Imagine: three o'clock in the morning. You wake up to the sound of your daughter saying "Mommy, I'm scared" and crawling into your bed. Her little arms hug you from behind. A minute later, you remember that your daughter is at summer camp and should not be back until a week later. You turn around sharply to see who called you, and ... there is no one next to you. But then you look up at the door and see it - standing, looking at you. The body stiffens, and the girl grins and disappears right before your eyes. At 3:15 in the morning, you know you won't be able to sleep. You should have listened to those who said you were moving into a haunted house...one of the many haunted houses.
This little story may be fictional, but many people have claimed to have experienced similar experiences in the homes on this list. From the House of Despair in Mexico, where a series of brutal murders took place, to DeFoe's house in New York, whose story inspired the legendary horror movie The Amityville Horror, we are sure that you would try your best to avoid a night in one of these houses ( and that would be wise of you). So, we present to your attention 25 creepy haunted houses that not everyone dares to visit.
Winchester Mystery House
Located in San Jose, California, the Mystery House is a huge mansion that served as the residence of Sarah Winchester, widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. Known for its size and for its varied architectural finds, the house gained popularity due to the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles that haunted the owners of the mansion and their guests.
Monte Cristo Manor
Built in 1885, Monte Cristo Manor is a heritage site in Juney, New South Wales, Australia. At the end of the nineteenth century, seven deaths occurred on the late Victorian estate, which is why the house is rightfully considered the most densely haunted in all of Australia. Several groups of ghosts were found in it. Now the estate houses a museum and an antique shop.
Drumbeg Manor
Drumbeg Manor in Inver (County Donegal, Ireland) is one of the most mysterious in all of Europe. Ghosts and strange phenomena are often observed in the house and in the area around it. It is said that there you can hear the screams of a woman and see a man in a white suit walking through the halls.
McPike Mansion
Built in 1869 by Henry Guest McPike, the mansion is located in Alton, the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area of Illinois. One of the largest haunted houses in the United States, this mansion appeared in the series documentaries"The Most Terrifying Places on Earth" The current owners of the house are Sharin and George Lüdke, who bought it at auction in 1994. According to them, the mansion is haunted by the ghosts of its former owner and his servants.
Weili's house
Whaley's Greek Revival style is a villa in San Diego, California. How the haunted house was discovered in 2005 after it was named "America's most mysterious house" by LIFE magazine. Footsteps can be heard in the house, which belong to the ghost of James "Yankee Jim" Robinson, who was hanged in this villa. Some visitors to the house claim to have seen the ghosts of its first owners, Thomas and Anna Whaley.
house of despair
The House of Despair is a historic site in the Mexican city of Guanajuato. At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, this house, built in the eighteenth century, became the site of a series of murders committed by Tadeo Fugencio Mejia. The killer was obsessed with the idea of communicating with his dead wife. According to local residents, paranormal phenomena constantly occur in the house, and sometimes even the screams of the victims are heard.
Villa Kleine
One of Finland's most mysterious houses, Villa Kleine is an ancient imperial-style mansion in Helsinki. It currently houses the Dutch embassy. The ghost of Kleine's second wife, Maria, still haunts the house and is nicknamed the "White Lady".
Vicarage in Borley
Called "the most mysterious house in England", the vicar's house is a Gothic mansion built in 1862 for the rector of the parish in Borley (Essex, England) and his family. According to rumors, the house was inhabited by ghosts from the very beginning - paranormal phenomena were often observed within its walls. In 1939, the mansion was badly damaged by fire and was restored five years later.
House of Vernescu
One of the scariest places in Romania, Vernescu's house is an old casino in Bucharest. Rumor has it that in the last century, several players committed suicide right within its walls - after they lost at roulette. According to eyewitnesses, three ghosts can be found in the building, which shake the furniture and sometimes appear in the corridors. Also, many passers-by complain about the strong smell of sulfur near the casino.
Erasmus Mansion
Known as “Die Spookhuis” (“haunted house” in Dutch), the Erasmus mansion is big house, in which ghosts are often seen and unusual phenomena are observed. The mansion is located in the South African city of Pretoria and is open to tourists. It also often hosts cultural events. Therefore, there are so many witnesses of inexplicable light in the uninhabited parts of the building and unusual human sounds.
