Tag Archives: article

Ukategorisert

The Ghost of Maules: Unmasking the Chilling Legend of Le Loyon

2 Comments
Advertisements

For decades, sightings of a strange humanoid were seen wandering the Swiss forests in Maules. Clad in camouflage and masked by an antique gas mask, the figure now known as Le Loyon or the Ghost of Maule turned into an urban legend.

Deep in the dense, brooding woods of the Gruyère region in western and French speaking part of Switzerland lies the village of Maules, a sleepy Swiss hamlet surrounded by pastoral hills and ancient forest with around 350 people.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

For over a decade, locals and hikers whispered uneasily of something else among the trees: a tall, silent figure in a gas mask known only as Le Loyon. Shrouded in mystery and dread, this eerie entity became one of Switzerland’s most unnerving urban legends, known today as The Ghost of Maules.

The Gruyère District in western Switzerland: known for its rolling green hills, medieval towns, and namesake cheese, also holds a darker, more mysterious side. Its dense forests—often cloaked in mist—are steeped in legends passed down through generations. Here is the landscape of the woods near the Château de Gruyères.

A Forest Stalker in Camouflage

Le Loyon was first reported in the early 2000s where most sources state 2003 as the beginning of it all. But there are those who claim that the sightings of Le Loyon goes back to the late 1990s by residents and ramblers who ventured into the Maules woods near Sâles, in the Canton of Fribourg. 

Witnesses described the figure as well over six feet tall, clothed in an olive-green or camouflage military-style boilersuit or gimp suit, draped in a dark cloak, and most disturbingly, wearing an antiquated gas mask that obscured the entire head.

This combination of industrial, military, and being faceless struck terror into those who glimpsed it. The mask, resembling those worn in chemical warfare, gave Le Loyon the unsettling appearance of something not entirely human. It never spoke. It never chased. But it watched.

It was most often spotted along a particular forest path known to locals and most often on Sundays. Reports recounted how the figure would appear in the distance and then vanish into the foliage without a trace when spotted, almost as the Ghost of Maule wanted to remain a secret. 

In one of the first reported sightings, a local woman claimed to have seen Le Loyon in June, picking flowers on a clearing close to the trail, startled when it was seen and clutching the bouquet of wild flowers. According to the woman, Le Loyon dropped the flowers and fled. Who was the most frightened?

A Community Gripped by Fear by Le Loyon

Although Le Loyon never displayed aggression, fear spread through the area. Parents told children to stay away from the woods. Hikers changed their routes. 

For around two decades, there were at least twelve encounters with Le Loyon. As Marianne Descloux said when she encountered Le Loyon: “It was a rainy Sunday. He had a hood, a dark pilgrim and his gas mask. What can go through his head? I don’t know, but it was impressive and unpleasant. I hope I never run into him again.”

The local authorities were contacted several times, but without concrete evidence of a crime, there was little they could do. Some speculated Le Loyon was simply a hermit with a strange sense of fashion. Some believed the figure was a mentally ill recluse; others insisted it was a supernatural being — perhaps a spirit of war, a forest warden cursed by time, or even a personified trauma from Switzerland’s hidden past.

The Photo That Made It Real

Everything changed in 2013 when a photograph of Le Loyon was captured and published in a regional paper, Le Matin. Taken by an anonymous hiker, the image shows the eerie figure standing alone on a woodland path, facing slightly away from the camera, cloaked and masked exactly as described. 

‘I came across him near the marches,’ said the unnamed photographer who tracked it down. ‘I approached him up to a dozen metres away.’ ‘He had a military cape, boots and an army gas mask – an antique type, I think. He measured more than 1.90m. He stared at me then turned its back on me and left in silence.’

The photo quickly went viral giving hard proof to a tale many had dismissed as folklore or just seeing things. The local community was now more afraid than ever. Women and children didn’t want to venture into the woodlands by themselves. 

Not long after the photo’s release, another strange discovery was made: Le Loyon’s clothes and gas mask were found neatly folded and left in the forest along with a disturbing note.

The Final Message from The Ghost of Maules

According to Le Matin, the note contained a cryptic and bitter farewell titled: “Death Certificate and Testament of the Ghost of Maules” and was first posted on a local bulletin.. 

In it, the author expressed anger at being hunted by the media and misunderstood by society, claiming that the forest was once a sanctuary — a place of peace — that had been taken from them by fear and judgment. The message hinted at emotional turmoil and deep loneliness but offered no identity. The way it worded the letter also left someone believe it was a suicide note. 

Death certificate and testament of the Phantom of Maules (Translated into English from French)

Dear nickname Patrick du Matin, not only are you a moron but you are above all an assassin.

You murdered a very harmless being, who found, in his walks, a real therapy of happiness, a cerebral resourcing allowing him to face the responsibilities and the vicissitudes of his “normal” life and he had some!

The ghost cannot explain this happiness, but you do not seem to know Sacher-Masoch; you will discover that it takes everything to make a world.

Then you are an assassin of freedoms.

To hear you, we find ourselves in the Middle Ages, at the time of the witches. Why don’t you rise up against the little toads, helmets and hoods, dressed in leather, who backfire on their motorcycles, in these same forests, them in violation!

Do they take the time to meditate in front of the little Oratory, to ask for a better world? I terrorize children, make me laugh! Why are they not terrified by the horrors and the crimes, very real these, that they see on television, in the media?

Who is in charge of setting the Tolerance and Freedom button in this company? These beautiful notions benefit more dealers, pimps, burglars, rapists and hooligans!

Switzerland is small, anything that is not in accordance with the garden gnome must be eradicated. I thought, during these years, while I was always left alone, until you, that these feelings were evolving, you give me the opposite proof, unfortunately.

The Phantom disappears, the risk of a Beast hunt is too great. It will come back to haunt the narrow minds of your kind, for ultimately a ghost never dies.

To the amiable walker or mushroomer who will discover my tinsel: Deliver this letter to Mr. Syndic or Vice-Syndic, or even to a journalist, capable however of discussing Freedom and Tolerance.

Since the clothing and note were found, no further sightings of Le Loyon have been reported. The legend, however, has only grown.

Specter or Sad Soul?

To this day, no one knows for sure who — or what — Le Loyon was. Was it a reclusive individual driven to hide behind a mask for personal or psychological reasons? A mentally ill woman, a gigantic man or perhaps a strange survivalist or someone suffering from a skin condition? 

Perhaps it was simply a person enjoying dressing up or playing a prank? A 4chan thread on the board /r9k/ appears to have Le Loyon themself posting. The thread was about an anonymous poster who was contemplating doing scary things in public for fun, which ‘Le Loyon’ posted in talking about what they did, Another poster quickly recognised it looking eerily similar to that of Le Loyon legend. If the poster said the truth, ‘Le Loyon’ would simply be a bored person looking for some fun.

As time progressed and the legend grew, some started to believe that the Ghost of Maule could be something far stranger than a person enjoying dressing up. Was it something closer to a ghost, or guardian of the woods, or some sort of other, specter wrapped in humanity’s forgotten horrors?

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

Le Loyon – Wikipedia

Le Loyon | Cryptid Wiki

Le Loyon a décidé de «se suicider» – lematin.ch

Police hunt for mysterious figure who has walked through same Swiss woods every day wearing gas mask, boiler suit and a cloak for TEN YEARS | Daily Mail Online

«Le Loyon» ne fait rire personne – lematin.ch

Ukategorisert

The Vampire of Croglin Grange: The Mystery Behind the Legend

1 Comment
Advertisements

The Vampire of Croglin Grange was passed down as an actual true story told and published. But what was the truth behind this vampire story, and was there really any truth to it?

Tucked within the pastoral landscapes of Cumbria, England, the quiet village of Croglin once played host to one of Britain’s eeriest and most unsettling vampire legends — a story that has chilled listeners for well over a century. Known as The Vampire of Croglin Grange, this tale was first popularized in the 19th century, yet its setting and sinister details evoke much older European revenant lore.

Croglin is a quiet picturesque fellside village between the Pennines and the River Eden. Because of its proximity to the Scottish borders, the village was often raided by the Border Reivers in the 15th century. Though historians debate its authenticity, the story’s sinister atmosphere and eerie specifics have earned it a place among England’s most famous vampire legends.

The Account That Sparked the Legend

The legend was first widely shared by Augustus Hare in his 1896 book The Story of My Life, his autobiography. The story was related by a certain Captain Fisher. The Fisher family were long-time residents of the region, and presented it as a genuine family incident that took place in Cumberland around 14 miles south east of Carlisle and not far from the Scottish border. After moving down to Surrey, the Fishers had let the Grange out.

The Night the Vampire Came

According to Hare’s account, in the early 19th century, a brother and sister — Amelia, Edward, and Michael Cranswell — rented a remote country house known as Croglin Grange between 1875 and 1876. The house was charming but isolated, surrounded by open fields and ancient churchyards. Though Hare doesn’t name them in his story, later sources give their surname as Cranswell. And while Hare doesn’t give a date, it’s been assumed they occupied the house at some point in the 1870s, as this was when the Fishers moved out.

Read More: Check out The Vampire of Croglin Grange by Augustus Hare to read it as it was published for the entire story.. 

