In the Norwegian fairytale house in Krøderen, Villa Fridheim is said to be haunted by its former mistress, still running things her way as she did in life.
Rising like a fairy tale vision along the shores of Krøderen, Villa Fridheim is often called Soria Moria in wood and paint. Its towers, carved details, and storybook halls draw visitors into a world shaped by Norwegian folklore.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway
Those staying at the house long enough often sense that the museum is more than a collection of fairytale artifacts. There is a persistent feeling of not being entirely alone.
The Haunted Fairytale Castle: The enchanting Villa Fridheim, a Swiss-style house in Krøderen, Norway, inspired by Norwegian folklore and rich with history. // Source: John Erling Blad
The House of Fairytales
Villa Fridheim is a Swiss-style building with elements of national romanticism and dragon style on Bjørøya in Krødsherad, built in 1890–1892 by Lumber merchant Svend Haug. Villa Fridheim was intended to serve as a country home for the lumber merchant and his wife Thea (née Sveaas). When the builder himself died in the middle of the construction work in 1891, it was the widow Thea Haug who completed the work. She then moved here permanently and used it as a home for herself and her children.
After several years, the family converted the place into a hotel, but it was soon sold out of the family. The hotel was in operation from 1914 to 1960. After that, the house was left empty and dilapidated. After many years of decay, there were plans for the building to be burned down as part of a fire drill.
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
It currently houses the Villa Fridheim Fairy Tale Museum , which is mainly associated with Asbjørnsen and Moe’s work as collectors, storytellers and publishers of fairy tales.
A House That Never Sleeps
Guests and staff have spoken quietly of sounds echoing through the servant wing after hours. Furniture seems to scrape across floors where no one walks. Doors creak open and close on their own, as if someone unseen is still making her nightly rounds.
There are many different claims to who is haunting the place. In a book that used to be in the house, people wrote down strange occurrences they experienced. One of them was about a little boy in the cafe who vanished into thin air right before them.
The Ghost Haunting the Villa: The intricately designed interior of Villa Fridheim, showcasing its wooden architecture and fairy tale motifs. There’s a lot of ghostly tales lingering in the walls. // Source: John Erling Blad
On the fourth floor, some claim to have seen children at play, a little girl. She was dressed in old fashioned clothing, running and laughing among the shadows before vanishing as suddenly as they appeared. No footsteps follow them, and no voices remain once they are gone.
From the attic, a sound, almost like an audiotape playing at high speed is heard.
The Woman in Black
Most striking of all is the figure seen in the main hall. Visitors have described a woman wearing a long black dress, her appearance belonging to another century. She moves calmly through the space, observing rather than frightening, her presence quiet but unmistakable.
According to local tradition, this is the spirit of Thea Haug, the first lady of the house. In life, she was known for her discipline and order, ensuring that Villa Fridheim ran smoothly and with dignity. She died in 1924, when she was 85 years old. In death, it seems she has not entirely relinquished her role.
When she is not satisfied, the ghost slams the doors, it is said. According to legends, she didn’t treat her staff particularly well. Although, some say that when she retired and went back to Drammen, a feast was held in her honor, and she was given gifts by the locals for all her effort and hospitality. Mostly in written form, she was remembered as a person with a big heart.
It is also said that her daughter, (maybe named Rilda), was hidden away in the tower room when she got syphilis and turned mad. This is also one of those tales that doesn’t have much proof, as their daughters don’t have as much information about them as their sons.
A German tourist once staying there came down from the second floor and talked with the staff. “So festive that the staff wear old costumes,” she said after having seen a woman wearing a black dress from another century. The staff all wore jeans and t-shirts.
A TV-series called Soria Moria was recorded at the hotel in the early 2000s about the fictional ghost of a nazi soldier. One day all the images from a Polaroid camera to keep track of continuity were strange. All of them were marked by a shadow that looked like a female figure in a long skirt.
A Watchful Housekeeper
Those who work at the museum believe that Thea Haug still watches over the building’s forty rooms. If she senses carelessness or neglect, doors may slam sharply as a warning. It is not seen as malice, but as correction, the firm reminder of a housekeeper who expects standards to be upheld.
Villa Fridheim: Is there really the ghost of a woman in black haunting Villa Fridheim?
Despite the strange occurrences, no one speaks of cleansing the house of its ghost. The presence causes no harm, and many feel it adds depth to the living history of Villa Fridheim. The husfrue is considered part of the story, woven into the walls as surely as the carved dragons and fairy tale motifs.
At Villa Fridheim, it is said that being a house ghost is a good existence. The Lady of Soria Moria still keeps watch, ensuring that her enchanted home remains just as it should be.
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
Bordering Norway and Sweden, the mysterious Finnskogen forest, with its deep rooted trees holds ghosts, curses and lingering spirits. Like the poltergeist-like ghost at Välgunaho farm, who drove its residents away and left it abandoned for over a century.
Deep along the border between Norway and Sweden lies Finnskogen, a wilderness that has frightened generations. The spruce forest closes in, the air turns unnervingly still over the marshland and twisting rivers, and the weight of something unseen settles over the dark paths. Even seasoned woodsmen avoid walking alone in certain parts beneath these branches once dusk arrives.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway or Sweden
The forest and area is rather undefined, but one of the more well known hiking trails crossing it, stretches for 240 km on the border between Sweden and Norway. It gets its name from the Finish people that settled here in the mid 1600s. They needed wood for their farming. This created a unique culture with their own ways, language and they are now a recognized minority. Because of their own nature based shaman religion and rituals, there has been a lot of mystery and magic surrounding the place that was considered foreign and haunted.
The Haunted Finnskogen: The serene landscape surrounding Vermunden in Finnskogen, a forest steeped in mystery and folklore. // Source
Välgunaho: A Settlement Driven to Abandonment
In Röjden on the Swedish side of the forest sits Välgunaho, also spelled Velgunaho, a place so plagued by haunting that it was completely deserted in 1901, although some sources state it was in 1900. The year before had already become infamous as the ghost summer, a season of relentless activity that drove fear into the hearts of every resident and drove them out.
The Halinen and Saastainen family moved into Valea aho, “the bright shack”, in the 19th century. The name changed over time though, and when they moved out, their home was Velguna ho, “the ghost shack”.
In 1866, a man named Henrik married Marit Olsdotter Saastainen in Röjden. She was eighteen years older than him, who had joined the family as a maid a few years earlier. Marit had serious problems with her eyesight and would eventually become completely blind.
He lived at Välgunaho with Blind-Marit who was practicing rituals, sometimes called witchcraft. She was said to be sensing the ghosts haunting her home, and she would say and warn others by saying: “Now the little ones are coming again”. She would also feed them, thinking they lived underneath the floorboards, and she poked down breadcrumbs from the edge of her bed.