Sally's house
Sally's house in Atchison, Kansas looks ordinary - but its past is quite mysterious. In the rich paranormal activity The house has always seen ghosts and flying objects. Some people heard animal sounds and human voices in it. According to the residents, they periodically have unexplained physical injuries such as scratches, burns and cuts.
Steward's House
Located in Montpellier Hill, near Dublin in Ireland, Steward House has been known as a haunted house since its inception in 1765. They say that a huge black ghost cat with glowing red eyes lives in the house, as well as a bell ringing and the presence of poltergeists is noticeable. In the nineties, the house housed a restaurant, which was closed in 2001. Now it is private property.
Riddle's house
Riddle's house in Palm Beach, Florida was built for mourning ceremonies. In 1920, it was purchased by the representative of the city administration Carl Riddle, whose name this house bears. In 1995, it was dismantled and moved to Estherier Village in South Florida. During the move and reconstruction of the house, workers often encountered various paranormal phenomena.
Lawang Sewu
Lawang Sewu is a historic building in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. This huge colonial-era house has been haunted several times. Among the ghosts, a Dutch lady and headless vampires were seen. During the filming of one of the programs about ghosts, one of them even got under the camera's sight.
House of Moors
In 1912, the small town of Villisca, located southwest of Des Moines, Iowa, saw several brutal unsolved murders (known as the Villisca massacre). Six members of the Moore family and two of their guests were found stabbed to death in their own home. Since then, the house has been known to be haunted. Its residents claim to have heard the crying of children and saw a wandering man with an axe.
Springhill House
Located in the town of Ballindrum, which is in the county of Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Springhill House is a seventeenth-century plantation house in which George Lenox-Coningham committed suicide in 1816. Since then, this mansion has been home to the most famous and haunted ghost in the country. He appears as a tall woman dressed in black, who is believed to be George's widow Olivia.
House DeFoe
DeFoe's house in Amityville, a village in Suffolk County, New York, became the site of a nightmarish mass murder: in 1974, Roland DeFoe killed his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters in it. A year later, in December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house with their three children. However, after 28 days, the family left the terrible haven, explaining this by the fact that they were literally terrorized by paranormal phenomena.
Rainham Hall
Built in 1637, Rainham Hall is a huge country house in East Anglia. The house is rumored to be haunted, and it was here that the most famous ghost photograph ever taken was of the legendary Brown Lady descending the stairs. The Lady is most likely the ghost of Dorothy Walpole, who died at Rainham Hall in 1726.
Chaoney No. 81
Also known as Chaoney Church, Chaoney No. 81 is a house in Beijing, China. The French Baroque brick building is known for being haunted. The stories tell of the ghost of a suicidal woman, as well as a variety of mystical phenomena. The house is popular among Chinese youth, especially since the 2014 horror film The House That Doesn't Die was filmed there.
Scary Joshua Ward House
Built in 1784 by Joshua Ward, it is one of the oldest buildings in Salem, Massachusetts. The house served as one of the sites of the famous Salem witch trials, and it is rumored that many women accused of witchcraft were hanged or burned in or near Joshua Ward. Since then, this house has been haunted by the ghosts of executed women. However, it is difficult to believe in this, since the legendary Salem witch hunt took place before the construction of the house - from February 1692 to May 1693.
Quinta da Juncosa
The old farmhouse belonged to a baron from Lages and his family. He was very jealous and suspected his wife of infidelity. According to legend, the baron tied her to a horse and let the horse go around the farm. As a result, his wife died. After the baron found out that his wife did not cheat on him, he killed his children and committed suicide. Until now, the guilt he feels does not allow his soul to calm down. The ghosts of the baron and his wife are constantly seen on the farm.
According to the stories of local residents, in these abandoned buildings one can meet ghosts of slaughtered brides, murdered children, executed soldiers, etc.