One particularly hot summer’s evening, the siblings retired to bed, leaving their windows open to the night air. As darkness settled, Amelia Cranswell lay in bed beneath the glow of a full moon when she noticed a pair of glittering eyes peering through her window. It was described as having a brown face and flaming eyes. Transfixed with horror, she watched as a thin, shriveled figure with unnaturally long fingers crept closer.

The creature deftly unlatched the window, slipped inside, and lunged at Amelia, biting into her neck and drawing blood. Paralyzed with terror, she managed to let out a blood-curdling scream as the creature fed. Her cries summoned Edward and Michael, who burst into the room and chased the attacker away — though not before seeing it flee toward the churchyard.

A Grim Pursuit

The next morning, the brothers searched the grounds but found no trace of the intruder. Fearing for their sister’s life, they insisted she travel to recover elsewhere and they went to Switzerland. Several months later, Amelia returned, and despite lingering fears, resumed life at Croglin Grange.

But on another moonlit night, the creature returned — this time, the brothers were ready. Michael and Edward, armed with pistols, pursued the shriveled, man-like figure across the moonlit fields to the old churchyard, where it disappeared into a crypt belonging to a long-dead local family.

The next day, accompanied by local villagers, the brothers opened the vault. Inside, they found a mummified, grotesque corpse — remarkably intact — with fresh blood on its lips. The body was swiftly burned or, in some versions, a stake was driven through its heart before it was incinerated, bringing an end to the terror that had plagued Croglin Grange.

Fact, Fiction, or Folklore?

Skeptics have long debated the historical accuracy of the Croglin Vampire story. Some argue it’s a Victorian gothic fiction piece cleverly presented as oral history. Others point out that while Croglin is a real place, no definitive records corroborate the events described by Augustus Hare.

The story was revisited in 1919 when Montague Summers republished it together with Varney the Vampire, saying it should be dismissed as folklore. He found no evidence that Croglin Grange ever existed. Most likely it was based on Croglin Low Hall even though there was no nearby chapel. 

Folklorists suggest that the tale fits within a wider tradition of revenant lore in northern England and Scotland — stories of the dead returning from their graves to drink the blood of the living, particularly during plague years. The creature’s withered, ancient appearance also aligns more with old European vampire myths than the suave, aristocratic blood-drinkers popularized by later gothic fiction.

Francis Clive-Ross gave some more insight in a 1963 article for the journal Tomorrow, Clive-Ross stated he’d discovered information that might lend some truth at least to the setting of Fisher’s tale. Clive-Ross found out that Croglin Low Hall had actually been known as Croglin Grange until the beginning of the 18th century and that it really used to be a chapel nearby. Croglin residents, however, told him that the incident hadn’t occurred in the 1870s, but rather way back in the 1680s.

As it turned out, the Fisher’s had actually been tenants back then, and it was the Towry family owning it and that the story most likely came from them. Some linked the bat-like creature from a local story of the grave of a local priest. Some speculate that what the woman actually saw was an owl, or perhaps an escaped monkey from the circus. Some even suggest that it is a story about the trauma from the Civil War, everything to not recognize the possibility of a vampiric creature stalking the locals. 

Even so, there is a window at Croglin Low Hall that is believed to be the window the vampire showed himself. It is now bricked up and festooned with a lucky horseshoe. As a protection, just in case. 

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

Croglin Grange – Wikipedia

The Vampire of Croglin Grange – a Genuine & Ancient British Bloodsucker? – David Castleton Blog – The Serpent’s Pen

Ukategorisert

Jacques St. Germain: New Orleans’ Immortal Vampire Aristocrat

6 Comments
Advertisements

After jumping from a balcony in New Orleans, a woman claimed the host had tried to bite her. After searching his house, police found blood and bloodstained clothes from every time period. Who was this Jacques St. Germain, dubbed the Vampire of New Orleans? And what was the connection to a mysterious immortal aristocrat from Europe?

In a city overflowing with ghost stories, grisly murders, and old-world superstition, few legends endure like that of Jacques St. Germain, the mysterious 20th-century aristocrat believed by some to be an immortal vampire stalking the streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter.

Read More: Check out all haunted stories from USA

His story intertwines with the rich, eerie folklore of the city — a place where fact and legend blur in the mist rising from ancient cobblestones. But before he became the legendary vampire of New Orleans, he was the immortal aristocrat of Europe who dined with kings and queens and watched empires rise and fall. 

French Quarter: A view of historic buildings in New Orleans, reminiscent of the eerie tales surrounding Jacques St. Germain, the city’s legendary vampire and the French Quarter where it is said he roams.

A Familiar, Yet Ageless Name of the Count of St. Germain

To understand how the vampire legend took root, we have to backtrack to the old country who the New Orleans vampire was thought to be. The origins of Jacques St. Germain’s legend trace back to an 18th-century European figure, The Count of St. Germain, a nobleman, alchemist, and alleged immortal who appeared in courts across Europe for decades without ever seeming to age. 

He really was a real man at the European royal courts, but his life and identity was a mystery, even to his peers. He ate at the dinner with kings and queens, philosophers like Voltaire, musicians like Mozart and historians like Casanova. Known for his dazzling charisma, impossible wealth, and claims of ancient wisdom, the Count of St. Germain vanished from records in the late 1700s — though some say he never died.

Count of St. Germain: This mysterious person is largely thought to be a prince of Transylvania, hiding his identity for political protection all his life. Although many speculations have been made, he still remains a mystery.

His background seems shrouded in mystery as well. He was born maybe in 1691 or in the early 1700s. Perhaps by then, he was already centuries old by then. He was perhaps from Spain, Italy or Poland, and his real name is not known as St. Germain’s refusal to give his true name, except maybe to the King of France, Louis the XV as he kept him close at his court. He knew many languages, was a skilled musician, chemist and alchemist. So much so that some believed that he had found the way to an immortal life. 

The renowned historian Giacomo Girolamo Casanova wrote of St. Germain in his memoir: “This extraordinary man, intended by nature to be the king of impostors and quacks, would say in an easy, assured manner that he was three hundred years old, that he knew the secret of the Universal Medicine, that he possessed a mastery over nature, that he could melt diamonds, professing himself capable of forming, out of ten or twelve small diamonds, one large one of the finest water without any loss of weight. All this, he said, was a mere trifle to him. Notwithstanding his boastings, his bare-faced lies, and his manifold eccentricities, I cannot say I thought him offensive. In spite of my knowledge of what he was and in spite of my own feelings, I thought him an astonishing man as he was always astonishing me.”

At the Royal Court: The Count of St. Germain knew a lot of the inner circle at the royal court in France. Here, pictured a reading of Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine (a tragedy about Ghengis Khan and his sons, published in 1755), in the salon of Madame Geoffrin

Already then he claimed to be centuries old and sold women liquids that supposedly would make them younger and stop the aging process. He would not be seen eating anything, but only drinking this mysterious tea. He claimed to have had conversations with Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba and been present at countless historical milestones like the council of Nicea and the wedding in Cana when he turned water into wine. He was also rumored to be involved in helping Catherine the Great seize the throne, being employed by the French King although speculations about him being a spy were ever present. 

The Transylvanian Prince Theory: Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II (1676–1735) was a Hungarian nobleman who played a significant role for independence from Habsburg rule. Despite his efforts, the uprising ultimately failed, leading Rákóczi into exile in France. Some speculate that Count of st. Germain was one of his sons with a hidden identity for his protection.

At a party at the manor of Madame de Pompadour, who was the mistress of the king of France in 1760, Countess von Gregory approached him. She thought he was the son of a man she had known in 1710, but discovered that it was the same man, and he hadn’t aged a bit. A French ambassador from Venice called Rameau testified that he had known St. Germain in 1710 and that he had still looked like a man in his fifties.

In a letter from Horace Walpole, the 4th Earl of Oxford, he describes Comte St. Germain with: “An odd man, who goes by the name of Comte St. Germain. He had been here these two years, and will not tell who he is, or whence, but professes that he does not go by his right name.  He sings, plays on the violin wonderfully, composes, is mad, and not very sensible. He is called an Italian, a Spaniard, a Pole; a somebody that married a great fortune in Mexico, and ran away with her jewels to Constantinople, a priest, a fiddler, a vast nobleman. The Prince of Wales has had unsatiated curiosity about him, but in vain.”

In 1779 he moved to Germany and spent time with Prince Karl of Hesse-Kassel. He said he was 88 years old and the son of Prince Ragoczy of Transylvania, who had lost his throne. Some have claimed him to be his youngest son born in Bohemia and that his parents were Prince Franz-Leopold Ragoczy, of Transylvania and Princess Charlotte Amalia of Hesse-Wahnfried.  Then he was placed as an infant under the care of the last Medici family, Gian Gastone. 

According to records, he died February 27 in 1784, but there were sightings of him long before he reached New Orleans. But did he really die? According to more than one source, he kept appearing throughout different times, never aging at all. 

The Active Afterlife of the Count of St. Germain

Some would even venture that Comte de St. Germain was not his first life, and that he had been alive long before the 1700s, perhaps even since the time of Christ. Historian and philosopher Voltair allegedly said about him: “He is a man who knows everything and who never dies.”

