Old Knights of Malta prison inside the Cittadella of Victoria on Gozo, reconstructed in 1599. Prisoner carvings on the walls include four-dot crosses and symbols matching those found on the Oak Island 90-foot stone.
About This Site
The Old Prison is located within the Cittadella, the fortified citadel crowning the hilltop above the town of Victoria on the island of Gozo, Malta's smaller sister island. Reconstructed in 1599 during the Hospitaller period, the prison held captives whose identities ranged from common criminals to political and religious prisoners. The stone walls of the cells bear carved symbols, dates, and markings left by inmates over centuries of use. Some researchers believe the prison may also have been used to conceal Templar-related treasures or documents, given the Hospitallers' historical role as successors to the Templar order's Mediterranean possessions and the strategic importance of Gozo as an outpost within the order's island fortress.
Connection to Oak Island
In Season 12, Rick Lagina, Alex Lagina, Doug Crowell, Peter Fornetti, Corjan Mol, and Emiliano Cataldi visited the Old Prison during their research trip to Malta. Corjan told the group that prisoners held in the cells had carved symbols into the walls over the centuries. Emiliano identified a four-dot cross carved into the stone, which Doug noted was used historically to represent the presence of holy relics. Alex spotted a six-petal symbol, and Rick found a carving that matched a symbol on the 90-foot stone from the Money Pit.
The same day, at the Palazzo Falson in the medieval city of Mdina, Corjan presented research tracing the de Villiers family bloodline across every major Hospitaller and Templar stronghold and connecting it directly to Oak Island. The lineage ran from Guillaume de Villiers, second in command of the Knights Hospitaller in Jerusalem in 1187, through Gérard de Villiers, Master of France in 1307 who fled Paris with 50 horses and 18 galleys believed to carry the Templar treasure, to Philippe de Villiers, Grand Master of the Hospitallers in Rhodes in 1522 before the order took possession of Malta and Gozo in 1530. The line continued through Catherine de Villiers, mother of Isaac de Razilly, a Knight of Malta who landed at LaHave in 1632 and established the French colony of Acadia, now known as Nova Scotia.
Fieldwork Notes
Visited during Season 12 by Rick Lagina, Alex Lagina, Doug Crowell, Peter Fornetti, Corjan Mol, and Emiliano Cataldi. The team documented four-dot crosses, a six-petal symbol, and a 90-foot stone symbol match carved by prisoners. Corjan presented the de Villiers bloodline research at the Palazzo Falson in Mdina, tracing the family from Jerusalem (1187) through the Templar flight from France (1307) to Rhodes, Malta, and ultimately Nova Scotia (1632).
