Chapel of St Anne, St. Elmo, Valletta

Crossing through the original arch to the fort, the arch of Porta del Soccorso, there is a small chaple tucked away in the walls. Originally, the chapel was known as the Capella del Soccorso and was executed in 1488. But in the mid-16th century  it was re-dedicated to St Anne. The chapel houses an icon of the saint which had been brought to Malta in 1530 by the knights abroad their ship called Caracca of St. Anna.

The artwork is a rare 15th century icon of the Madonna and her child, which was brought over by the Knights from Lepanto, Greece. The chapel was the final battleground of the Great Siege of 1565 where knights and chaplains were slaughtered here as they defended the altar.

The whole of the Fort St. Elmo is thought to be rife with paranormal activity. Almost every part of the fort has an unexplained story to tell, unexplained sounds of slamming doors and bouts of cold spots in the middle of summer.   This is of little wonder as during the Great Siege of 1565, the Ottomans battled the Knights Hospitallers resulting in nearly the death of 10,000 people were killed within its walls, with most of the very last Knights being injured to the point of barely being able to stand up, still fighting off the literally thousands of invaders on the altar of the chapel in the fort. When even the Knights were finally killed off, their heads were put on stakes around the perimeter of the fort, and their headless bodies were crucified and sent on rafts to the Knight’s other strong hold, Fort Saint Angelo in Vittoriosa.

When Fort St. Elmo was the Police Academy in the 20th century, it is believed no police officer reportedly dared to step into the chapel unaccompanied, while even police dogs would refuse to enter, cower away or bark seemingly at nothing. Nowadays the fort is open for visitors, but even then it is reported that once a tourist came out of the chapel, acting hysterical because she said she had seen blood oozing out of the walls.