Ominous messages from the ouija board, ghostly nuns and haunts the former General Hospital in Madrid. Now the Reina Sofia Museum houses modern art and paintings by Picasso and Dali, it also houses Madrid’s dark past.
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain is said to be one of the most haunted places in the country as well as exhibiting one of the best collections of 20th century modern art.
The museum opened in 1992 and was named after Queen Sofia of Spain and is mainly dedicated to Spanish art. In 2021 it was the most visited museum in Spain and the 8th most visited art museum in the world.
Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Spain
As well as musing at the works by Picasso, Dali among other of the big artists of that time. The most famous art piece inside is definitely Picasso’s Guerica, it is said to be a place to spot a ghost or two as well in the old building that has a very different origin than the fine art museum it is today.
The Hospital for the Poor People Sent to Die
Long before it was used as an art museum with famous paintings adorning the walls, the building was used as a hospital. It was built in the 1600s on the orders of King Philip.
It was the start of unifying hospitals to a general hospital and in the beginning it was also a homeless shelter as well as a hospital. The area they decided to build the grand hospital was known as the Atocha Olive Grove where there already was a hospital for the poor located.
In other words, it was a hospital for the poor people and it was in reality a place where they were sent to die. These types of hospitals had a horrible reputation and were the last place someone wanted to end up as you most likely wouldn’t walk out.
The New General Hospital in Madrid
It was for a time the biggest institution with thousands of patients that had nowhere else to go. By the middle of the 18th century cared for almost 14,000 patients a year. The hospital always had patients coming in and was always at the limit and over of what they could offer in terms of health service.
Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from old hospitals like Hauntingly Beelitz-Heilstätten Hospital, Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital or Hauntings at the Weston State Hospital or the Trans-Allegheny Asylum
It also was always in need of finances and in the end it was mostly financed by charity. And in the mid 17th century the income from bullfights financed many of the general hospitals in Spain.
The place operated as a hospital for almost 300 years before closing down as a hospital in 1969.
What happened during the time as a Hospital
Who really knows the extent of what went on in the centuries the hospital was in operation. From the morbid medieval methods of medicine, countless of plagues throughout the times, the Spanish Inquisition as well as the Spanish Civil War were it is said the hospital was used as a place of torture and executions.
The Haunting of the Nuns
The people that worked there were mostly nuns, and it is those people who claim to haunt the halls as well as the patients that died.
One of these events people claimed to have witnessed was the three nuns walking slowly side by side. They had their hands over their shoulders and their rosary at their waist. While walking they were singing a religious song. When they walked to the end og the corridor, they vanished into the thin air and the only thing left was the faint ringing of bells.
The Bodies Discovered During Renovation
When the place was converted into the art gallery it is today, they did some major renovations of the place. During the renovations in 1982 the construction workers found plenty of human skulls and skeletons together with shackles and chains.
They were found everywhere around the old hospital, especially in the garden and the surrounding areas.
During another stage of the rebuilding in 1990 they found many skeletons of children as well as allegedly finding three mummified nuns in one of the chapels.
Atalúlfo the Ghost from the Ouija Board
Ghoulish screams and ghostly shapes wandering the halls are said to be some of the hauntings happening in the former hospital. There are also doors slamming shut seen by the security guards working the night shift.
The cleaning personnel came in in the early morning and saw figures sitting on the benches in the patio and museum visitors that mistook ghosts for real living people.
Once a group of four museum guards wanted to have some fun in the long night shift and decided to try out a ouija board to test out the rumors about their workplace being true.
They asked for contact and when asked the board spelled out that his name was Atalúlfo , and he came with a warning. He said he was a patient at the hospital and had been a madman as well as a murderer. When further questioned Atalúlfo said: “In a couple of days you are going to have a great misfortune. Get Ready”.
A couple of days later, one of the guard’s close relatives died in a traffic accident, and they never played the game again. The ghost of Atalúlfo continued to haunt and a guard tried to leave and filed a complaint where he blamed his anxiousness at work because of the disturbances caused by this ghost.
One former employee even wrote a report after being denied a transfer. According to this report by Raquel Arrogante Díaz, she had started to experience anxiety as soon as she started working right next to the famous painting of Guernica. She also started to hear voices and started to speak in a little girl’s voice, as if someone was manifesting their spirit through her body.
Paranormal Investigation by the Hepta Group
In 1992 a group of paranormal researchers known as The Hepta Group were allowed by the authorities to investigate these claims that the night guards spoke of. They were led by the well known priest José María Pilón and had an architect, physicists, a journalist and a photographer
The Hepta Group went down in the underground corridors, crypts and investigated the old walls. They came back with many tales, figures in the shadow, locked doors unlocking and opening. Mostly they talked about people in religious attire like a nun and monk in his robe wandering the halls.
There have also been complaints about the elevator malfunctioning that they would suddenly start and go up and down, making the security guards think there was a break in. When they went to investigate the elevators, there was no one there when the doors opened. There have also been reports about alarms going off for no reason.
A second investigation by the Hepta group was conducted in 1995. They tried to publish the story and it was published in the newspaper El Diario on April 21 the same year. It didn’t really cause a big stir as the publication of the ghosts in the Linares Palace nearby overshadowed it a bit and the story was slowly forgotten.
The hauntings continued though with new witnesses constantly seeing ghostly figures, hearing shouts and voices coming from no one.
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References:
https://www.elespanol.com/reportajes/grandes-historias/20160923/157734813_0.html
Ghosts in the Reina Sofía Museum | Bindu Trips
The 5 most Haunted Places in Spain
Hospital General y de la Pasión – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
