FAST DOWNLOAD
According to legend, some Spaniards hid a treasure in the premises where El Jardín de Italia operated for several years.
The former El Jardín de Italia restaurant , which is now a clothing and shoe store, has been the focus of supernatural stories and rumors about a ‘hidden treasure’ in the heart of Tegucigalpa.
Founded in the 1930s as the region’s first coffee shop, this place was a meeting point for lawyers, writers, poets and politicians who witnessed alleged paranormal events.
According to workers’ accounts, wood and adobe moved inexplicably, and nails appeared embedded in stones, fueling rumors of a dark secret.
Given the inexplicable paranormal events, it is believed that, in times before the cafeteria, some Spaniards would have buried a loot of jewels stolen from various local churches on these lands.
Legend has it that after being captured and shot, the thieves never revealed the exact whereabouts of the treasure, leaving a curse upon it.
Since then, those who have worked there claim to have witnessed strange apparitions, such as customers with sunken eyes who disappeared before the eyes of the staff.
It was after a priest blessed the place that events seemed to temporarily stop.
A lawyer refused to search for the treasure
In November 1962, a lawyer went to the cafeteria at three in the afternoon, met with three friends with whom he shared coffee and bread, and half an hour later he was left alone in the restaurant, which had run out of customers.
Two waiters who were sitting at the bar, waiting for customers, were frightened to see that the lawyer was talking to himself.
‘Wow, the lawyer has screwed up, it seems like he’s lost his temper, he’s talking to himself,’ said one of them.
Customers began to arrive and the lawyer changed tables to join other acquaintances, but not before saying goodbye to the two empty chairs in front of him, according to what the waiters saw.
When one of the waiters went to serve him a coffee that he ordered, they asked him if something was wrong, because they saw him talking to himself and that he had then said goodbye to the empty chairs.
‘You were just kidding us, lawyer?’ But the lawyer said nothing, but got up from his seat and left quickly, terror on his face. He had seen something supernatural.
The lawyer later said that two men asked him for permission to sit with him. They told him that there was an immense treasure under the cafeteria and that they knew where it was, but that death would haunt those who searched for it.
The lawyer replied that he would not look for the treasure and preferred to say goodbye to the two men, whose hands he felt were cold and bony.
Although he hadn’t felt anything strange, after the waiter spoke to him he immediately felt sick, as if a strange force was threatening him.
He himself says that he stopped going to the cafeteria since the macabre encounter with the ghosts.
Another story
Another of the macabre stories told about the establishment has to do with the security guard of a building located opposite, who heard noises around two in the morning during a shift.
The man grabbed his gun and left the building. When he tried to investigate what was happening, he saw a man over two metres tall and wearing a black suit walk past, entering the cafeteria through the walls. He has not returned to work since then.
Although it now operates as a clothing and shoe store, tales of paranormal phenomena and the supposed treasure continue to be part of the folklore of the historic center of Tegucigalpa, making this place an enigma for those who believe in the supernatural and stories of yesteryear.