In 1785 he was known to reside in Germany, befriending Anton Mesmer, the pioneer hypnotist and it was said that he had given Mesmer the ideas of it. He was also chosen as the Freemasonry representative for the annual 1785 convention. in their own records.

He went back to France after the taking of Bastille and was a counsel to Comtesse d’Adhémar who last saw him in 1822, not looking a day older. She wrote in 1821: “I have seen Saint-Germain again, each time to my amazement. I saw him when the queen [Antoinette] was murdered, on the 18th of Brumaire, on the day following the death of the Duke d’Enghien, in January, 1815, and on the eve of the murder of the Duke de Berry.”

Storming of Bastille: According to some records, Count st. Germaine appeared and told about the danger of the oncoming revolution.

Then he took on a new identity and Albert Vandam wrote: “He called himself Major Fraser, lived alone and never alluded to his family. Moreover he was lavish with money, though the source of his fortune remained a mystery to everyone. He possessed a marvelous knowledge of all the countries in Europe at all periods. His memory was absolutely incredible and, curiously enough, he often gave his hearers to understand that he had acquired his learning elsewhere than from books. Many is the time he has told me, with a strange smile, that he was certain he had known Nero, had spoken with Dante, and so on.”

The Vampire Reaches New Orleans

So how did this European aristocrat end up in New Orleans centuries later? According to the legend, by boat. In 1902, a man bearing the same name arrived in New Orleans. Like his supposed predecessor, Jacques St. Germain was described as charming, urbane, impossibly wealthy, and oddly ageless. He threw extravagant parties at his home on Royal Street, where guests marveled at the fine wines and exotic art — though curiously, no one ever saw him eat.

Jacques St. Germain knew many languages and captivated his audience with tales from hundreds of years ago, strangely with so much detail, you would almost believe he was there. 

The Terrifying Incident on Royal Street

It was said Jacques St. Germain was only observed drinking what appeared to be red wine. He claimed to be a descendant of the Comte and people pointed out the physical resemblance from portraits. Some started to wonder if it could be him. He was said to be a charming womanizer, often venturing out to the French Quarter to meet young women. 

The legend took a sinister turn when a young woman, invited to his home one evening, fled the house in terror. Some say that she jumped out from the second-story of his house. She was either a prostitute or one of the guests at one of his lavish parties he had invited to his balcony. 

Royal Street: The iconic mall building on Royal Street in New Orleans, the street where Jacques St. Germain, the vampire of New Orleans are said to have lived. // Source: Falkue/

According to police reports, she claimed that Jacques St. Germain had tried to bite her neck to draw blood. She escaped by leaping from a second-story window and running to the authorities, battered and terrified.

When police arrived at the house, St. Germain was nowhere to be found. What they did discover was deeply disturbing: bloodstains everywhere and all of his belongings gone. There were wine bottles filled not with wine, but with human blood. The incident sent ripples through the community, and though a warrant was issued for his arrest, Jacques St. Germain was never seen again. Or… perhaps he was. 

A Haunting Presence in New Orleans Lore

Since his disappearance, stories of a pale, well-dressed gentleman seen walking the French Quarter at night have persisted. There are reports about him up until the 1970s. Richard Chanfray was the man who claimed to be the Count in the 1970s.

During the 1970s, Chanfray began appearing on television, claiming to be the count and supposedly demonstrating the ability to transmute boring old lead into gold in front of an audience. However, Chanfray later died by suicide in 1983.

New Orleans: 1039-1041 Royal St. where it is said that Jacques St. Germain lived.

Witnesses describe a tall figure in old-fashioned clothing, speaking in a strange, antiquated accent, vanishing into alleyways or slipping into buildings long abandoned.

Some local historians and paranormal enthusiasts believe Jacques St. Germain to be one and the same as the immortal Count of St. Germain, relocating from Europe to America in search of fresh hunting grounds. Others remain sceptical, as there are no police reports found from the incident, and not a trace of him ever having lived on Royal Street.

Today, his supposed Royal Street residence still stands, a stop on many New Orleans ghost tours, with guides recounting the legend of the vampire aristocrat whose thirst for blood was hidden behind a facade of sophistication and charm. One of the second floor windows is bricked up, said to be the one the woman jumped from. 

Whether an immortal alchemist, an old-world vampire, or simply a creation of New Orleans’ love for the macabre, Jacques St. Germain remains one of the city’s most enduringly eerie legends. If you find yourself walking Royal Street on a misty evening, keep an eye out for the elegant stranger with a pale complexion and ageless face — and if he offers you a drink, you might want to politely decline.

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

Jacques St. Germain, The Infamous Louisiana Vampire

Jacques St. Germain, Vampire of the French Quarter – Locations of Lore

A closer look at Jacques de St. Germain | Author Lyn Gibson 

The Bizarre True Story Of The Count Of Saint Germain – Grunge

Walpole, Horace. Letters of Horace Walpole. Vol. 1. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890:Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume I by Horace Walpole | Project Gutenberg.
Jacques St. Germain, Vampire of the French Quarter – Locations of Lore

Ukategorisert

The Poltergeist of The Grossmünster Rectory in Zurich

4 Comments
Advertisements

The Zurich Poltergeist was a well known haunting happening to the Pastor of Grossmünster Church in his home at Zwingliplatz in the early 1700s. For years, the family experienced torment at the hands of what they believed had to be the devil. 

Some of the most intense ghost stories from Switzerland are definitely the poltergeist hauntings. One of the more famed ones turned out to be a hoax, but it left its marks on the city. Right by the most famous landmark of Zurich there was a haunted rectory that drove the Pastor and his family mad. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

In a time of witch hunts, religious change and the time of enlightenment, there was a supposed poltergeist knocking on the rectory walls. What really happened inside of the haunted house, and how did this poltergeist hoax help to stop any further witch trials in the city?

The Grossmünster Church: Construction began around 1100, with the church opening around 1220. It was originally a monastery church that competed with the Fraumünster throughout the Middle Ages. Legend states that Charlemagne founded it after his horse knelt over the graves of Zurich’s patron saints, Felix, Regula, and Exuperantius, helping to establish its seniority over the Fraumünster, founded by his grandson Louis the German. Archaeological findings show a Roman burial ground at this location.

The Haunting Begins at Zwingliplatz 4

One of them is the former rectory of the Grossmünster Church called the Antistitium, at Zwingliplatz 4. An invisible madness once drove a priest to ruin at the beginning of the 18th century. Anton Klinger was living there with his family, a theologian and a few maids, working as the chief pastor of Zurich and living by the church. 

It started small in July in 1701. Small bells hanging in his daughter’s bedroom started to ring without anyone touching them. The little girl was sickly and had them installed for her to communicate with them. That night, her father was out of town. 

They saw that the little girl hadn’t rung any bells, leaving the grown ups confused. Then the activity increased in strength. Footsteps from the upper floors sounded like they were approaching, but when they went to inspect the strange phenomenon, no one was there. 

The wife was beside herself. She became convinced that it had to be a ghost, and that the ghost was her dead son from her first marriage. He had been struck in the head by a horse’s hoof when he was in the cavalry. There was whispers about it behind because of how she inherited more than what she should have, or so they say. The maids and a relative agreed that had to be the truth. 

The maids could tell that they also had heard mysterious noises the night before, when the wife was away. This caused concern among the household, also for the pastor when he came home. From that day, all three women slept in the living room. 

The servants and the other women were being protected by Bernhard Wirz, the 25 year old theologian living with them and hoping for a position as a pastor. He was visiting at the time and decided to extend his visit when everything went down. 

And the haunting seemed to only escalate. Furniture would mysteriously move and books would come flying from the shelves as the light would flicker. On the 28th of September the bedcovers to the wife was pulled from the bed in the middle of the night as shoes and books flew through the room. 

The 9th of October, a guest at their house was smoking his tobacco pipe that was knocked right off his mouth. As he said his blessing as protection, he heard a murmuring before the ghost, looking like a cloud, rose from the floor and flew down the chimney. 

In the middle of the night, doors would slam open or shut in the middle of the night, even though they checked that they had closed them properly before going to bed. 

Haunted by the Murder of the Witches of Wasterkingen

After the reformation, ghosts were not really seen as the souls of the deceased anymore, but the work of the devil, and we have more demonic and poltergeist stories after the reformation in places like Zurich. 

Exorcisms, amulets, or other protective mechanisms to combat ghosts were forbidden. The only permitted act was prayer to God. However, the population wanted to take active steps against the intruders because they feared them.

One of the hypothesis Klinger was working with, was that the haunting had to be the ghosts of some witches he had condemned to death that year that have been remembered as the witches of wasterkingen. Elisabeth Wysser-Rutschmann and her daughter Anna had been executed July 9 in 1701. Earlier that year in April they had been accused by neighbors of harming humans and animals with their magical powers. 

After days of torture, the 24 year old Anna pleaded guilty to witchcraft and told about how her mother and aunt Anna Vogel had thought her everything. They were both sent to death by burning. Anna and Margaretha Rutchmann were beheaded before the burning, but Elizabeth was burned alive. That year, three women and a man from Wasterkingen were convicted as witches and executed. 

This lingered in Anton Klinger’s head, thinking that he was haunted by the devil himself for his action towards the Witches of Wasterkingen. He wrote it all down in his diary know known as Diarium Tragediae Diabolicae.