Henrik’s brother Olof was deaf and mute and his sister Brita or Bitta is recorded in the church register as “almost deaf and mute”. Hearing loss seems to have been a hereditary trait in the Halinen family. A lot of family members were diagnosed as “deaf and dumb” by the priests. Meaning deaf and unable to speak of some sort of muteness most likely.
Every long Friday at Easter, Blind-Marit ordered Bitta to walk around the barn three times towards the sun and read ‘Our Father’ out loud. If they were churning butter, they put money in Kjinna they were churning in, and if strangers arrived for coffee, Henrik always put his finger in the coffee. If he didn’t, all hell would break loose. And even with all their precautions and superstitions, it did.
The Haunting Starts at Välgunaho
The first noticeable events occurred during an Easter weekend when the family’s cows ran around in the forest one morning, instead of staying safely in their locked stalls.
Henrik’s nephew, Sanla-August, or August Andersson that was his full name had been working in the forest in Trysil in Norway when he came home and heard about all the commotion at his uncle’s farm. Although not a particularly superstitious person himself, he went there on a bright summer day for a visit and experienced the darkness taking over the farm. He was often called over to help them clean up the mess the poltergeist was said to make.
Sanla-August who we have most of the story from said: “The hauntings began, if I remember correctly, during an Easter weekend. The cows were let loose in the barn and invisible hands untied the cowhides as soon as they were put around the cowhides. The milk pails were thrown over and every conceivable mischief that could harm the farm people arose. The invisible forces eventually became so common that they were given the name ‘he’. Many doubters, both learned and unlearned, visited Välgunaho. Some did not gain anything from the trip to the haunted place. ‘He’ chose to remain still. I saw that you had to hold on to the food containers, plates and pans, etc. with all your might, which wanted to turn over immediately when you sat down to eat. Välgunaho is and remains a mystery.”
When Marit and Brita were milking the cows, large stones would suddenly fly into the air, as if they were intended to harm the two women. The fear and anxiety grew stronger and stronger in the small family and the mysterious phenomena seemed to escalate over time. Soon “he” had moved into the warmth of the cottage and was also haunting the indoors.
“You had to use all your strength to hold on to the food containers, plates and pans and more that promptly wanted to turn over when you sat down at the table and ate.”
People reported objects hurled across rooms with violent force, as if angry hands were tearing through their homes. Crockery exploded against walls, furniture toppled without warning. In the middle of the night they were woken up by the long-table made from heavy wood that was turned around on the floor. Even furniture fastened was thrown across the room and was torn apart. In the barn, the cows were let loose and even the stove pipe from the house ended up on the roof of the barn.
Biblical Exorcism and Shamanic Practices
They tried to get Kosila-Ola, a person well versed in the mysterious rituals of the forest-finns to scare the evil forces away with gun-powder and salt and pepper. It didn’t really work. They summoned a Christian priest who brought his bible, but as soon as he put it on the table it was thrown into the wall. Nothing seemed to work, and it only seemed to worsen.
Ole Henriksen, a Norwegian teacher from Rotberget didn’t believe any of it, and decided to stay over one night. A coffee burner or pot above the stove was thrown through the room and knocked on his fingers. Eventually, everyone left, and Henrik Olsson moved that fall and they tore the farm down, leaving only cairn stones and rusty copper cauldrons. After this it remained abandoned and known as the haunted place.
Back at the Haunted Välgunaho: Sanla-August who talked about his family’s experience at the place where it all happened, years after. Photo taken by Dagfinn Grønoset. // Source: Digitalt museum
Afterwards, they preferred not to talk about what happened in Velgunaho. When people told them about the ghosts, August from Sanala interrupted and said: “Don’t add to it. What happened is more than enough.”
The Forest That Punishes the Living
Those who know the legends warn never to remove anything from Finnskogen. A pinecone, a stone, a fragment of old wood. It does not matter. The forest’s guardians are said to punish anyone who steals from it. Tales circulate about travelers whose luck soured immediately after pocketing a harmless trinket, suffering accidents, illness or a strange streak of calamities that only ceased when the object was returned.
Throughout time, people wandering there came for the haunting. We know about it today much to the work of Dagfinn Grønoset who wrote Finnskof of Trollskap where he interviewed Sanla-August, then an old man in 1953. Another well known Finn, Nitaho-Jussi once brought a group of people up to see, warning them about not disturbing, “the little grey ones.” as he called them. But one kicked a stone and in the same moment, his home caught fire and burned to the ground according to the stories.
Even in more recent times, people have blamed the mystery that happened on the farm for strange things happening. A bus of tourists once had a motorstop after they had passed through. Two women were taking white stones with painted crosses that the locals had put up around the farm. The guide Kjell Magne Nordvi convinced the driver to pretend to not be able to turn his key. He asked if someone had taken something from the place and asked them to deliver it back. After this, the bus started just fine, but definitely helped add to the story.
According to stories, the ghostly phenomena were now instead moved due east, to Rikkenberget in the southern Finnish forest.
A Wilderness That Watches
Finnskogen remains a place where folklore and fear walk hand in hand. The wind seems to whisper in a language older than the trees, and many believe the spirits who tormented Välgunaho never left. Wanderers swear they have felt unseen eyes following them on the trails. Others hear knocking in the underbrush or the sudden rustle of branches when no breeze stirs.
Why did the haunting occur? Some speculated that the old woman at the place was said to have been in contact with the devil and “became blind and unable to fulfill her obligations to the highest of the same.”
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
In the dark Hendrick Street in Dublin, there once were two houses said to be some of the most haunted ones in town. Occupied by at least six ghosts, some say they still linger in their old street.
In Smithfield, Dublin, once stood a narrow, unassuming street that locals long avoided after dark. Not much was known about the street between the corn and cattle market of the city. Hendrick Street, now mostly vanished from the map, was for generations whispered about as Dublin’s most haunted street where more than one house had a haunted story.
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Though the old Dutch Billys houses from the 1730s were demolished in the 1960s, the ground where numbers 7 and 8 once stood is said to remain restless and was the worst location for the haunting going on in the street. The stories claim that no fewer than six spirits are bound to this cursed patch of land, forever replaying the tragedies that once unfolded behind its doors.
The Six Ghosts of Hendrick Street
The haunting of Hendrick Street began long before the bulldozers came. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the area was densely packed with tenements, where poverty, sickness, and despair clung to the air like a fog. Numbers 7 and 8 were said to be especially ill-fated. This is said to have especially been from the 1920s and leading up to the house’s demolitions.
By the turn of the 20th century, Hendrick Street’s reputation had darkened beyond repair. Residents spoke of six distinct apparitions that haunted the adjoining houses.