Baldun Castle
Baldoon Castle, Bladnock, Scotland
Access: free
The colorful ruins of an ancient castle do not look ominous during the day. But at night, the ghost of a girl in a bloody wedding dress allegedly wanders around them. They say that in mid-seventeenth century, a certain Sir James Dalrymple decided to marry his daughter Janet to the wealthy owner of Baldun Castle. The girl loved another, but she could not go against the will of her father. However, Janet did not have a chance to become the wife of a wealthy nobleman: just a few minutes before the start of the wedding ceremony, she was found stabbed to death in the room where the brides were waiting for their exit to the altar. Most likely, the crime was committed by Janet's rejected lover, who could not survive the insult inflicted on his feelings, but some believe that the girl committed suicide.
Bhangar fort
Bhangarh Fort, Rajasthan, India
Access: free
The first thing that catches your eye on the way to Bhangar Fort is the signs that strictly forbid approaching the ruins after sunset. According to legend, a powerful magician cursed Bhangar due to the fact that the shadow from him fell on a sacred place intended for meditation. Frightened, the people left the fort, but they failed to escape: almost all of them soon died and were forced to return to the cursed place already as incorporeal entities. To debunk this myth, the Indian government wanted to deploy armed patrols in Bhangar, but no one was willing to join the detachments.
St. John's Hospital
St. John's Hospital, Lincolnshire, England
Access: free
The clinic, founded in 1852, contained not ordinary patients, but poor people suffering from mental disorders. Few people cared about the fate of the unfortunate, so the methods of treatment were applied to them quite cruelly. After the closure of the establishment in 1989, hired workers had to remove all medical utensils from the building. However, they could not spend even a few days there: the men claimed that they were haunted at every step by terrible cries of incomprehensible origin. Firefighters were repeatedly called to the abandoned clinic: it seemed to passers-by that flames were escaping from the windows. The brigades who arrived at the scene did not find any signs of fire, but they saw some strange lights flickering in the corridors.
Berengaria Hotel
Berengaria Hotel in Cyprus
Berengaria Hotel, Prodromos, Cyprus
Access: free
The hotel, which opened its doors in the 1930s, was intended for wealthy tourists and brought in big profits. His sad fate was determined by the death of the owner, who bequeathed the management of the family business to his sons. At first, the three men tried to follow the order of their father, who, dying, demanded that they work together and share the proceeds equally. However, over time, quarrels over money began to flare up between them more and more often. It all ended with the fact that the young owners of the hotel died one after another under unclear circumstances. There was no one to continue their work. The huge building quickly fell into disrepair, and the inhabitants of the surrounding villages stole the valuables - they are the ones who claim that the ghosts of greedy brothers settled on the ruins of the hotel.
Church in San Juan Parangarikutiro
San Juan Parangaricutiro Church, Michoacan, Mexico
Access: free
The inhabitants of the Mexican village of Paricutin for a long time did not know that they lived on a volcano - in the literal sense of this expression. Their surprise knew no bounds when, in the winter of 1943, in a field owned by one of the peasants, an impressive cone-shaped mountain grew in a matter of days. Soon the volcano began to erupt. The inhabitants of Paricutin, as well as the nearest locality San Juan Parangarikutiro fled their homes. Lava crawled slowly, and therefore all people managed to escape. She also spared the stone church. Now, once a year, Mexicans make a pilgrimage to the cracked altar and try to appease the spirit of the volcano with small offerings. If he remains dissatisfied with the gifts, the pilgrims will be tormented by nightmares for a long time.
Great Isaac Cay Lighthouse, Bahamas
Access: free
A tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean is not indicated on every map. Nevertheless, ghost hunters from all over the world know about its existence. According to legend, in the 19th century, a shipwreck occurred near the island, as a result of which only Small child. What happened to him later is unknown, but the spirit of his mother - the Lady in Gray - still wanders around the abandoned lighthouse at night and cries bitterly. By the way, a strange story also came out with two lighthouse keepers: they disappeared without a trace in the summer of 1969. Their bodies were never found. The solution to this mystery is usually associated with the fact that Great Isaac Cay is located on the territory bermuda triangle. However, skeptics believe that the lives of caretakers, most likely, were claimed by a hurricane.