The Living Poltergeist in the Rectory

The pastor and his wife became certain that they were in fact haunted. To catch the culprit, they sent out a watchman to put an end to it all, working on the tower of the Grossmünster. The watchmen themselves claimed to have seen something looking like a glowing will-o-the-wisp phenomenon around the house. They found nothing at first, and suddenly, the haunting abruptly just stopped after seven months. 

For three years, everything went back to normal, and they started to believe that they were rid of the spirit tormenting their household. Then one December night, a huge stone came crashing down the stairs, and they knew that the haunting had started again. The stone was said to be over 20 kg. The pastor and his wife became frightened, the watchman Hans Müller became suspicious. 

He had just arrived at the house, and were not easily scared or fooled. Just before the stone came tumbling down, a book had come flying from the shelves and hitting him in the back. Coincidentally, it had come from where Wirz had been standing. Also a maid was said to have thrown an apple at him in an obvious manner. 

Hans Müller chose to confront the servant, and eventually, she admitted to have been behind the haunting with Wirz, helping him. After this, other maids came forth and said that they too had assisted him. Among other things they had attached strings to certain objects and made them topple over. 

Why? Some say it was to conceal their nightly activities of hooking up and they were pretending that it was in fact a poltergeist wandering around the house, not them. Some say it was to drive the pastor out of the house so that he could take over. It was all dragged forth in a public court and people laughed at the details of his assistant fooling around with the maids and the priest thinking it was the devil. 

For this, the theologian was tortured before being condemned and lost his head. A hoax that went too far with a punishment that went to the extremes. It was however a shift in who was accused of witchcraft, and the ridiculous backstory of it all helped making so that there were no other witches burnt in Zurich. 

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

Gruselgeschichten und Legenden aus Zürich 

Als gewalttätige Poltergeister in Zürich alles durcheinanderwarfen | Tages-Anzeiger 

Spuk im Niederdorf – Zürich

The People of Zurich and their Money 9: Burning a woman – 7 pfund 10 shilling – CoinsWeekly %

Das Pfarrhaus des Schreckens | Tages-Anzeiger 

Ukategorisert

The Rhode Island Vampire and the Legend of Sarah Tillinghast

7 Comments
Advertisements

After the death of Sarah Tillinghast, the family started complaining about her coming back for them at night, draining the life out of them. The family members fall dead to consumption and thinking that Sarah was a vampire, they dug her up and burned her heart. 

In the shadowy folklore of New England, where fog drifts through ancient graveyards and legends cling to weathered headstones like ivy, few tales unsettle quite like the vampire panics of the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from USA

While the name Mercy Brown often takes center stage in these grim histories, she was far from the region’s first alleged vampire. Nearly a century before Mercy’s exhumation in Exeter, another tragedy gripped a Rhode Island farming family — that of Sarah Tillinghast, a young woman whose death and eerie posthumous reputation would earn her a ghostly place in America’s darkest folklore.

Exeter, Rhode Island in the 1700s

In the late 18th century, Exeter, Rhode Island was a small, isolated farming village, nestled in the wooded hills and fertile valleys of southern New England. Like much of colonial America, Exeter’s people lived in fear of both earthly and supernatural forces. Disease was an ever-present specter; outbreaks of consumption, now known as tuberculosis, were especially dreaded.

Tuberculosis was a wasting disease — one that slowly robbed its victims of their strength, appetite, and vitality. Without the medical knowledge we possess today, it seemed to New Englanders of the period that the illness spread like a curse through families. And in a world shaped by superstition, when science failed, folklore filled the void.

The Death of Sarah Tillinghast

The story of Sarah Tillinghast is shrouded in between fact, folklore and local legends. Her person has also been romanticised, but truth is, we don’t know a whole lot about who she was when she lived. 

According to local lore, Sarah Tillinghast was a young woman that a source described as quiet, pious, and beloved by her family. Her description in the first written source was a comely elder daughter. How she really was like though has largely been lost to time, and now she is mostly remembered as one of the first vampires of New England. 

Her father, Stukely was a prosperous farmer in the small Exeter community, living with his wife, Honor and their fourteen or twelve children. Often Sarah is said to be the eldest daughter, but she had at least five older siblings. Her father was called Snuffy Stuke because of the brown jacket he wore and made his living by selling apples from his orchard. In 1799 towards harvest season however, everything changed. It was said that Stukely had a dream where half of his apple trees in the orchard died. When he woke up, he believed it to be an ominous warning. Some sources claim that his daughter Sarah called out for him in his dream as well. 

His daughter, Sarah returned home, feeling uneasy. Some embellishments of the legend claim that Sarah also had an uneasy feeling and confessed to her father that she had an ominous sense of death looming over their family. A strange claim, but not long after, Sarah herself fell ill.

She was stricken by consumption, a wasting sickness that sapped her strength and left her a ghostly wisp of her former self. Some think that she had the galloping kind, where it can be latent in your body for years before consuming the sick fast when it breaks out. Despite her family’s care, Sarah died — and, as the legend says, death didn’t end her role in the family’s misery. She was only 21 or perhaps as young as 19. 

In the weeks that followed Sarah’s burial, Sarah’s sister began to feel sick. It’s not said which sister, and some sources say that it could even be her brother James, only nine years old. The family lot where they are all buried are missing some tombstones, and it’s difficult to say the exact sibling. But fact was, the disease was spreading. 

According to the story, it wasn’t just the disease that terrified her — it was the whispered stories from the sickbeds. She claimed she awoke in the night to find Sarah’s ghostly figure standing by their bedsides, her cold gaze fixed upon them, her presence heavy and suffocating. She said her dead sister caused her pain as she sat on her body. As quickly as Sarah did, she died, and four more of Stukely’s children followed suit.

New England’s Vampire Superstitions

It’s important to remember that during this period, the vampire in New England folklore was not the same creature popularized by Bram Stoker or Hollywood. Instead, these were restless corpses or spirits that drained vitality from the living, usually from within their own families.

The typical signs that one of the dead was to blame included multiple deaths in a family from consumption, reports of the deceased visiting the sick, and tales of disturbing, half-preserved corpses found during exhumation. The solution? A gruesome ritual: exhume the suspected corpse, check for signs of unnatural preservation (fresh blood, ruddy cheeks, or a heart full of blood), and burn the heart or other organs believed to be causing the harm.

Cases like this were shockingly common throughout 18th- and 19th-century New England, particularly in rural communities where tuberculosis outbreaks were frequent and poorly understood.

The Exhumation of Sarah Tillinghast

Faced with death after death, and driven to desperation, Stukely Tillinghast turned to his neighbors for counsel. Together, they arrived at a grim decision: Sarah’s grave must be opened. They went to the cemetery and dug up all six children, just to make sure.

Everyone of the coffins had what they deemed normal, a decomposing and dead corpse, except for Sarah. When they exhumed her body, legend holds that it appeared unnervingly lifelike. Her eyes were open, her hair and fingernails had grown. Some versions claim her cheeks were still flushed and that a small amount of fresh blood lay at the corner of her mouth — classic folkloric signs of a vampire. Whether this detail was added by later tellers of the tale or was a genuine observation from the exhumation remains lost to history.

This was for the small farming community, proof that she was a vampire and that Sarah was to blame for the deaths in the family. To stop the deaths and end Sarah’s malevolent influence, her heart was removed and burned — the standard ritual believed to sever the undead’s grip on the living. The ashes of the heart may have been buried or scattered, though records (such as they are) do not agree on this point.

According to some versions of the story, the deaths in the Tillinghast family ceased after the ritual. Other versions suggest a few more family members succumbed before the outbreak burned itself out, as diseases often do.

Regardless, the tale of Sarah Tillinghast became etched into Rhode Island’s oral history, predating the far more famous Mercy Brown case by over a century. Both stories showcase how deeply fear and folklore entwined themselves with the harsh realities of life and death in early America.

Historical Truth or Folkloric Fiction?

Unlike the well-documented Mercy Brown incident in 1892, the case of Sarah Tillinghast is murkier. No contemporary records — such as town documents or church logs — confirm her death, exhumation, or family history. Her story has been passed down primarily through oral tradition and local legend, and most written versions appeared in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Folklorists, including Michael E. Bell, author of Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires, have noted how many of these vampire panic cases share similar narrative patterns: multiple family deaths, reports of supernatural visitations, an exhumation, and a grim ritual of heart-burning. Sarah Tillinghast’s legend fits neatly into this mold, whether or not the specifics are historically accurate.

And if he didn’t find the article written in 1888 by Sidney Rider, the story might have been lost. 

The Forgotten Grave: Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Exter #14 in Stutley Tillinghast Lot, there are a lot of unmarked graves forgotten by time. One of them is probably Sarah Tillinghast’s.

A Forgotten Haunting

Today, Sarah Tillinghast is an obscure figure, overshadowed by more famous “vampires” like Mercy Brown. But her tale remains one of the earliest and most unsettling examples of America’s vampire folklore — a testament to how communities, gripped by grief and terror, can turn on the dead themselves in a desperate attempt to survive.