Tenants rarely stayed long, claiming to hear knocking on the walls at night, furniture moving by itself, and cold hands brushing against their faces in the dark. It was especially inside number 7 and 8 in the street that people were bothered by ghosts.
The Dark History of Number 7
One story in particular tells about a family who moved into number 7. An old house where many people had lived and died. It isn’t really specified exactly when this family moved in, but it is more likely to be from the early to mid 20th century. When they arrived they were warned to not go downstairs after dark. Apparently a woman had died in the house and was heard walking up and down the stairs from midnight to the clock struck five, every night.
The father of the house came home one evening and couldn’t unlock the door. He heard someone coming running down the stairs inside and the door flew open. But when he looked inside, there was no one there, and he only felt the sensation of a cold wind passing him by.
The Ghost by the Fireplace in Number 8
In the neighboring house there was an elderly couple living once. According to the story, they hated each other in life, but seemed to be unable to part in the afterlife. After the man, a horrid mad according to the rumours passed, he remained in the house to haunt his wife.
She hated him so much, she was glad he had died. But one night he came back to shout at her. He was also said to have been lingering by the fireplace. Because of his torment even beyond death, she eventually said to have gotten an exorcism.
Both number 7 and 8 were said to have been demolished as far back as 1953 because of the poor state of them.
Hendrick Street No. 15-19
Not only were the two houses on the street said to be haunted, but so were the buildings right across from them as well. It used to be an industrial block that has now turned into a retail outlet.
According to the rumours, there was a young girl said to haunt the building and would appear in front of people. People walking by would report about seeing faces in the windows of the building when no one was supposed to be inside.
Dublin’s Forgotten Haunting
Today, Hendrick Street is little more than a memory, yet its ghostly reputation has never faded. In its place, The Hendrick Smithfield Hotel has been built in its place. Although the hotel acknowledges the streets’ haunted history, there isn’t really much to go on in terms of newer ghost stories. It is however still a stop on many ghost tours in the city.
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
At the entrance to the tranquil town of Münchenstein, just outside of Basel, stands an otherwise unassuming structure at Hauptstrasse 19, also called the Marini House, were the renowned Berri family used to live, and now are said to haunt..
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To the casual passerby, it’s merely a relic of centuries past, but beneath its weathered façade lies one of the Basel region’s most quietly unsettling ghost stories: the lingering unrest of a tragic soul and the eerie disturbances that continue to be whispered about to this day.
The former rectory in Münchenstein. // Source: Roland Zumbuehl/Wikimedia
A Birthplace of Brilliance and Darkness
This house was once the rectory of Münchenstein, serving as a residence for local clergy until the 1830s, but the building is much older than that.
Old views from the 17th century clearly show that the house once stood behind the northern gate of the town-like settlement on the east side, facing the castle rock. According to a detailed drawing by G. Pr. Meyer from 1690, the house originally consisted of two buildings.
Münchenstein has had a pastor since 1334. Therefore, it can be assumed that a rectory already stood near the north gate before 1537. Its location arose from the fact that the parish church stands nearby, outside the fortification walls.
It also holds the distinction of being the birthplace of Melchior Berri (1801–1854), the renowned Swiss architect behind some of Basel’s most iconic 19th-century landmarks, including the Museum of Natural History and Ethnology.
Melchior Berri: Portrait of Melchior Berri (1801–1854), Swiss architect. His father bearing the same name was a priest, and he grew up in the former rectory.
But it is not Berri’s legacy that has kept the house in local memory — it is the sorrowful fate of his father, Pastor Berri, and the restless phenomena that followed.
A Life of Restlessness and a Death of Despair
He had served as vicar at St. Peter’s from 1804. After his election as pastor, he moved with his family to Münchenstein, right outside of Basel, where his son spent his youth in rural surroundings at the foot of the castle rock. Berri’s religious streak can probably be traced back to his father, which was evident in the fact that even as a young man he conscientiously kept records of the church services he attended.
The elder Berri, though a man of the cloth, was by all accounts troubled and dissatisfied with both himself and the world around him. Known to lead a restless, melancholic existence, his growing despair culminated in a grim and tragic act: he took his own life, hanging himself from a sturdy beam in the rectory’s attic in 1831.
Almost immediately after his death, the house earned a sinister reputation. Locals began to report unsettling nocturnal disturbances like eerie phantom winds that howled through sealed rooms, the clanking of invisible chains from the attic, and ghostly lights flickering and vanishing without cause. The rectory had become a source of dread.
The tragic family tradition seemed to follow his son, who also took his life on May 12 in 1854 after losing one of his eight children to bronchitis. Because he had taken his life, he was quietly buried next to his son in St. Alban Church, and his grave was lost to memory for ages.
The Shape in the Shadows
In the years that followed, sporadic reports of ghostly activity surfaced. Most notably, witnesses described seeing a black, shadowy figure with glowing eyes within the house. On one infamous night, as townsfolk summoned the courage to investigate, the sinister presence was found crouched within a fireplace — not as a man, but in the form of a black cat with burning eyes.
Haunted Home: Former rectory and family home from 1805 to 1831 of Melchior Berri (1805-1854) at Hauptstrasse 19 in Münchenstein. // Source: EinDao/Wikimedia
Whether this was a mere trick of the light or the physical manifestation of the pastor’s anguished spirit, the answer was never found. The cat vanished as quickly as it appeared, but the story became forever entangled with the house’s already chilling folklore.
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
Now a place you can rent and stay at, the Beck House in Canada is said to be one of the more haunted places. Those who have stayed the night come back with stories of strange encounters, believed to be the ghost of the Beck family members.
Carl Beck House is an eerie but beautifully stately mansion located in Penetanguishene in Ontario, Canada. As the best Victorian mansions are, it is said to be haunted. For a long time, it was a private family home, but now you can also check in and stay the night to see for yourself as an AirBNB. This historic building has a dark past, with rumors of ghosts and hauntings that have persisted for decades.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Canada
But who is still lingering in the house? Some say that the spirits of former residents still roam the halls, while others claim to have seen mysterious apparitions in the windows at night. Some even say there are as many as twenty different spirits trapped within the walls. But what is the truth behind these haunted legends?
The History of Carl Beck House
Carl Beck House was built in 1866 by a wealthy businessman named Karl Maxillian (Charles) Beck (1838-1915). A German immigrant, he became the wealthiest of the local lumber magnates and made a lasting name for himself. He was also mayor of the town from 1892 to 1895 and owned the first car in the area.
The mansion was designed in the Italianate style and was the largest residence in the area at the time. Beck lived in the mansion with his wife Emelia and nine children until his death.
The Haunted Legends of Carl Beck House
Despite its grandeur, Carl Beck House has long been associated with ghostly tales and hauntings. There are many theories about why Carl Beck House is haunted. Some believe that the mansion is simply a victim of the many tragedies and deaths that occurred within its walls over the years. Others believe that the mansion is haunted by the ghosts of former residents who are unable to move on from their earthly lives.
