Margarida Xirgu Haunting the Teatre Romea

In the luxurious theater in Barcelona it is said that the former actress, Margarida Xirgu, that performed at the stage of Teatre Romea is haunting the place. Moving objects around in the lobby and being seen as strange shadows backstage, this actress has yet to have her last performance.

In 2018 there was a production of a show called La Familia Coleman at Teatre Romea in Barcelona, Spain. The company director came with her family in the early afternoon to visit the theater. They were in the sitting area and looking at the first floor when the daughter asked who the lady on the stage was. The company director looked up to the stage, but there was no one there. It was another incident of the ghost haunting the old theater.

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Spain

Spain has a long history of storytelling and theatrical performances, and the country is home to many haunted theaters. These theaters are said to be haunted by the ghosts of actors who have performed on their stages. This is the case of Teatre Romea, said to be haunted by the ghost of an actress that was sent in exile but returned after her death to the stage.

The Teatre Romea in Barcelona

In the luxurious theater in Barcelona it is said that the former actress, Margarida Xirgu, that performed at the stage of Teatre Romea is haunting the place. Moving objects around in the lobby and being seen as strange shadows backstage, this actress has yet to have her last performance. — **Teatre Romea:** The facade of the theatre from the street.

This theater is located in the El Raval neighborhood in Barcelona, Spain. The Teatre Romea was built in 1863 to represent productions in Catalan, one of the official languages spoken in Catalonia.

Performing in Catalan was actually forbidden from 1939 to 1945 during the Franco regime after the Spanish Civil War and the language that has declined over the years has been something the Catalonians have been fighting for. Today the language is something the people of Catalonia is especially proud of.

The Teatre Romea was made to be a luxury theater of high art and catered to the upper class with over 600 people can be seated to watch the performance on the brightly lit stage from the dark chairs. Many famous actors, actresses and playwrights got their moments on the stage, and some have thought to linger in the old theater even after their death.

The Ghost Haunting the Theater

People that have visited Teatre Romea have sometimes claimed to have seen shadows when no people are there, or even found electrical equipment messed with even though they knew very well they were plugged in.

On several occasions when they were about to film something, like when they tried to film the theater with a drone, the battery drained immediately twice, even if nothing was wrong with it.

They also tried to shoot a report of the backstage production in 2012 where the same thing happened, also twice. When they watched the interviews they managed to get on tape a series of noises and interferences that no one had heard while filming.

Strange Shadows Backstage

According to stage managers and the people working in the bar, there were strange noises that could be heard in the theater in the dead of night as well as these strange shadows in the empty corridors backstage. A piano is playing by itself when the theater is empty in the morning except from the administration as well as voices singing in the empty hallway, almost as if rehearsing for an oncoming play.

On All Saints Eve the safety staff refused to work during a time when the paranormal activity was at an all time high.
Heavy palm trees in pots were seen moving by themselves in the theater lobby and in 2012 when the batteries were drained during the interview there was also a wastebasket that moved by itself up and down that was witnessed by two technicians.

The Ghost of a Famous Actress

One day in 1995 the child of one of the people working there claimed to have seen something strange in her bedroom. The three year old said there was a lady in a white dress and pink bow in her bedroom. Earlier that evening, the parents had made the rounds of the theater before going on and had felt chills after leaving the stage and felt something wasn’t right.

So when the daughter told about the lady, the next day working in the theater the parent didn’t feel at ease. When flipping through photographs of the stage famed actress Margarida Xirgu she posed in a white dress with a pink bow. Problem was, she had already been dead for decades.

The most popular theory is that the theater is haunted by someone who was close to the theater and many have speculated that the ghost haunting the place could be Margarida Xirgu. She was a famous actress in the early 1900s and used to perform at this theater as well as stages nationwide and in Latin America.

The Life and Death of Margarida Xirgu

She was born in 1888 and moved to Barcelona in 1896. She played her first character Blanca in the play Mar i Cel at this very theater and ended up being quite a successful actress after making an appearance on Teatre Romea numerous times.

During Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, she was forced into exile and had to live in America. She died in Maldonado in Uruguay in 1969. However in 1988 the Catalan government retrieved her remains and brought her back to bury her in Molins de Rei outside of Barcelona, were she was born.

Could it be that the once famous actress chose to return to the stage where she got her start in the afterlife, as she was banned from returning to her country in life? It is said she didn’t get to act as much as she wanted on this stage before being sent away, and many believe she returned to get more time on the stage. Now however, time is all she has.

Those believing that the theater is haunted feels like they don’t need further proof. What they now want is to prove that the ghost really is Margarita Xirgu and that she is still on stage on the Teatre Romea.