She is put to rest in the small and overgrown Rhode Island Historical Cemetery, Exeter 14, containing only 25 burials on a mossy hill. Beneath an unmarked grave of weathered stones and wind-swept grass, echoes of these old fears linger. And while the name Sarah Tillinghast may have faded from history books, her spectral legend still haunts New England’s darker corners — a chilling reminder that when science fails and death comes calling, superstition is never far behind.

So if you ever find yourself walking past an ancient graveyard in Exeter as dusk falls, listen carefully. They say some restless souls never quite stay buried.

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

The Vampire Case of Sarah Tillinghast – Online Review of Rhode Island History

https://rihistoriccemeteries.org/newsearchcemeterydetail.aspx?ceme_no=EX014

https://eu.newportri.com/story/entertainment/theater/2013/10/23/hope-gory/12775893007

https://books.google.no/books?id=aTw8AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP9&hl=no&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=snippet&q=vampire&f=false

RHODE ISLAND’S FIRST VAMPIRE? Sidney S. Rider (1833-1917) and the Story of Sarah #3 – vampiresgrasp.com – Powered by Doteasy.com

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2288060/memorial-search?firstName=&lastName=Tillinghast&includeMaidenName=true&page=1#sr-32561577

Sarah Tillinghast (1777-1799) – Find a Grave Memorial

Ukategorisert

The Hunderprest: The Vampire Monk of Melrose Abbey

3 Comments
Advertisements

A devious and unholy monk called The Hunderprest, was said to haunt the countryside on the Scottish border as well as Melrose Abbey. Was this specter really a bloodsucking vampire?

In the Scottish Borders, the ruins of Melrose Abbey have stood since the 12th century as a brooding, atmospheric relic of medieval piety and power. Melrose is a seemingly picture perfect place, drawing people in as the best salmon and trout fishing in the country. 

The Melrose Abbey is on the north east side of the town center and some of the more iconic buildings from the area. Behind its beautiful Gothic arches and solemn grave markers lies a dark legend: the tale of the Hunderprest, or the dog priest, a vampiric monk whose foul deeds and undead existence chilled even the most devout.

The Mysterious and Magical Melrose Abbey

The Abbey was founded by a colony of Cisterian monks in 1136 by the River Tweed. Once, it was said a miracle happened here, when the corn in their cellar multiplied in the time of a great famine, and the monks could feed them all. This and more miracles were said to have been performed by Abbot Waltheof, the stepson to King David I of Scotland. 

Through its time of operation it was one of the wealthiest monasteries in Scotland, but through all the years of war on the Scottish border it was badly damaged by the English in 1385 and rebuilt in the late 14th century. 

Melrose Abbey: A view of the interior of the ruined Melrose Abbey, Scotland. Heath’s Picturesque Annual 1835 by Roger Griffith

Today it’s a museum, although a big part of it is now lichen-covered ruins. In the Chapter House there is a burial casket of a heart, thought to belong to King Robert I, also called, The Bruce. In 1812, an old stone coffin was found close to the altar, thought to be the final resting place of Michael Scot, the mysterious Scottish wizard from the 13th century, said to have changed the River Tweed with his staff and turned the single peak of the Eildon Hills to the three we see today.

But not all miracles were as magical as these wonderful things. Some say that the magic happening around the cloister was also the work of evil, perhaps even a bloodsucking vampire. 

The Hunderprest of Melrose Abbey

According to medieval chronicles, the Hunderprest was a monk of Melrose Abbey during the 12th or 13th century. The Cistercian monks who lived and worshipped there had built the Abbey, the first Cistercian Abbey in the country, at the behest of King David I. They were famous for their Melrose wool they sold to the rest of Europe. 

Though little is known about his mortal life, legend says he was a man of great vice and depravity, a predator hidden behind a habit, whose sins were so grave that even in death, the earth rejected him.

Melrose Abbey in 1800, when part of the abbey was still in use as the parish church

Exactly what his sins were is not explicitly said always, but he was often claimed to have been a womaniser and drunkard, bringing shame upon his order. The region was a place of unlawfulness though, being controlled by independent clans called The Border Reivers that often clashed together in violence. It was both a time and place of ruthless lawlessness. 

Some say that in life, he used to be a chaplain to a lady who lived nearby. He was given the name Hundeprest as his favorite thing to do was hunting on horseback as a pack of howling hounds followed him. 

Howling Hounds: Often in William Newburghs tales of the undead, there is a pack of dogs following as the dog motif has been connected with death for ages in European mythology. The black dog is a supernatural, spectral, or demonic hellhound. It is usually unnaturally large with glowing red or yellow eyes, is often connected with the Devil, and is sometimes an omen of death.

Some accounts claim he practiced the black arts in secret, while others allege unspeakable acts committed under the guise of spiritual authority. The locals whispered of his unnatural appetites and sinister nature — rumors that seemed confirmed after his passing.

The Undead Haunting of the Abbey

Because of his sins in life, there was no way he was getting into heaven, and his soul could not find any peace. Livestock were found drained of blood, villagers claimed to see a shadowy figure lurking near graves, and monks reported being stalked by a ghastly presence within the cloisters at night.

He tried to enter the Abbey in the night in the form of a winged bat, only driven away after vigorous prayer and rituals from the monks. Because he was unable to cross the threshold to the holy ground, he needed another place to torment.

He found the cottage to a woman who he had known when he was alive. Said to be the woman he had been the chaplain for in life. She was also rumored to have been his lover. Her neighbors reported that a vampire roamed around her house, moaning and screeching at her, scaring her. Every night he returned to torment and terrorize, lusting after her blood. Because of this, they decided to summon an elder monk from the abbey for an exorcism. 

The Exorcism of a Vampire

Determined to put an end to the terror, the abbot of Melrose called upon the services of a particularly devout and courageous monk, often believed to be William of Newburgh, a respected chronicler of supernatural events. He ended up writing about a lot of monsters and ghosts in the middle ages. 

William of Newburgh: Many of the tales about the British vampires comes from the 12th century historian, William of Newburgh. William’s major work was Historia rerum Anglicarum or Historia de rebus anglicis (“History of English Affairs”), a history of England from 1066 to 1198, written in Latin. It is written in an engaging fashion and still readable to this day, containing many fascinating stories and glimpses into 12th-century life. He is a major source for stories of medieval revenants, animated corpses that returned from their graves, with close parallels to vampire beliefs.

According to the old accounts, a group of monks were put to task and went to the grave of the priest to investigate. As the day waned, the priest appeared like he was levitating out of his grave. They managed to shove the vampire back with a staff. Sometimes this is changed to a mighty axe the monks swung at him. The earth swallowed the Hunderprest like nothing had happened, the ground undisturbed again. This is when the elder monk knew they were dealing with a vampire and knew what to do. 

They waited for daylight and dug up his grave again. They exhumed the Hunderprest’s corpse and what they found only deepened their horror: though dead for some time, the monk’s body was fresh, his face ruddy, with blood at his lips curled up to a grin, classic signs of the undead in medieval folklore.

It was also said it was through praying and fasting that they managed to defeat him. How they killed the vampire, although not named as such in the early sources, varies. Did they stake him through the heart? Probably not, but they do mention setting him on fire and burning him to ashes as most of the stories of the undead mentions. The legend of the stake came later. 

Revenant: The term vampire or the undead was not used in medieval time, but several of the stories about the Revenant, Sanguisa or the bloodsuckers of folklore bear resemblance to what the modern world would classify as a vampire legend. In folklore, a revenant is a spirit or animated corpse that is believed to have been revived from death to haunt the living and was in medieval times used interchangeably with ghosts. They come from various cultures like the Celtic and Norse, some reminding more about a classic ghost story, some more of a vampire legend. Although today a mixed version of the western and eastern European mythologies of the undead.

After they burned him to ash, they took him to Lammermuir Hills where the wind carried him to the north along the borders. 

To this day, visitors to the hauntingly beautiful ruins of Melrose Abbey claim to feel a chilling presence lingering among the weathered stones. Some report seeing a shadow moving through the broken cloisters at night, or hearing faint whispers in the darkened archways.

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

Legend of the “Hunderprest” Vampire of Melrose Abbey

Airhouses – News – The Incredible Legends of Melrose Abbey

The Hunderprest: The Vampire Monk of Melrose.

Ukategorisert

Jure Grando: The First Named Vampire in European History

2 Comments
Advertisements

Who was the first vampire in history? There are many legends claiming to be the first. And one of them is said to be the Croatian Jure Grando, who terrorized his village for over a decade before they took measures to vanquish this štrigon. 

In the dimly lit annals of European folklore, few figures loom as ominous as Jure Grando, a 17th-century peasant from the small Istrian village of Kringa — in what is today Croatia. His story, still whispered in the shadowy streets of Kringa, marks one of the earliest and most documented accounts of vampirism in European history.

Jure Grando’s name is forever bound to the ancient Slavic concept of the štrigon — a revenant, or vampire, who rises from the grave to torment the living. And his tale is a particularly chilling one. The tale of Jure Grando is notably recorded by Johann Weikhard von Valvasor, a 17th-century Slovenian historian, in his 1689 work The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola. Valvasor’s account lends the story a degree of historical credibility, as he was a reputable chronicler of the customs, folklore, and strange happenings of the region.