Visitors to the mansion have reported hearing unexplained noises, such as footsteps and whispers, and feeling a sense of being watched. There have been multiple reports of objects moving on their own and lights turn on and off for apparently no reason.
In the guestbook in the house for people to write down their experiences, there are entrances detailing how blankets moved by themselves when they were sleeping. Some have even claimed to have seen the apparitions of former residents, dressed in Victorian-era clothing, wandering through the halls. They are also warning about the doll in the green dress in the house.
The Spurned Daughter Back to Haunt her Childhood Home
According to local legend, the mansion is haunted by the ghosts of former residents, including Carl Beck himself, Emilia, Mary and her two younger sisters who passed away in the house very young on 2 Jun 1893 (aged 42–43).
One of the most famous ghost stories associated with Carl Beck House is the tale of the “Lady in White.” According to legend, a young woman named Mary lived in the mansion in the late 1800s. She was Carl’s eldest daughter, and was expected to take responsibility for caring for her siblings after her mother died young.
However, after some time, Mary saw another life for herself when she became acquainted with a man and decided to marry him. Her father strongly opposed their union, believing that Mary deserved a better spouse and didn’t want her to leave the house, even though she had taken care of her sibling for 10 years already.
Still, she followed her heart and left with her chosen one called George Robinson. This disagreement was so intense that it caused Carl to remove Mary from his will. According to other sources, Mary received only $1 after her father passed away in an accident in 1915, although he left assets totaling $10 million. He drowned while his horse was getting a drink, the buggy flipped.
This is put up as a reason for her coming back to haunt her childhood home after she died in 1954 (aged 84–85). Although not much is known about her life after she left the Beck House, it looks like she stayed in Penetanguishene. Although there isn’t much mentioned of this dispute outside of retellings of the haunted rumours from the house, it remains the most well known cause for ghost lingering.
A Night at the Haunted Beck House
Carl Beck House has long been shrouded in mystery and legend, with tales of ghostly activity and hauntings that have persisted for decades. Who are the one still lingering and haunting for their guests. Not only is the inside of the house said to be haunted, but there are also the ones claiming the ghosts also leaves it. They are said to appear on the adjacent Church Street where they claim to see apparitions of Victorian women strolling along the street, naturally connecting them to the Beck House.
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Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
It is said a cross shows up in the window of the Iveagh House in Dublin, the former home of the powerful Guinness family. Legend has it’s a haunting that happened after a maid was denied her last rites in the house.
Along St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, a garden square and public park in the city, Iveagh House at 80-81 in that bustling street, is a gleaming Georgian mansion that holds centuries of secrets behind its refined white façade. There is also a ghostly mystery said to occur there, seen through the windows every Holy Thursday.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland
Built in 1736, it was once two separate houses before Benjamin Guinness, grandson of the famed Arthur Guinness, merged them into one grand residence in 1862. Today, the stately home serves as the headquarters of Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
The legend tells of a young servant girl who once worked for the Guinness family. When illness struck her, she lay dying in her room upstairs, pleading for a priest to administer her last rites as she was a devout catholic.
The household, devout Protestants themselves, refused her this last request. Desperate and feverish, the girl clung to her rosary beads, but the story says they were torn from her hands and thrown from the window into the garden below. Her cries faded, and by morning she was gone.
The Cross on Holy Thursday
Not long after her death, the house began to draw attention from the city. On every Holy Thursday from then, a faint yet unmistakable cross appeared on one of the panes of glass in the girl’s room. Crowds were said to have gathered in the street below to witness it, murmuring prayers and tracing the sign with trembling fingers. No matter how many times the window was cleaned or replaced, the cross was said to reappear, glowing faintly against the light.
There are also those claiming it is the spirit of Dermot O’Hurley, the Archbishop of Cashel, who was hanged nearby on the 20th of June, 1584.
To this day, staff working late in Iveagh House sometimes speak of a quiet unease that settles in the upper rooms, as though someone still lingers there in restless faith. The cross may have faded into legend, but the sorrow of the servant girl seems etched into the air of the old Guinness mansion.
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
All year round, the residents of the House in Ludington, seem to be plagued by the ghost waking them up from their sleep and watching them from the rocking chair. Around Christmas time, the ghost is said to be the one placing the Christmas Angel on the Christmas Tree.
In the seemingly quiet and picturesque town of Ludington, Michigan, lies a house shrouded in mystery and ghostly legends. While its exact address is kept secret to protect the privacy of its current residents, this haunted house has been the subject of local lore since the early 1980s. Over the years, tales of eerie occurrences and supernatural events have transformed this unassuming home into a focal point of spine-chilling fascination.
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Ludington, named after James Ludington after developing the logging operations in the village, is a a small town of the Great Lakes at Lake Michigan with pristine beaches, historic lighthouses an forests were people have come for fishing since Colonial times. There are many locations for a ghost story, but there is one house said to have experienced a haunting around Christmas.
Ludington Michigan: Spray towers over the 57-foot-tall Ludington Lighthouse in Michigan as a storm packing winds of up to 81 mph howled across the Midwest and South on Tuesday, Oct. 26. // Source: Jeff Kiessel, Ludington Daily News. Flickr
The Phantom Footsteps
The most persistent and unnerving phenomenon reported by the house’s owners is the sound of creaking stairs. Every morning at precisely 5:15, the unmistakable noise of footsteps ascending the staircase echoes through the silent halls. Despite thorough investigations and countless sleepless nights by the residents, no physical presence has ever been found. This daily occurrence has become a ghostly alarm clock, signaling the presence of an unseen visitor.
Does it still happen? We have not heard otherwise, although, because of the privacy of the residents, there is not much details and facts to go on and the story as found is from the book: Haunted Christmas: Yuletide Ghosts and Other Spooky Holiday Happenings By Mary Beth Crain from 2009
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Haunted Houses
Another chilling aspect of this haunted house is the sensation of being watched. The owners often report feeling an intense gaze emanating from the corner of the living room, where antique rocking chairs sit. These chairs have been known to rock gently on their own, as if someone or something is quietly observing from a bygone era. The eerie creaking of the chairs as they move by themselves adds to the house’s unsettling atmosphere.
The Christmas Haunting
One of the most intriguing and seasonal phenomena in the haunted house of Ludington occurs every Christmas, a time for quiet and joy for others, but a haunting experience for the residence. The owners meticulously decorate their tree, placing the angel at the top as the final touch as in most houses in America. However, each year, without fail, the angel is mysteriously repositioned. No one has ever seen it happen, but each morning, the angel sits perfectly atop the tree, as if placed by an invisible hand, before the residents themselves get a chance to put it on top.