Waverly Hills Sanitarium
Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Access: with an excursion group
The former sanatorium for tuberculosis patients has been repeatedly recognized as the most frightening place in the United States. It is believed that paranormal activity within its walls is very high. It is especially manifested in the so-called "tunnel of death", which was originally cut so that the employees of the sanatorium could get to their jobs, bypassing the steep slopes of the hill. However, later the tunnel was adapted for the secret removal of the bodies of the dead: the living were not supposed to see how their neighbors in the ward went to last way. Ghosts can live not only in a narrow dark corridor, but also in separate rooms. For example, room 502 is haunted by the spirit of a nurse who hung herself here after contracting tuberculosis while pregnant.
Diplomat Hotel
Hotel "Diplomat" in the Philippines
Diplomat Hotel, Baguio City, Philippines
Access: free
Residents of houses located near the Dominican Hill in Baguio complain that chilling sounds keep them awake at night - screams, groans, hurried steps, slamming doors. The source of these sounds, they believe the abandoned hotel Diplomat, whose building served as a refuge for refugees during the Second World War. It was repeatedly bombed and shelled, and many sisters of mercy were innocently executed by soldiers of the Japanese army. The guests of the hotel, which opened on this site in the 1970s, also had a hard time: they constantly imagined mysterious black figures that walked around the halls, appeared in the windows, and hid behind heavy curtains.
Salesian school
Salesian School, Goshen, New York, USA
Access: the building is protected
The Catholic school for boys, opened on the territory of the former aristocratic estate, enjoyed great respect in the district until one of the pupils died. In 1964, nine-year-old Paul Ramos fell from the roof of the educational building and crashed to his death. Then everyone decided that a tragic accident had happened. Already in the early 2000s, the case again attracted the attention of the press and special services. It turned out that the boy's body lay too far from the building: in order for the child to fly to such a distance, he had to be pushed, but, of course, it is no longer possible to find the killer. Those few daredevils who managed to get close to the dilapidated building, passing the guards, assure that they saw the silhouette of a boy in the window openings.
VIDEO: Haunted house found in Russia
55-year-old San Diego resident Russ McKamey and his girlfriend Carol Schultz opened " ghost manor─ the world's scariest house of horrors, where visitors are sure to be bound, forcibly caged with snakes and doused in slippery artificial blood. Incredibly, there are already 24,000 people on the waiting list. No one ever stood up to all the tests, even the marines and extreme sports enthusiasts, and dozens of adult men ran out of this room with tears in their eyes.
(Total 11 photos)
1. Haunted Manor visitors with their hands tied were doused with artificial blood.
2. Only two people can be in the mansion at the same time.
3. Visitors must endure close contact with spiders and snakes.
4. Tests in the house of horrors can last up to eight hours, but no one has ever managed to overcome all the way from beginning to end.
You can visit the McKamey mansion absolutely free of charge, and believe me, its owners are making every effort to diversify the tests. Before entering the house, daredevils must undergo a mandatory medical examination and obtain an appropriate permit for the absence of serious diseases. Only those who have reached the age of 21 receive admission.
5. An extreme seeker enters a room whose walls are completely covered with artificial blood.
6. Adult men often leave the mansion with tears in their eyes; even marines and avid extreme sportsmen cannot withstand such tension.
7. Founder Russ McKamey and his girlfriend Carol Schultz change the theme of the challenge every year.
8. Persons over 21 years old can visit the "Ghost Manor" absolutely free of charge.
A devoted fan of horror films such as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Haunted House, McKamey set out to establish the "scariest house" with smoke and mirrors that would make even grown men cry. The couple spent over $500,000 to realize their dream. “You won't find anything like it anywhere in the world. It's like living your own horror movie. The mansion has four different rooms designed specifically for hardcore fans who dare to go through with it. All tests are highly interactive. Such experiences and obstacles should show what you can and can't do,” McKamey explains.
9. The couple spent more than 500 thousand dollars to realize their dream.
10. Before entering the house, daredevils must undergo a mandatory medical examination and obtain the appropriate permit.
