The legend of the ghost girl at the Gambrinus bar in Naples

by Simona Vitagliano

Gran Caffè Gambrinus is at the center of Neapolitan history, since its foundation, which took place in concomitance with the Unification of Italy, in 1860.
Although it was officially opened only much later, in November 1890, and although it was closed for a long time during the fascist period, Gambrinus has always maintained its role: bearer of the Art Nouveau style, meeting point of writers and intellectuals, living room cultural and even ideal place to write songs and poems, sitting at tables and sipping a good coffee.

But there is a legend about these local Neapolitan historians, who talk about a little girl … and her ghost.

The legend

Fortunately, it is not a story of violence or terror and you can also tell it to your little ones: here in Naples even the ghosts have another flavor and other “intentions”!

It is said, in fact, that every November, in the laboratories of the basement of Gambrinus, the ghost of a child appears, which would have lived in the early 1900s; a hypothesis that, probably, was made based on the clothes worn.

Witnesses are many, as they are also found among the customers who sit at the tables, upstairs, and consume their orders.

It seems that this child is particularly greedy of sweets and, in particular, of nougat, which is why it would appear in a “calculated” period: the Christmas season, in fact, in November, are near, so, at the bar laboratory , we work on the nougats that will later be put on sale and served at the tables.

Many people have seen this child, happy and smiling, wandering among the tables, looking for nougat bars.

And it would not, however, be the only time of the year when this sweet “visit” would make its way through the premises of the famous Neapolitan Coffee.

Precisely for these stories there are many types of esoteric tours, involving the city of Naples, to make a stop at Gambrinus, in search of the famous nougat of nougat.

Have you ever met her?