Local gossip and old neighborhood tales provide a clue to this particular haunting. Decades ago, a kindly neighbor had made it a tradition to climb a ladder and place the angel on the Christmas tree for the owners of the house. Why? As an acto of kindness? As a prank?
This annual act continued until the neighbor’s death. Strangely enough, it was after his passing that the angel began to appear on the tree by itself, leading many to believe that his spirit continues the tradition from beyond the grave.
The Christmas Angel: Put on the top of the tree, the Christmas Angel seems to be haunted as it seems to get there by itself. Could it be the ghost of a past resident or perhaps a neighbor putting it there as a ghost?
A Brief History of Christmas Trees
The tradition of decorating Christmas trees dates back to the 16th century in Germany, where devout Christians would bring decorated trees into their homes. This came from an even older pre-christian tradition in Europe of the Yuletide and midwinter celebration for the pagans.
The custom spread across Europe and eventually to America, where it became an integral part of the holiday season. The act of placing an angel or star atop the tree symbolizes the Archangel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem, guiding the wise men to the birthplace of Jesus. In the haunted house of Ludington, this tradition has taken on a supernatural twist, blending holiday cheer with eerie mystery.
The Haunting of House of Ludington
The haunted house of Ludington, with its spectral footsteps, self-rocking chairs, and mysteriously moving furniture, offers a captivating glimpse into the supernatural. The annual Christmas haunting, where an unseen hand places the angel atop the tree, adds a poignant and ghostly touch to the festive season. Whether it’s the spirit of a benevolent neighbor or a lingering echo of the past, the ghostly presence in this house ensures that Christmas in Ludington is a season of both wonder and spine-tingling mystery.
For years, the old Joller House that used to be in Stans was plagued by a poltergeist-like haunting that drove an entire family out of the city? What really happened within the walls where the knocking and scratching of the walls seemed to come from the other side?
Tucked away in the Swiss town of Stans, in the canton of Nidwalden, once stood an ordinary-looking residence with an extraordinary, and deeply unsettling, secret. Known today as the Joller House poltergeist, this case remains one of Switzerland’s earliest documented hauntings and one of its most mysterious ones.
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For a brief, terrifying period in the mid-19th century, the Joller House was the scene of violent, unexplained phenomena that left an entire community shaken and drove an entire family out. What happened in this house said to be haunted by a poltergeist?
The Haunted Joller House: Although it was torn down in 2010, the ghost story of the Joller House still linger in Stans. // Source: Nidwalden State Archives, StANW OD 1-9/4
The Joller Family Backstory
The central figure in this grim account was Melchior Joller (1818-1865), a seemingly respected lawyer and Nidwalden official and state archivist, known for his rationality and standing in the local government pushing for a liberal politic. He was a son of Jokob Joller, a farmer and Catholic churchwarden.
Melchior Joller in his younger years.
Although he is remembered as a stand up person in society, he wasn’t the most successful. He had served a single three-year term as a backbencher in the National Suisse and had run for office in Nidwalden, but was never elected. His liberal newspaper got him in trouble with the Catholic clergy. He also wrote a pamphlet Darstellung selbsterlebter mystischer Erscheinungen (Narrative of personally experienced strange phenomena) where he detailed strange things happening in his house.
In November 1842, he married Karoline Wenz and they had seven children together. The house in question was Joller’s childhood home, built by his grandmother, and he had lived there all of his life except for his years at university, and co-owned it with a sister or sisters. In 1845, he took over the house and farm that his grandmother had built. And his grandmother was no other than Veronika Gut.
Veronika Gut and her Lasting Presence in Stans
Melchior Joller has been remembered for the ghost story happening in his home, but his grandmother was remembered for her life. She was born in 1757 in Stans and was a fierce supporter for the Nidwalden resistance and Swiss cause against the French Helvetic Republic. In 1798 she was already a widow with six children, living on a farm in Spichermatt in Stans. When the conflict escalated to an invasion, she donated 600 guilders to the war chest.
Veronika Gut: Remembered as a powerful woman. Here from Landschaftstheater Ballenberg: Veronika Gut – Uprising in Nidwalden, an open-air theater from 2017.
After the invasion she was arrested and tried as a rebel and fined. She was also sentenced to stand in front of the local church every Sunday with a note saying: “Liar and Disturber of Peace.” She was ordered to wear a black cape for a year, a humiliating thing as respectable women wore white. But she wore it with so much pride that she was told to remove it.
The previous house had been burned down when the French invaded in September 1798. Her 17 year old son, Leonz Joller died in battle as well. In her new house in Nägeligasse in Stans, she established a patriotic party in 1813 after Napoleon lost and held secret meetings in the evenings. Although she remarried to Melchior Odermatt, she was always known by her maiden name.
The Style of House: Photo taken by Jakob Hunziker traveled extensively in Switzerland between 1883 and 1895. This house, looking very similar to the Joller house was in Wolfenschiessen.
Her life was filled with opinions, personal tragedies and political resistance. According to some rumors, it was also said that her spirit lingered in the house she built, and that she would come back in her afterlife with as much force that she had when alive.
The Haunting Starts in the Joller House
In 1860, Joller then 42, his wife, and their children lived in a seemingly pleasant home in Stans he had inherited from his parents, close to Lake Lucerne, unaware of the terror that would soon unfold. They had four sons, Robert (1843), Eduard (1851), Oskar (1853) and Alfred (1858) and their three daughters Emaline (1845), Melanie (1848) and Henrika (1850).
Family Photo: The Joller Family who lived in the Joller House and claimed they were plagued by a poltergeist for years.
They also lived with their servants who according to Joller, were the first to notice strange things happening in the Joller House. Sleeping on the third floor in the attic, she started to hear a knocking on her bed head during the night in fall in 1860. She told Joller about it, thinking it meant someone in the house was about to die.
Joller told to shut up about these things and forgot about it until another experience a few weeks later. A knocking noise also woke up Karoline and their second daughter, Melanie, who shared a bedroom when Joller was away from home on a business trip. According to them, it was as if the knocking was trying to communicate with them and they became frightened. Then a year passed and they thought nothing of it anymore.
In June 1861, nine year old Oscar was nowhere to be found when they called for supper, and they searched for him, finding him unconscious in a room on the third floor they used to store logs. When he woke up, he claimed to have heard three knocks and went to check it out. A door flung open and a formless white shape entered and he passed out.
The following days, the boys sleeping in the bedroom on the second floor above the living room, started complaining about knocking noises. It seemed to come from the floor above them. When they told their father, he even heard something sounding like scratching on the walls, but thought it had to be a cat or a rat making the sound. In his memoir Joller also adds the detail that he had heard this noise many times before in his study, perhaps for the past two years.