11. Horror movie fan McKamey described his "Haunted Manor" as "Indiana Jones on steroids."
The interactive adventure is described as a real horror film that visitors can record on camera, look at themselves from the outside and relive all this fear once again. Everyone has the opportunity to watch the tests of other people using an online broadcast, one session of which lasts from four to eight hours.
Imagine: three o'clock in the morning. You wake up to the sound of your daughter saying "Mommy, I'm scared" and crawling into your bed. Her little arms hug you from behind. A minute later, you remember that your daughter is at summer camp and should not be back until a week later. You turn around sharply to see who called you, and ... there is no one next to you. But then you look up at the door and see it - standing, looking at you. The body stiffens, and the girl grins and disappears right before your eyes. At 3:15 in the morning, you know you won't be able to sleep. You should have listened to those who said you were moving into a haunted house...one of the many haunted houses.
This little story may be fictional, but many people have claimed to have experienced similar experiences in the homes on this list. From the House of Despair in Mexico, where a series of brutal murders took place, to DeFoe's house in New York, whose story inspired the legendary horror movie The Amityville Horror, we are sure that you would try your best to avoid a night in one of these houses ( and that would be wise of you). So, we present to your attention 25 creepy haunted houses that not everyone dares to visit.
Ghosts exist not only in ancient European castles and Hollywood movies. There are mysterious houses in Russia whose inhabitants became the main characters of urban legends
at home with mystical history- one of the favorite topics of local residents and an exciting part of the journey for tourists.Most often, these are old noble estates, the inhabitants of which were remembered by contemporaries for their strange behavior, tragic history, or scientific experiments that were mistaken for witchcraft.
Where to go on a ghost hunt
Secrets of the sorcerer: Glinka's estate
Monino (station Yaroslavskaya railway), the territory of the sanatorium "Monino"
One of the famous associates of Peter the Great, a descendant of the Scottish kings, Yakov Vilimovich Bruce, was also known as a warlock magician and the first freemason in Russia. In 1721, the "sorcerer" Bruce received the village of Glinkovo near Moscow as a reward for his assistance in signing the Peace of Nystadt. An unknown architect erected for the count a small palace estate in the Baroque style, equipping it for scientific studies: Bruce moved his observatory from St. Petersburg to the estate. Five years later, Field Marshal General retired and finally moved to the Glinka estate. In addition to astronomy and mathematics, he studied herbs, made medicines and treated peasants who considered the master a sorcerer. They said that iron dragons flew into the windows of the master's mansion, and in the summer the pond froze in the park and the guests went skating.
After Bruce's death, the estate changed hands as the new owners went bankrupt and were forced to sell the estate. AT Soviet time A gastroenterological sanatorium was opened on the territory of the estate. The building continues to attract fans of the image of the "Russian Faust" - in the late 1990s, enthusiasts examined the foundation of the building using echolocation and found voids. According to legend, gold, archaeological rarities and magic books of the sorcerer Bruce should be stored there. It is believed that the keystones on the facade, made in the form of demonic masks, are able to wink, smile and make faces to those who look at them. In the western wing of the estate there is a museum of Yakov Bruce.
In addition, the story of the Sukharevskaya tower, destroyed in 1934, where the mysterious count once worked, is connected with his name. It is believed that on Sretenka, on the site of the demolished building, you can see the ghost of a sorcerer who is waiting for the building to be rebuilt.
Curse of the Princess: Palace of Oldenburg
Voronezh region, Ramon village
In 1833-1837, the architect Christopher Neisler designed for Princess Eugenie of Oldenburg a neo-Gothic brick manor in the Old English style. Having moved to Ramon, the princess took up charity work: she opened schools, canteens and hospitals, established a scholarship, and also built the first candy factory in Russia. There were strange rumors about her life - the locals believed that Princess Eugenia kept a menagerie in the cellars of the house and fed the delinquent servants to a huge bear. No less sinister stories were told about her husband, Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg, who was considered a sorcerer. The prince and his friend, the artist and philosopher Nicholas Roerich, conducted esoteric experiments in the castle and its environs and evoked the souls of the dead. Magical practices in the castle ceased only in 1902, after a fire that almost completely destroyed the Oldenburg factory.
