumas sold the plot to the Libyan Foreign Investment Company. The Jerma Palace Hotel was subsequently built, and it was opened in 1982. The hotel was managed by Corinthia Hotels International through a management agreement. Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi had a presidential suite within the hotel.

The Jerma Palace was the largest hotel in thesouth of Malta, and its opening contributed to transforming Marsaskala from a traditional fishing village to a small resort.

The hotel closed down in March 2007, and in July 2008 it was sold to the contractors Jeffrey and Peter Montebello (Jefpet Limited) for €18.6 million. In 2009, the Tumas and Gasan groups sought to transform the hotel into a "Portomaso of the south" but nothing materialized. The Montebello brothers planned to transform the former hotel into apartments, a 5-star hotel and a yacht marina.

The former hotel is now in a derelict state, with parts of it having collapsed and others being in danger of collapsing. Its interior has been stripped of everything of value, with carpets, marble floors, doors, tiles and even bricks being stolen. The walls are covered in graffiti. The building is occupied by squatters, and it is popular with drug addicts. The former hotel also became an illegal dumping ground, with people disposing of their garbage there. Rubbish left at the hotel caused a number of fires within the building.

In December 2015, it was claimed that Libyan people smugglers were using the Jerma Palace Hotel as a drop off point for Syrian refugees to illegally enter Malta.

Following a request by the Marsaskala Local Council and the issue of an enforcement notice, on 20 August 2016 the Planning Authority ordered the hotel's owners to demolish the building. On that same day, the building caught fire but it was put out by the Civil Protection Department.

The site of the hotel, which has been valued at €20.8 million, is to be sold at a judicial auction in October 2016. The demolition of the dilapidated hotel buildings is to cost around €1.5 million.