That autumn, a maid said she had seen grey shapes appearing and that someone was coming up the stairs at night, walking right past her and into a living room when she was cleaning shoes on the stairs. She had also several times heard her name being called out by no one. Once she also heard something she described as “profoundly disturbing sobs.”
The maid’s stories angered Joller and Karoline told her to not talk about these things to the children, thinking she was too superstitious. 11 year old Henrika even claimed to have seen a small child shortly after when she was doing schoolwork. This frightened her so much she refused to enter the living room.
Joller decided to fire the housemaid that had claimed to see and hear the strange things that October. In his writings he claims it was because they would be able to manage the household themselves, but who knows. Was he angry about her talking about seeing ghosts to his children? Did he try to get her to quit the job because of financial problems? He instead hired a 13 year old girl to replace her, and for a time, it seemed that this had solved the problem except from the odd scratching on the walls and mysterious knocking sounds here and there throughout the house.
The Haunted Summer at the Joller House
Again it came a winter of silence, but the summer of 1862, the paranormal activity hit full force. On 15 of August, Joller went to Lucerne with his wife and Robert at seven in the morning. They left the house and the rest of the children with the 14 year old Melanie and the 13 year old servant girl.
Henrika started to hear a rapping noise and told Melanie and the servant girl. They went to investigate. Oscar and Edward also came trying to coax the spirit to give them a sign. But the children became afraid and fled the house, sitting outside on the front steps.
When they went back in at lunchtime, hungry and rattled, every single cupboard and door had opened when they were outside. They shut them all, bolting what they could. But as soon as they had closed them, they sprung open, including the bolted ones.
A sound of heavy footsteps were heard and the children fled out the house again. As the servant girl looked behind her, she claimed she saw the shape that looked something like a hung sheet in the corner coming towards her before disappearing when she called out with their food they ate outside under a hazel tree. .
The children reached the barn where some laborers were working. They took turns running back to the house to see what was going on, and according to them, a lot was going on. The sound of moving furniture, a voice saying “even if no one is around”, in a sad and groaning voice. A voice singing to a single-tone string was playing Camille’s prayer in Zampa, from the Ferdinand Herold opera from the upstairs living room.
Frightened, they all gathered under a tree when an old woman passed by and asked if this was where Veronika Gut had lived. The children confirmed, and the woman, claiming she had known her when she was alive started to tell them about the tragic story that happened generations ago.
The Story of the Drowned Girls
Three years after the house had burned down, Veronika had heard a mysterious voice, telling her to flee with her family because the French had invaded again in 1801. The French had not actually invaded, but she decided to run away to Engelberg with her children.
Joller’s father was with them initially, but for some reason, they split up and he went to another place with a guide. At Wolfenschiessen there was a narrow footbridge of the Engelberger Aa river the daughters Agatha, Franziska, Josefa and Anna had to cross. Veronika crossed first, then her eldest daughter of 19 followed, then the rest. The bridge collapsed and although Veronika managed to jump to firm ground, all of her daughters fell into the river and drowned.
According to the old woman, she had been the one ringing the bell in St Joder’s chapel after the tragedy. That night they had seen a man dressed in white, carrying a lamp and coming to the chapel, the sign that the bell was about to toll. But when her brother had gone to check, he hadn’t seen anyone and it wasn’t until the morning that they heard about the terrible news.
The Drowned Girls: Engelberger Aa, near Wolfenschiessen, Switzerland were Veronika Gut’s daughters perished. // Source
The old woman continued on her way, and the children had to get back into the house for their next meal. When the maid was preparing for supper in the kitchen, a light was seen coming down the chimney in the evening. The maid explained the sight as an object of little blue flames, exploding inside of the chimney and dowsing the fire with water. This was the final straw and ran off to the annex where the mother found them crying and frightened to death.
When Joller came back home from Lucerne and heard the stories the frightened children told him, he didn’t believe a single word and the children lost faith in him and decided to not tell him anything else, as they thought that he wouldn’t believe them anyway. This would however change when he experienced the so-called haunting himself. Later he had also heard from a relative in Germany that their whole family had experienced something similar the same day.
Joller Starts to Believe Something is Going on
On August 19, he started to hear the rapping noise of the wall, taunting, almost mimicking the noises he made. This made him promise his family he would investigate the matter. The next day he saw the door between the bedroom and kitchen bend before his eyes as the sound of knocking and banging came back. When he raised the catch on the door, it flung open and he saw a dark and almost shapeless form moving from the door to the chimney and disappeared.
The next day he saw what he described as a force as “powerful as a wooden mallet might make when swung with all the strength of a powerful arm.” The doors were slammed and opened with this force, in the kitchen, bottles and other glassware were ringing as being hit by metal. The sounds coming from different parts of the house made it look like it had to be four, maybe five people. His wife and son claimed to have seen a figure and he himself saw something dark shooting from the door to the side of the chimney before disappearing.
He called on his older sister to ask about if she had ever experienced something similar growing up in the house. She claimed she had never heard anything about it. A priest came by and gave the house a blessing and advised him to not let anyone else know about what was happening there. When the priest left, the whole house started up violently all evening.
The gossip about what happened in the Joller house started to spread to the neighbors, claiming that they too could hear all the ruckus. They stopped outside on the road to listen for the noises. The press started writing about it, and Joller felt they were also attacking his character.
Then, on 23 August Joller, his wife and a servant were all touched on the head in a first-floor bedroom. It was like a hand, and when Joller and Caroline grabbed the hand it felt warm and small, like a child’s. By now they had police guards helping them, as they were starting to fear they might get hurt.
On the 16 of September, Joller saw an apple, jumping around and down the stairs, along the corridor and into the kitchen. When picked up and put on the kitchen table, it jumped off and headed for the corridor. It was thrown out of the window by one of the servants, but flew back to the kitchen table before continuing jumping around the house on its own.
On the 6 of October, five different people claimed to have seen a figure on four different occasions. It was described as a woman, bowing her head with a melancholic air about her. Melanie claimed it was the same figure she had encountered and seen on the 10 September.
A Tragic Aftermath
The strain of the haunting proved too much for Joller. Later that month the final straw was drawn for the Joller family. They packed up and left the Joller House forever and moved to Zurich where they rented. No one really knows what happened that made the family decide that enough was enough.
It is also worth noting that he had to appear in court three times on fraud charges together with Robert and they left a huge debt back in Stans. Some speculate that moving his family to Zurich and then to Rome was a financial move to get away from the debt.
In any case, the stress got to him, and contemporary sources claim that his hair turned white almost overnight in Zurich and had a “a peculiar dreamy look about his eyes” according to paranormal societies across Europe who picked up the case.
According to Joller who sold the Joller House to the Lussi family. The house was closed down until spring in 1863, and as far as he knew, nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the house.
