Yes, it is true – Mickey Mouse has been discovered on a 700 year old Church fresco in the village of Malta, Austria. Yes, this village is named just like our country, Malta… There was once a humorous song which called Malta pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse (Mickey Mouse country) or something similar. The image predates Walt Disney’s cartoon character by more than 600 years.

Originally Walt Disney first sketched his character back in 1928 but an Austrian art historian spotted an uncannily similar drawing.

The painting, which has been dated back to the early 14th Century, is in the Community Church in Malta, Carinthia. Next to a large sketch of St. Christopher is a clear drawing of the mouse.

“Now it’s all clear”, remarked one local hotel owner. “It wasn’t Walt Disney who invented Mickey Mouse, but one of our ancestors 700 years ago.”

The local tourist bureau speculated the village could become a pilgrimage site for Mickey fans around the world.

The medieval Mickey stands about 50-cm tall among a group of animals and mythical beasts on the outside wall of a church in the village of Malta, in Carinthia Province. The animals surround St Christopher, who is depicted standing in a river.

“The fresco dates from around 1300,” said conservator and art historian Eduard Mahlknecht. However he said he was not certain the medieval mouse was a mouse at all. “It could just as well be a painting of the weasel legend,” he said.

According to legend, the weasel was fertilised through its mouth and gave birth through its ears, which is why the ears of the fresco creature may have been sketched large, Mahlknecht said.

mickey mouse in church fresco

Sources: lauralee.com, theage.com.au

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