According to visitors to the castle and restorers, today photo and video equipment does not work here, pets cannot be present, steps and voices are constantly heard. According to legend, three ghosts live in the castle. The most famous is the spirit of Princess Eugenie, which appears as a female figure wrapped in a dense black veil. They also talk about the spirit of a sorcerer doctor who once treated Oldenburgskaya and cursed her because she refused to become his lover. The third ghost is the shadow of a serf girl who died of an illness when the Oldenburgs lived in Ramon and were the owners of the house.
Since 2006, the castle has been under reconstruction, the duration of which is also explained by mystical reasons - supposedly, the diseases of the masters of the restoration team are caused by the fact that the mistress of the castle resists change. As proof, they say that outside the estate, the sick get better, and once in one of the rooms of the palace the plaster flew around and the silhouette of the late princess appeared on the wall. After the completion of the renovation, local authorities plans to open a new museum and registry office in the building.
Restless monks: residential building in Kaluga
Kaluga, Lenin street, 100
Five-story house on the street. Lenin in Kaluga - the first example of constructivism in the city Stalin era. It was built in 1934 by architect Mikhail Ilyenko on the site of the church of the Archangel Michael. Historian, journalist and local historian Alexei Urusov in the book "Secrets of Old Kaluga" writes that a residential building was erected on a temple foundation, and bricks from the walls of a dismantled church were used for construction kindergarten and other "Stalinist" houses in the city.
There is a legend associated with house number 100 about ghosts that are seen in the building every autumn, in late October - early November. The appearance of spirits is explained by the fact that clergy were buried on the territory of the destroyed church. Residents talk about dark figures in monastic robes in different parts of the house - in apartments and on stairwells - and that they hear footsteps and a knock on the door when no one is on the site. According to residents mystical building, pets at this time of the year behave restlessly and strangely.
The spirit of a thief: the house of the merchant Zheleznov
Yekaterinburg, Rosa Luxembourg street, 56
One of the most famous and beautiful historical buildings in Yekaterinburg. The estate was built in 1895 and is made in the pseudo-Russian style - the red brick house resembles a tower, and the stonework imitates elegant wooden carvings. The merchant Zheleznov bought the house in 1905 and settled there with his wife Maria and three children. The building owes its mystical reputation to Maria Zheleznova.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the merchant's wife was a very attractive woman with oddities. She collected exotic plants, spent most of her time in the park next to the fountain, and rarely went out into the city because she suffered from kleptomania. The husband, knowing about the illness, agreed with the merchants that they should not pay attention to the loss, since he fully covered the losses. In 1914, Maria Zheleznova died suddenly at a performance of the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Three years later, during the revolution, the merchant with his children left Yekaterinburg for Omsk, and about future fate family is not known. However, in Yekaterinburg there is a legend that the ghost of the mistress of the house still roams the brick tower. Another secret of the mansion is underground passages throughout the courtyard, the purpose of which has not yet been clarified.
The riddle of the Queen of Spades: the house of Princess N.P. Golitsyna
St. Petersburg, Malaya Morskaya street, 10
The court lady of state, Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, is the most famous prototype of the old Countess Anna Fedotovna of Tomskaya from A.S. Pushkin's story The Queen of Spades. According to legend, the secret of the three cards was revealed to the Russian lady-in-waiting by her friend, the French alchemist and occultist Count Saint-Germain, when Golitsyna needed to cover up a card loss. The family story was told to the poet by his friend, the great-nephew of the princess Sergei Golitsyn, nicknamed Firs. According to Firs, once finding himself in the same position as Natalya Petrovna, he turned to her for help. The princess opened young man the secret of Saint Germain, and Golitsyn recouped.
The death of Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna also became a legend - the familiar princesses said that the ghost of a black officer appeared to her, who took her life, but left the soul of the superstitious princess to wander around the house. Strange number magic is associated with the history of the Queen of Spades. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was killed in a duel three years after the publication of the story. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who wrote the opera of the same name on the basis of the story, died three years after it was staged.