A man named Emilio Servadio contacted Emaline in 1938 and interviewed her about the story, and she said that the poltergeist didn’t follow them to their new home. Her father died in 1865 in Rome where he had been hoping to see the pope, exiled and in poverty after he had been ridiculed by family and friends and lost his positions in Switzerland. He was only 47.
Left to Decay: For decades, the Joller house was left empty, gathering dust and legends before being torn down. // Source: Nidwalden State Archives
Explanations and Theories
As with many poltergeist cases, contemporary explanations struggled to make sense of the phenomena. Some suspected that one of the Joller children might be unconsciously causing the disturbances, a theory common to 19th-century poltergeist lore, which often linked such hauntings to pubescent or emotionally distressed young people.
Joller himself maintained that the disturbances were neither tricks nor delusions. His attempts to logically document and combat the events only added to the eerie credibility of the case.
Another theory about who was behind it all was Robert. He came under suspicion, particularly after he was seen talking to an actor in the street in Lucerne, and so did the servant girl. But things happened when neither was present. And for the motive? His family lost close to everything. For what reason would he have done it?
Another theory is Joller himself, driven by financial problems, started the poltergeist rumor himself to drive the price for the house he was about to lose down. A prank that went too far. The problem with this theory though, would he really have tormented his family and household to this extent? Also, to drive down the house price would also backfire when he had to sell it. Fact was, the family ended up suffering tragically from the whole ordeal.
The Spirit of Veronika Gut
But what about the tragedy of Veronika Gut? Could her spirit have something to do with the haunting as many posed as an explanation? Already having lost her eldest son when he was fighting the French, it was a huge family tragedy. Joller himself gave no notion in his sources that he believed this was the story behind the haunting.
There were however several theories that it was earthbound spirits that wanted attention from the family living in the house, and Veronika was one of the main suspects haunting the Joller House. According to this theory, she was in fact a militant nationalist and Joller’s liberal politics was the cause of her haunting and wanting to bring him on a more righteous path in her opinion.
There is also the theory about the haunting being because of how close in age Joller’s daughters started to be to Veronika’s daughters, and that this is what released the haunting.
This seems to be the holding theory of the family itself as well. When a documentary crew went to Rome to meet Riccardo Joller, Melchior’s great-grandson, he showed a spirit drawing og Veronika they had made.
Then there were the secret manuscripts allegedly existing and explaining the whole thing. An editor from Zurich told about her father and how he had talked with some of the great grandchildren of Joller. Apparently, Nicolao Joller, who was Alfred’s grandson, was in possession of a secret manuscript, detailing the exact reason of why the events of the Joller house had taken place. On the cover of the manuscript it read in the local Roman dialect: “for the family only.” But the actual contents of the manuscript were never published publicly, and there is no actual proof that it even exists.
The Suspicion of Teenage Daughters
One part of poltergeist’s hauntings, is the presence of teenage girls, in their early prepubescent. We see it from the Veronika case in Spain or the Enfield poltergeist in England from more modern times to the case of the Fox sisters in America starting the spiritual movement.
Exactly why do so many poltergeist stories have young girls in the midst of it? Some point to sexual exploitation or other dysfunctional dynamics within the household that would solve itself when they left Stans and started their independent lives outside of the family home. This theory is that the supposed poltergeist haunting is some sort of cry for help and is about unsolved trauma that the girls twist into a spiritual haunting to cope with their lives.
The fact is that we simply don’t know what really happened those years inside of the Joller house.
Legacy of the Joller Poltergeist
Today, little remains to mark the site where terror once held sway. The Joller House in Stans was demolished on February 23 in 2010 and a high rise shopping center was built in its place opposite the Länderpark.
Demolition of the Joller House: The haunted house on Veronika-Gut-Weg in Stans was demolished on February 23, 2010./Source: Corinne Glanzmann
Whether the product of unresolved grief, repressed secrets, or something far older and more malevolent, the story of the Joller House poltergeist endures as one of Switzerland’s most unsettling ghostly mysteries — a chilling reminder that even in idyllic mountain towns, darkness can take hold.
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After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
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Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
Persecuted for his beliefs, the ghost of David Joris, the famous heretic is said to haunt his old home Spießhof in Basel. According to mediums, he won’t leave before clearing his name.
Tucked away in the winding streets of Basel’s Old Town, surrounded by Renaissance façades and shadowed alleyways, stands the Spießhof Building at Höibarg 5 and 7. On the 13th century it was called House of Spiess. An unassuming yet stately structure whose handsome exterior belies a dark and lingering presence within. For nearly 450 years, the house has been stalked by one of Switzerland’s most unsettling phantoms: the headless ghost of David Joris.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland
His story is one of religious strife, betrayal, and posthumous vengeance, and to this day, locals swear that on certain mist-laden nights, a figure without a head prowls the building’s halls, accompanied by two spectral black dogs with eyes like smoldering coals.
The tale begins in the mid-16th century, a time when Europe was convulsed by the violent aftershocks of the Protestant Reformation. David Joris, a charismatic Dutch preacher, glass stain artist and painter, had amassed a controversial following in the Low Countries for his unorthodox religious teachings. An adherent of the radical Anabaptist movement called the Muscat sect of the Davidites he was leader of.
David Joris: (c. 1501 – 25 August 1556, sometimes Jan Jorisz or Joriszoon; formerly anglicised David Gorge) was an important Anabaptist leader in the Netherlands before 1540.
Joris believed in adult baptism, pacifism, a preacher for polygamy and a personal, mystical relationship with God that were views considered dangerously heretical by both Catholic and Protestant authorities alike.
Fleeing persecution together with his wife Dirckgen and family, Joris arrived in Basel in 1544 under a false name, claiming to be a respectable merchant claiming to be a Zwinglian. In addition to his wife, with whom he had eleven children, he himself had a “spiritual bride”, Anna von Berchem, the sister of his future son-in-law, with whom he also had several children and whom he later married to one of his followers. The city, known for its relative tolerance of religious refugees, welcomed him.
There, he established a prosperous household, secretly leading a colony of like-minded followers while amassing considerable wealth and status as he went under the name Jan van Brügge.
However, in death, his secrets unraveled.
Exhumation and Desecration
When Joris passed away on August 28, 1556 it was said that a flash of lightning struck the building, he was buried with the honors befitting a man of his public reputation. He had died three years after his wife and was placed next to her in the Church of St. Leonard.
But within a year, the truth of his Anabaptist beliefs was exposed. Furious at having harbored a heretic in their midst, Basel’s authorities ordered his body exhumed three years after his death. In a macabre and symbolic act of damnation, they beheaded his corpse and hanged it in front of the Spalen Gate before burning him, an eternal punishment meant to sever his soul from salvation.