Istria: Istria is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea, shared by three countries: Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. 90% of its area is part of Croatia. The wealthier coastal towns cultivated increasingly strong economic relationships with Venice and by 1348 were eventually incorporated into its territory, while their inland counterparts fell under the sway of the weaker Patriarchate of Aquileia, which became part of the Habsburg Empire in 1374.

The Death and Unholy Return of Jure Grando

According to local legend, Jure Grando Alilović, born in 1579, was a stonemason who lived in Kringa together with his wife and two daughters according to town records named Ana and Nicola. Not much is known about his life, some say he was just an ordinary man doing his best, some say that he was an awful character. Some say that to become a strigoi, you were actually dabbling in dark arts and feeding on the blood of children when alive. 

Kringa from Valvasor’s book were Jure Grando lived.

 Some say that he was actually a good man and more of a tragic figure. He was in love with Ivana, or Rose in some variations, and was planning to marry her in a time where the “jus primae noctis” rule was in place. This was a law and custom where the lord of the land has the right to have the first night with the bride, and all the maritals “duties” that entailed. Jure opposed this, defying the monks of St. Paulines who controlled Kringa. 

The monks feared others would follow suit by his example, and got the leader of the town, Miho Radetić to kill him. Although he hit him with a hammer, it only knocked him unconscious. People thought he was dead and buried him. When he woke up, he started shouting for help. To cover their tracks they claimed he was a vampire and killed him, properly this time. 

It’s a fanciful story, perhaps not true at all. He did however die in 1656 and it could even have been natural causes as he was getting quite old by some of the sources. But unlike other villagers, his death did not mark the end of his story. 

For 16 years after his burial, it is said that Grando would rise from his grave at night, prowling the narrow paths of Kringa. He would walk and sometimes he stopped in front of doors, knocking on it, waiting for those inside. It was believed that if he knocked on your door, someone would die in the house in the following days. 

Villagers reported seeing his pale, grinning face in their windows. They started to call him a štrigon, a variant of the Slavic myth of a blood sucking entity closely knit with the vampire lore. With its close ties to Venetian word strìga, meaning witch. The case of Jure Grando was one of the first real people described as such.

He would even come back to haunt his widow, Ivana. With a grotesque smile permanently fixed on his face he was standing outside looking in. According to what she told the authorities, he also climbed inside. Sometimes, he would even attack and rape her.

The hauntings became so unbearable that the villagers, driven to the brink of hysteria, sought help from the local priest, Father Giorgio. Some say that Father Georgio was actually one of the monks of the order and had his own encounter with the vampire.  

Juro had appeared before Father Giorgio when he held a mass at his graveside. Some say that he was actually hunting down the vampire to put a stop to his terror. He had panicked and put a crucifix in Jure’s face and shouted at him to stop terrorizing the villagers. It seemed to work and Jure turned and ran back to the graveyard. County Prefect Miho Radetić was also there and tried to stake him with a hawthorne, but it simply bounced off his chest. A much more heroic character in the other version of Juro’s death. 

Gathering a group of nine brave men, armed with tools, stakes, and crosses, the villagers including County Prefect Miho Radetić and Father Giorgio, marched to Grando’s grave under cover of darkness in 1672.

The Vampire Hunt

Upon opening his tomb, the men reportedly found Grando’s body unnaturally preserved — his face serene and blushed, with a sinister smile upon his lips. Shocked and terrified, the priest attempted to banish the evil with holy water and prayers, but it had no effect.

The villagers then attempted to pierce his heart with a wooden stake, but even this effort reportedly failed until one man present in the vampire hunt, Stipan Milašić, decapitated the corpse with a saw or an axe. A horrible howl came from the grave and the vampire reportedly started thrashing and twitching in its grave before being vanquished. 

It is said that peace was restored, but the world was rattled. His children fled the city their father had terrorized for years and went to Italy according to some sources. 

How True is the Story of Jure Grando?

Now, how true was this story actually? By all accounts, Juro Grande has been treated as an actual person. And although there are in depth details, names, dates and the legend is very well known, there are still a lack of primary sources. 

About the other legend of him being a victim of the monk order trying to uphold the law of a jus primae noctis, there is still something that seems to be rooted in a fanciful story than an actual account as well.

By monk order, this probably means The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, commonly called the Paulines or Pauline Fathers, a monastic order of the Catholic Church founded in Hungary in the 13th century and held much power in Istria. How much they controlled the Kringa area and had anything to say in a law of “jus primae noctis” is dubious. But it is true they were a powerful order throughout Europe, especially in Istria. 

The claim of  “jus primae noctis” being a law was certainly a popular tale and perhaps to an extent a tradition throughout the world. But, scholars don’t think it was as widespread or lawfully right as the myths and anecdotal stories about it were. With that said, who really does now, it is perhaps more easy to believe than in a vampire legend?

Legacy in Kringa and Beyond

Today, the village of Kringa openly embraces its morbid history. It’s a small place with around 300 people living there today. In this typical Istrian village, consisting of a church, stone houses, ancient Roman dry-stone walls. Today, it is believed that his grave is located under a stone path behind the church, near the current cemetery in Kringa and that the church has more information that they are willing to share. 

Kringa: Source/Petr Štefek

Visitors can find bars and shops playing upon the vampire theme, and tales of Jure Grando’s nocturnal wanderings continue to fascinate those drawn to Europe’s darker legends.

Some say that the story of Jure Grando could have contributed in inspiring John William Polidori to create the vampire archetype in his story „The Vampire“. Even if it wasn’t a true story, it certainly seems like it inspired real people. 

Some still claim that it really was a true account, and he might have been one of the first true vampire accounts we have. And in the quiet cemeteries of Istria, some still claim that when the wind howls just right, you can hear the knock of a long-dead hand upon your door.

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

Vampire of Kringa – Secret Dalmatia Blog – Travel Experiences in Croatia

Jure Grando

Croatian ‘Dracula’ revived to lure tourists – The Mail & Guardian

Strigoi – Wikipedia

Ukategorisert

The Ghosts of Château de Chillon: Echoes from the Dungeons of Lake Geneva

1 Comment
Advertisements

From the Swiss Riviera, the Ghosts of Château de Chillon is said to haunt the place. Deep in the dungeons, jewish prisoners accused of spreading the plague, those accused of witchcraft and the political enemies of The House of Savoy are still lingering. 

There are seven pillars of Gothic mould,
In Chillon’s dungeons deep and old,
There are seven columns, massy and grey,
Dim with a dull imprisoned ray,
A sunbeam which hath lost its way,
– The Prisoner of Chillon, Lord Byron

On a rocky islet along the pristine shores of Lake Geneva, the Château de Chillon is one of Switzerland’s most iconic medieval fortresses and one of the most visited historical buildings in Switzerland. Especially as it was this castle Lord Byron visited in the dark summer of 1816 with his friends, and where the birth of Frankenstein and The Vampyre came after him and his literary friends visited. Its postcard-perfect setting near Montreux, framed by mist-clad mountains and shimmering waters in the Swiss Riviera, belies the darker currents of history and folklore that swirl within its ancient walls. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

For centuries, Château de Chillon has been a site of power, imprisonment, and bloodshed and was never captured during a siege. Chillon’s doomed inmates entered the castle dungeon through a thick wooden trap door set into the stone castle floor, descended a rough wooden ladder, and found themselves in a small cave with prisoners chained to the pillars. And it is said that not all who entered its gates ever truly left.

Château de Chillon: Painters such as Courbet, Delacroix, Brooke and Turner painted Bonnivard or the castle over and over again. It has inspired poets and writers and if we are to believe the rumours, also ghosts to linger in eternity.

A Fortress of Shadows

Though Château de Chillon’s earliest recorded mention dates to 1150, under the House of Savoy, archaeological evidence suggests a fortified structure stood on this small outcrop as early as Roman times as it was a strategic way through the Alps. In 1224, Thomas I of Savoy ordered the castle to be strengthened and decorated as he wished to make it his main residence. The castle’s strategic location along a key trade route made it both a prized stronghold and a place of grim authority. This century was also when they built a prison in the underground, previously used as food storage and weaponry. 

In 1342, the Black Death began to claim victims in the area and, wishing to find somebody to blame for the outbreak, Christians accused the Jews who lived there of poisoning water supplies and thus causing the plague. Since 1284, there had lived a group of Jews in the town called Villeneuve and in September in 1348, the Jews were sent to the dungeons for torture. At that time the Château de Chillon was under the rule of Amédée VI of Savoy.

The persecution of Jews: During the Black Death there was a series of violent mass attacks and massacres on Jewish communities, blamed for outbreaks. From 1348-1351, acts of violence were committed in Toulon, Barcelona, Erfurt, Basel, Frankfurt, Strasbourg and elsewhere. The persecutions led to a large migration of Jews to Jagiellonian Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Image of a massacre of the Jews in 1349 Antiquitates Flandriae (Royal Library of Belgium manuscript, 1376/77)

These unfortunate souls were arrested and taken before the Count of Savoy at Château de Chillon. Local Christians who had been friendly with the Jews were also treated in the same way and it is said that the prisoners were burned on the sides of the lake after a forced confession after torture. 

