Jerma Palace Hotel

Jerma Palace Hotel
File:Malta St Thomas Tower four.jpg Jerma Palace Hotel in 2005
Alternative names	Corinthia Jerma Palace Hotel
General information
Status	Ruins
Type	Hotel
Location	Marsaskala, Malta
Coordinates
Opened	1982
Closed	March 2007
Owner	Jeffrey and Peter Montebello
Technical details
Material	Limestone
Other information
Number of rooms	326

The Jerma Palace Hotel is a former four-star hotel in Marsaskala, Malta. It was opened in 1982, and was managed by Corinthia Hotels International. It was the largest hotel in southern Malta until it closed down in 2007. The building was subsequently abandoned, and it has since fallen into a state of disrepair.

History

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 the south of Malta, and its opening contributed to transforming Marsaskala from a traditional fishing village to a small resort.

File:Jerma Palace Hotel.jpeg

The building of the hotel is currently in a dilapidated state

File:Jerma Palace Hotel, Marsascala.jpeg

The hotel and the Tower as seen in 2016

The hotel closed down in March 2007, and it was then sold to the contractors Jeffrey and Peter Montebello. In 2009, the Tumas and Gasan groups sought to transform the hotel into a "Portomaso of the south" but nothing materialized. The Montebello brothers plan 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.

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.