Some say that his remains were buried inside of the building, others say that his ashes were spread in the Rhine.
This violent desecration was not the end of David Joris. If anything, it marked the beginning of his restless haunting.
A Headless Specter and His Hellhounds
According to local legend, Joris’s decapitated ghost soon began to roam the Spießhof Building, where he had once lived in secret splendor. Witnesses through the centuries have described a headless man clad in 16th-century garments with his head under his arm, wandering the corridors and inner courtyard, accompanied by two massive black Great Danes. The hounds are said to possess unnaturally glowing eyes and an aura of malevolence, following their master through the gloom like grim familiars.
Some versions of the story claim the dogs are the spectral embodiment of his guilt, while others suggest they are demonic guardians, bound to Joris as a result of heretical pacts made in life.
Enduring Folklore in Basel’s Heart
Though today the Spießhof Building houses government offices and private apartments, the eerie legends persist. Staff and residents have reported phantom footsteps, cold spots, and sudden drafts, even on windless nights. It is also said it sounds like the clunking
There are tales of unexplained barking echoing through empty hallways, and of doors slamming shut of their own accord. A few old women have seen him in his estate in Binningen, riding his horse through his lands. It is said however that the Franciscan Capuchins monk have banished the ghost to the bell tower of Binningen Castle. Others have seen him strolling along the paths of Holeeholz.
On certain misty evenings, some claim to see the shadow of a headless figure moving past the upper windows, accompanied by the soft padding of unseen paws. Mediums that have visited the house claim that he wouldn’t leave until his name had been cleared by the authorities.
In Basel’s rich tapestry of folklore and ghost stories, David Joris’s spectral presence stands out as one of the city’s oldest and most unsettling hauntings — a grim reminder of religious intolerance, secret lives, and the restless dead.
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
Kleinbasel neighborhood is perhaps one of the most haunted places in Basel, Switzerland. In an unassuming house at Rebgasse 38, the well known exorcist Johann Jakob von Brunn visited twice to banish the ghosts lingering in it.
In the winding alleys of Kleinbasel, where centuries-old buildings lean toward one another and twilight seems to gather early, there once stood a house that no one in their right mind dared approach. At the house that seemingly was also used as a rectory, a married couple who lived there from 1888 to 1907 reported about ghostly occurrences from previous tenants. It also seems that it was haunted long before they moved in.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland
There are a lot of ghost stories around the Kleinbasel district in Basel. At Rebgasse 38, there were supposedly two ghosts haunting this particular building. First the dead wife of a man who remarried after her death, and a woman named Grethi Beck was said to possess the Evil Eye.
Haus Zur Alten Trotte: The haunted house on Rebgasse 38 in Basel, was said to have had an exorcism twice. // Source: Laloom/Wikimedia
A House the Shadows Would Not Leave
The house at Rebgasse 38, also known as the Haus zur alten Trotte (House of the Old Wine Press) had long been shrouded in ominous whispers. Locals spoke of unseen presences, shadows that moved on their own, and the chilling sound of phantom footsteps when no one else was near.
Some claimed it was the work of the “Grey Man”, a spectral figure of indeterminate origin known to haunt certain homes in Basel and this particular working class district..
Margrethe (Grethi) Beck was said to have been the maid when Pastor Johann Jakob Übelin (1793-1873) lived there. He was a Swiss Protestant theologian , deacon , chronicler , draftsman , botanist and author. He then worked in Basel for 27 years as a deacon for St. Theodor’s Church and, from 1845 to 1867, as a construction clerk. In 1818, Übelin married Margaretha, née Brenner (1798–1840), with whom he had eight children.
It is said that she stole money from the pastor, and when she died, she appeared to him and the later tenants as a ghost. People were convinced that she caused bad things to happen to the people of Kleinbasel. And the way people talk about the case, it looks like it was also when she was alive. There is not much info about how she died, but also in death, she scared her neighbors. She was said to be sitting on the steps on the stairwell, and even though Johann Jakob Übelin got another clergyman to exorcise her, her haunting seemed to persist.
An Exorcism Against the Darkness
The government and the clergy made every effort to counter the superstition and the stories related to it. On Sundays the priests would issue warnings from the pulpit against fortune-telling and devil worship and would advise people not to believe in them. It is unknown whether the haunting happened when Johann Jakob Übelin still lived in the house, or it was after.
At last, the city turned to its most renowned spiritual defender: Pastor Johann Jakob von Brunn, a cleric famed for his boldness in confronting the supernatural and was supposedly a well known ghost hunter in Basel. He had allegedly faced so-called witches, expelled demons from livestock barns, and purified cursed wells — and now he was summoned to confront the menace at Rebgasse 38.
It’s said that von Brunn entered the home armed with holy water, relics, and an arsenal of ancient prayers, undeterred by the suffocating dread that clung to the walls. It is said he banished the ghost of the former housekeeper to a corner of a room on the first floor of the house.
And for a time, peace returned to Rebgasse, although the family dog would howl towards the very same corner of the room as if it sensed a presence there. And later tenants would still see her, sitting on the steps of the stairs.
The Scandal of Johann Jakob Übelin Waking a Ghost
Family Grave: Grave in the Wolfgottesacker Cemetery, Basel. Descendants of Johann Jakob Übelin.
As mentioned, it wasn’t the only ghost said to haunt the house, and the other one, was the dead wife of Johann Jakob Übelin. Margaretha died in childbirth around 1839 and would later come back as a ghost. In November 1845, Johann Jakob Übelin caused a scandal when it came to light that he had an affair with his cook, Henriette Rosine Trautwein.
Because of this he had to resign his position and married Henriette in 1846 as she was now pregnant. Together, they had a son and he lived out his working life until 1867 as a construction clerk. He died in 1873.
After the whole scandal it was said that the ghost of Margaretha came back to haunt them because of her husband’s infidelity, although she was dead. Who knows when it really started. It was said she haunted the rectory until she too was banished by the ghost hunter Johann Jakob von Brunn.
A Shadow That Never Quite Faded
Though the hauntings ceased, the house was never truly free of its reputation after the ghost of Grethi Beck and the dead wife of Johann Jakob Übelin. Some claim that, on certain nights, you can still sense a cold, baleful gaze from the upper window, though no one lives there.
Today, the spot where Rebgasse 38 once stood bears little trace of its haunted history. At the address that used to belong to the building that used to be haunted there is now a kindergarten listed. But the old stories persist in whispered retellings among local ghostwalk guides, a reminder that in places like Kleinbasel, some shadows leave their mark forever as long as someone remembers.
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case→
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place.
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax.
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came.
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life.
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy.
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife.
Rising from their graves, the vampiric Amalanhig from the Philippines are after your flesh and blood. But where did these creatures come from?
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink.
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night?
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries.
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407.
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case