The Château’s reputation for cruelty is largely due to its forbidding dungeons — cold, vaulted chambers hewn directly into the bedrock. It is also said that the chancellor of Savoy in 1455 was drowned in the lake after being questioned in Chillon. These prisons, with their damp walls and crude restraints, have witnessed centuries of torment, rebellion, and death. And according to enduring legend, many of those wrongfully punished still linger in spectral form.

Dungeons: Chillon Castle interior Bonivards Prison Geneva Lake Switzerland from around 1890/1900.

The Restless Spirit of François Bonivard

The castle’s most famous ghost is said to be François Bonivard, a Genevan monk, historian, and political dissenter of the 16th century. Back then, the Savoy district was a separate country ruled by the dukes and counts, looking at Geneva as theirs. Bonivard, a libertine and revolutionary, thought otherwise and fought back. Bonivard was imprisoned in Chillon’s dungeons in 1530 for opposing the Bishop of Genova and the Duke of Savoy’s oppressive rule over Geneva. For six years, he was captured at Chillon, where it his treatment gradually worsened. It is said for two years he stayed in a room in the castle before being thrown in the dungeon where he endured brutal captivity, shackled to a stone pillar that still stands in the castle’s underground vault for six years. 

While Bonivard was eventually liberated when Bernese forces seized the castle in 1536, legend holds that his spirit, embittered and vengeful, remains. He died in Geneva after a life of extravagant lifestyle and perpetual debt in 1570. 

Visitors and staff have long reported unnerving sensations in the dungeons like sudden drops in temperature, fleeting shadows, and the unmistakable clank of unseen chains in the oppressive gloom. Some claim to have glimpsed a robed figure silently pacing between the columns, his face obscured but his presence undeniable.

Lord Byron’s 1816 poem, “The Prisoner of Chillon,” immortalized Bonivard’s ordeal and helped enshrine the castle’s eerie reputation. Byron himself carved his name into one of the dungeon’s pillars — a mark still visible today — and reportedly felt a chill pass over him in the exact spot where Bonivard was held.

The Tragic Story if Erdelinde and the Breaker

Source

One of the most tragic stories in the history of Château de Chillon occurred in 1382. Sir Raoul de Monthenard, a cruel tyrant nicknamed “The Breaker,” then master of the castle, wished to marry the daughter of his first cousin, a beautiful girl called Erdelinde. But she was in love with a young man, named Mainfroi de Luceus, whose father was the sworn enemy of Sir Raoul. Afraid of his anger, Erdelinde and Mainfroi married secretly and later Erdelinde had a baby.

When Erdelinde’s father died, Sir Raoul seized her by force and took her to Chillon, where he arranged for a priest to marry them in the castle chapel. The priest who was to perform the ceremony was the same one who had already married Erdelinde in secret and, as soon as he saw her, he refused to perform the ceremony, enraging Sir Raoul..

Meanwhile, Erdelinde had arranged for her baby to be brought to the chapel to prove to Sir Raoul that marriage to him was impossible. When he saw the child, the master of Chillon, in a terrible fury, seized the baby and hurled it through the chapel window into the lake below. Erdelinde immediately leaped after it, and both mother and child drowned.

Grief-stricken, the true husband of Erdelinde, Mainfroi de Luceus, challenged Sir Raoul to a duel in which he received severe wounds from which he died.

People have later claimed to have seen her ghost walking along the lake, looking for her baby as her anguished screams pierce the night. Sir Raoul de Monthenard is also said to haunt the hallways of his castle, roaming around with a maniacal look and evil smile on his face. 

Other Hauntings and Dark Whispers at Château de Chillon

He died—and they unlocked his chain,
And scooped for him a shallow grave
– The Prisoner of Chillon, Lord Byron

While Bonivard’s ghost commands the most attention at Château de Chillon, other strange occurrences haunt the castle grounds. In the upper halls, guests have described hearing footsteps in empty corridors, doors that creak open of their own volition, and unexplained cold spots in rooms warmed by roaring fires. Visitors have come back with stories about being pushed against the wall by an unseen force. 

There was another terrible time at Chillon when, between June 9 and September 26, 1613, twenty-seven people accused of witchcraft were executed there. In 1613, the Bernese convicted 27 people as witches and burned them in Chillon’s courtyards. The spirits of these as well is said to linger within the halls. 

Another ghost said to haunt Château de Chillon is simply called The Man in Rags. This story comes from a tour guide who claims this raggedly clothed man came through the walls, saliva dripping from his open mouth, blood dripping from his body. One of the former prisoners of the castle. The tour guide claims this specter was also seen by a maintenance worker who quit the same day. 

A Place of Uneasy Beauty

Today, the Château de Chillon is one of Switzerland’s most visited historic landmarks, drawing travelers eager to marvel at its medieval architecture and panoramic lake views. But beneath the idyllic surface lingers the weight of history — and the restless spirits born from centuries of confinement and cruelty.

As dusk falls over Lake Geneva, and mist creeps once again around the castle’s stone foundations, those who linger may find themselves catching an icy draft where none should exist, or hearing the mournful clink of ancient chains in the deep, shadowed vaults below.

The Château de Chillon stands not just as a monument to medieval splendor, but as a sentinel of the lingering dead — a place where history and legend bleed inseparably together.

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

The Chateau de Chillon enchanted and haunted the imagination of Lord Byron – Historical articles and illustrations

The dark side of Chillon’s castle – Vivamost!

Haunted Chateau de Chillon – Switzerland – The Demon Warrior Speaks – Unexplained Mysteries Discussion Forums

The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 4/The Prisoner of Chillon – Wikisource, the free online library

Ukategorisert

The Curious Case of Annie Dennett and the Vampiric Vines

3 Comments
Advertisements

Growing out of coffins and decaying corpses, vines was a local superstition that marked a vampire grave of those who had died of consumption. This was the case of young Annie Dennett, who was thought to feed on her ailing father. 

In the shadowy folds of early 19th-century New England, where superstition clung stubbornly to the edges of even the most respectable communities, tales of vampires didn’t always come cloaked in foreign mystery. Sometimes, they arrive on your neighbor’s doorstep. Or in the family crypt. Or — as in the case of poor Annie Dennett — in the quiet graveyards of rural New Hampshire.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from USA

While names like Mercy Brown have gained infamy for their role in America’s vampire panic, Annie Dennett’s story is a more obscure, though no less fascinating, chapter of this eerie history. For many years, the Reverend who wrote it down, called her Janey Dennit and she was for a while, quite a mystery. And what makes it particularly noteworthy is the presence of a well-respected minister who not only witnessed her exhumation but left behind a haunting record of the event.

New Hampshire: Deep lakes, dark forests. The New England countryside used to be ripe with superstition and panic. Just a century after the witch panic in Salem, a fear for vampires took hold over the locals.

Consumption, Fear, and Desperation

Annies family had been in New England for generations when her ancestors settled in New Hampshire in the mid 1600s. Through their trade as blacksmith, their family was at one point one of the richest in Portsmouth. 

She grew up in a house filled with siblings as her parents had eight children, on the high ground in the woods. Her father, Moses, wanted to make his own way and had moved from Portsmouth to Barnstead, working as a tailor. 

Like many young people of her time, Annie Dennett succumbed to tuberculosis — the dreaded “consumption” — at just 21 years old in 1807. Tuberculosis was not merely a disease back then; it was an enigma that hollowed out families and devastated entire communities, slowly claiming its victims with a wasting grip that no one could seem to stop.

Faced with its horrors, it’s no wonder that desperate families sometimes turned to folklore for answers. The prevailing belief, particularly in rural parts of New England, held that a deceased relative could, through some malevolent post-mortem influence, drain the life from the living. Rumors started to go around that she could be one of the undead. That night, she rose from her grave and returned to her family to feed on them. This was something that they believed could be the cause of the consumption illness. And when the family started to show symptoms of having it as well, it was also believed that the bodies of the undead held the cure. 

And when medicine failed, spades came out.

The Vampire Hunt in Plain Sight

What makes Annie Dennett’s case especially intriguing is its documentation by a man of the cloth. Enoch Hayes Place, a Freewill Baptist minister from Vermont, happened to be in town when Annie’s family made the grim decision to exhume her body in 1810, three years after Annie was dead and buried.

Her father, Moses Dennett, was gravely ill with tuberculosis, and in the absence of a cure, the family clung to the desperate hope that digging up Annie’s remains might reveal signs of vampiric influence — a heart still full of blood, perhaps, or some unnatural preservation of flesh.

Old Graveyards: A serene graveyard in New Hampshire reflects the eerie history of vampire folklore in early New England.

Enoch Hayes Place attended the exhumation and recorded the scene in his diary. His words capture both the grim spectacle and the uneasy blending of religious authority with old-world superstition:

“They opened the grave and it was a Solemn Sight indeed. A young Brother by the name of Adams examined the mouldy Specticle, but found nothing as they Supposed they Should…. There was but a little left except bones.”

Unlike some of the more infamous exhumations of the era, Annie Dennett’s disinterment was anticlimactic. No blood-filled heart. No unnatural preservation. Just a young woman’s decayed remains, bones already claimed by the earth. It was noted that there were vines growing in the coffin that were discussed in several of the exhumations of the believed vampiric graves.

The Vampiric Vines

One of the tell tale signs of vampirism was a body not decaying and bodily fluids like blood still found in the organs. Another sign of vampirism here was vines growing on the body. 

In 1784, there was a newspaper article from Connecticut about a foreign quack doctor that said that these vines or sprouts growing on the body would also be a cure to burn and consume, often together with other organs. 

This we also see with the case in Willington of two bodies in relation to a Mr. Isaac Johnson. There was also a case in Dummerston, Vermont and upstate New York. 

It was also a superstition that said when a vine was growing from a coffing to the next (most often another family member), another one would die.The only way to break the curse was to break the vine and dig up the body to burn their vitals.  

Exhumation: A group of men performing an exhumation ritual under the moonlight, reflecting early 19th-century beliefs in vampire folklore.

The ritual, meant to save her ailing father, did nothing. He would, like so many others, eventually succumb to tuberculosis.

But the very fact that the ritual occurred, and that it was recorded by a minister, speaks volumes about the cultural grip these beliefs held even in “enlightened” New England. Science and folklore shared uneasy quarters in early America, and when grief met fear, it often leaned toward the old ways.

A Forgotten Chapter in New England’s Vampire Lore

While Mercy Brown’s story would capture international attention decades later, Annie Dennett remains largely forgotten — a footnote in folklore studies, though no less telling. Her story illustrates that these rituals weren’t isolated anomalies but part of a broader, if uneasy, social custom. The fear of consumption and its deadly march through families often blurred the line between superstition and faith.

And perhaps, most chillingly, it shows how even ministers weren’t immune to the lure of old beliefs when confronted with death’s relentless hand.

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

Vampires – American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore

http://apps.vampiresgrasp.com/Blog/?d=01/2010

Food for the Dead: On the Trial of New England’s Vampires 2011933367, 9780819571700 – DOKUMEN.PUB

Ukategorisert

The Curse of the Robber Knight Junker Kuoni: Neu-Bechburg’s Restless Spirit

1 Comment
Advertisements

Hidden in the valleys of Switzerland, the Neu-Bechburg Castle is said to be haunted by the Robber Knight, Junker Kuoni who was walled up inside a secret chamber in the castle.

High above the town of Oensingen in Switzerland’s canton of Solothurn, the brooding ruins of Neu-Bechburg Castle watch over the valley like a silent sentinel for centuries. It has been the home of knights and Barons, the seat of the Bishop of Basel before falling from grace, becoming a poor house and an inn among other things. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

Oensingen is in the Swiss Plateau at the foot of the Jura Mountains with green forests as far as the eye can see. Yet Neu-Bechburg Castle’s ancient stones carry more than just the weight of history over the Roggen River — they harbor a dark legend that has plagued the castle for centuries: the curse of the robber knight Kuoni.

Neu-Bechburg Castle: The haunting ruins of Neu-Bechburg Castle in Switzerland, where the legend of the Robber Knight Kuoni endures.

The Bandit Knight Junker Kuoni of Neu-Bechburg Castle

Neu-Bechburg Castle was built in 1250 by the Lord of Bechburg before changing hands several times. It went to the Counts of Frohburg, Nidau, Thierstein, Kyburg and Buchegg. It used to be the most important place in Switzerland in Roman times. In 1415, the castle and lordship were sold to Bern and Solothurn. In 1463, the castle became the full property of Solothurn and a bailiff’s seat was established.

Swiss jura: Scenic view of the lush Swiss landscape surrounding the Neu-Bechburg Castle, where the legend of the Robber Knight Kuoni unfolds.

In the 14th century, Neu-Bechburg was home to Junker Kuoni, an infamous knight-turned-bandit who ruled the surrounding lands through violence and fear. Tales of his cruelty spread swiftly — of caravans ambushed on mountain roads, travelers vanishing into the forests, and innocent villagers stripped of their meager belongings. His crimes grew so terrible that even his fellow nobles could no longer tolerate his presence.

According to legend, Kuoni’s reign of terror ended in a fittingly grim fashion. Betrayed by his own men and captured by the local townsfolk, the robber knight was bricked up alive within the castle walls, left to die slowly in suffocating darkness. 

There is also a much more detailed version of the story, telling that the knight was actually taken by the plague. It came to the village and the locals feared for it spreading. Some say they confined him in a small house on the south side of the fortified tower, in what was the tower guard’s house. Some sources said he was fed through a narrow slit, getting more and more sick and he eventually died. And after he died, this slit was also walled up. 

Read Also: Check out The Headless Ghost of Reichenstein Castle and The Lost Castle of Hollerwiese for more mysterious castle’s where an evil robber is said to haunt.

When or where in the castle has various sources telling different things. It is said that it was in the east or south tower and it happened in 1408. Maybe. Did he die because the people around him wanted to put an end to his cruel ways, or was it actually a deadly disease he succumbed to?

Since that day, Neu-Bechburg has never truly been at rest.

The Haunting of Neu-Bechburg Castle

The Neu-Bechburg Castle changed owners several times and, in 1635, it temporarily became the seat of the Bishop of Basel. It fell into ruins when the French invaded and the place lost its place and importance, before being restored again. In 1835 it was acquired by Johannes Riggenbach. His son Friedrich restored the castle from 1880 onwards now owned by the Neu-Bechburg Castle Foundation.

Visitors to the crumbling fortress speak of chilling drafts in sealed rooms, disembodied whispers in the dead of night, and an oppressive presence that clings to certain corridors. Electrical equipment fails and photographs turn black. He also occasionally plays small pranks, locks doors, and otherwise mostly wanders through the castle.

Castle caretaker, Patrick Jakop has said of his own experiences when he heard footstep above him: 

“I went up the stairs as fast as I could. I was upstairs for a few seconds, but there was no one there. I searched every cupboard, but there was simply no one,”

During a Brazilian wedding being celebrated at the Bechburg, the water pipe to the well was blocked. A voodoo priestess was among the guests. She told Jacob that an unhappy soul was lurking in the pipe. “I called out to the spirit in the well: If you don’t like it here, then just go away,” the castle warden continues. And lo and behold: “There was a gurgling, a bang, and a sudden rush of water. The pipe was clear again.”

Neu-Bechburg Castle: illuminated at night, a haunting sentinel over the valleys of Switzerland, tied to the legend of the Robber Knight, Junker Kuoni.

Several mediums and ghost hunters have tried to get to the bottom of it. Even in modern times, technology seems to falter in the castle’s shadow. In 2002, a Swiss television crew set out to film a historical documentary at Neu-Bechburg. When they brought X-ray equipment to scan what was believed to be Kuoni’s burial niche, the machinery inexplicably failed — screens flickered to black, batteries drained without cause, and strange, muffled knocks came from the walls.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from haunted castles around the world

The tale of the robber knight is not the only thing said to haunt the castle and not the only horrible death if we are to believe the rumours. There was a dungeon in the east tower, and the so-called witch’s cage in the west tower. The stories vary from children claiming to have seen a ghost to visitors reporting a weeping woman in the castle fountain.

The Truth of the Robber Knight

What are the facts we’re dealing with when talking about Kuoni? There is no historical evidence of him having existed, and there is no physical evidence that he is in fact walled up inside a wall of the castle. And when we talk about the bubonic plague, we often talk about it hitting Switzerland in 1349 when the plague reached Bern, Zürich, Basel and Saint Gallen.

To this day, locals claim the spirit of Kuoni stalks the ruins, restless and bitter. He’s blamed for sudden gusts that snuff out lanterns, the sharp, metallic scent of blood in the air on misty nights, and eerie, unexplained noises when the castle is supposedly empty. The legend endures — a whispered warning to those who dare trespass in Neu-Bechburg’s shadow.

For in these ancient stones, it seems, Kuoni’s curse lives on.

Newest Posts

  • The Ghost of Marshalsea Barracks: The Prison That Never Slept
    After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
  • The Linden Tree of Linn: A Living Monument to Death, Hope, and Haunting Whispers
    Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
  • The Brazen Head: Dublin’s Oldest Pub and Its Restless Rebel
    A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
  • Black Cat Ghosts of Bern: A City Haunted by Feline Phantoms
    The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
  • The Haunting of Münchenstein’s Rectory Marini House
    Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
  • The Ghost Procession of Basel and the Dance of Death
    Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
  • The Haunted Halls of the Bern City Hall (Rathaus)
    Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
  • The Restless Dead Buried Inside of Basel’s Double Cloister
    The two adjoining cloisters by Basel Cathedral are said to be haunted by a couple of spectres entombed within the building. In the darkness of Basel’s Double Cloister, it is said you can hear the moaning of a man slowly suffocating and feel the unsuspected slap from a man, as mean in death as he was in life.
  • The Portobello Bar: Spirits on the Canal
    A lock keeper from the adjacent lock next The Portobello Bar in Dublin is said to be haunting it. Ever since his mistake cost the lives of someone crossing, he is said to be lingering in the area.
  • Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine
    In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?
  • Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master
    After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
  • The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern
    Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends.

References:

Mysteriöses Gemäuer – Das Spukschloss ob Oensingen – Schweiz aktuell – SRF

Kuoni, der Geist von Schloss Neu-Bechburg – 20 Minuten

Schloss Neu-Bechburg in Oensingen SO: Patrick Jakob ist hier Hauswart