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.
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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.
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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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After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
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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.
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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.
Said to be the mass burial place for the dead Irish Independence rebels from 1798, the Croppie’s Acre in Dublin is said to be haunted by their lingering souls.
Once a green paradise, the legend says the fairies protected the people of Val Gerina valley in the Swiss alps. Driven by greed to impress a woman however, the son meant to continue the tradition and friendship with the fairies, brought it all down.
Haunted by its former Fellows, Trinity College in Dublin is said to be filled with eerie spirits where even the bell tolls after dark when the shadows take over campus.
A true story morphed into a fairytale, the life and death of the French Countess Marie Louise St. Simon-Montleart has become the stuff of legends. Buried in the forest close to Wildegg Castle in Switzerland, it is said she is haunting the castle and the forest, her sanctuary.
Crossing through the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, an urban legend about the ghost of a lady in white is said to have haunted the Belchen Tunnel and was widely known and written about in the 80s. Question is, is she still haunting the tunnel?
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
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
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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.
Said to be the mass burial place for the dead Irish Independence rebels from 1798, the Croppie’s Acre in Dublin is said to be haunted by their lingering souls.
Once a green paradise, the legend says the fairies protected the people of Val Gerina valley in the Swiss alps. Driven by greed to impress a woman however, the son meant to continue the tradition and friendship with the fairies, brought it all down.
Haunted by its former Fellows, Trinity College in Dublin is said to be filled with eerie spirits where even the bell tolls after dark when the shadows take over campus.
A true story morphed into a fairytale, the life and death of the French Countess Marie Louise St. Simon-Montleart has become the stuff of legends. Buried in the forest close to Wildegg Castle in Switzerland, it is said she is haunting the castle and the forest, her sanctuary.
Crossing through the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, an urban legend about the ghost of a lady in white is said to have haunted the Belchen Tunnel and was widely known and written about in the 80s. Question is, is she still haunting the tunnel?
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
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.
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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.
Said to be the mass burial place for the dead Irish Independence rebels from 1798, the Croppie’s Acre in Dublin is said to be haunted by their lingering souls.
Once a green paradise, the legend says the fairies protected the people of Val Gerina valley in the Swiss alps. Driven by greed to impress a woman however, the son meant to continue the tradition and friendship with the fairies, brought it all down.
Haunted by its former Fellows, Trinity College in Dublin is said to be filled with eerie spirits where even the bell tolls after dark when the shadows take over campus.
A true story morphed into a fairytale, the life and death of the French Countess Marie Louise St. Simon-Montleart has become the stuff of legends. Buried in the forest close to Wildegg Castle in Switzerland, it is said she is haunting the castle and the forest, her sanctuary.
Crossing through the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, an urban legend about the ghost of a lady in white is said to have haunted the Belchen Tunnel and was widely known and written about in the 80s. Question is, is she still haunting the tunnel?
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
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.
Said to be the mass burial place for the dead Irish Independence rebels from 1798, the Croppie’s Acre in Dublin is said to be haunted by their lingering souls.
Once a green paradise, the legend says the fairies protected the people of Val Gerina valley in the Swiss alps. Driven by greed to impress a woman however, the son meant to continue the tradition and friendship with the fairies, brought it all down.
Haunted by its former Fellows, Trinity College in Dublin is said to be filled with eerie spirits where even the bell tolls after dark when the shadows take over campus.
A true story morphed into a fairytale, the life and death of the French Countess Marie Louise St. Simon-Montleart has become the stuff of legends. Buried in the forest close to Wildegg Castle in Switzerland, it is said she is haunting the castle and the forest, her sanctuary.
Crossing through the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, an urban legend about the ghost of a lady in white is said to have haunted the Belchen Tunnel and was widely known and written about in the 80s. Question is, is she still haunting the tunnel?
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
Said to haunt several houses around Kleinbasel district in Basel, Switzerland, the terrifying ghost known as The Gray One was roaming the street. Especially in a now demolished house on Claraplatz, two little girls had to endure his persistent haunting.
At the main square of Kleinbasel, today’s bustling Claraplatz hums with the familiar rhythm of city life. The Clara Quarter is Basel’s smallest district. It is named after the Clara Church and the Claraplatz in front of it, which were part of the former St. Clara Convent.Shoppers, commuters, and café patrons pass by without giving a second thought to what once stood on this very ground that is the long-forgotten Abbess’ Court (Äbtissinnenhof), a stately residence rich in history and mystery, whose stones held secrets and whose shadows moved with a life of their own.
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Long before it was demolished in 1951, the Abbess’ Court was known for the unsettling presence said to linger within its walls. The house had a ghost, one so persistent and distinct that it earned a name whispered in townhouses and taverns alike: “Der Graue”, The Gray One.
Abbess Court: Image taken in 1934. In 1938, “progressive circles” attempted to sacrifice the impressive Abbess’ Court, to create jobs. Monument preservation and heritage protection agencies were able to temporarily avert the plan for a time. In the spring of 1951, the Abbess’ Court, one of Kleinbasel’s last particularly valuable architectural monuments, was demolished and redeveloped.
A Spirit in Franconian Garb
The most documented hauntings occurred during the 19th century, when the Schetty family took residence within the halls of the Abbess’ Court. The fire engine commander, Joseph Schetty from a wealthy silk-dyer family, moved into the house with his family. And not long after, the Gray One appeared.
The ghost appeared as a somber figure dressed in traditional Franconian costume with a tricorn hat. His most unsettling feature was the braided wig he wore upon his head, a strange, almost theatrical accessory that made his silent materializations all the more unnerving. His elegant buckled shoes moved ghostly around the house, rattling with chains, his voice only miserable moans echoing through the house and the surrounding neighborhood.
It’s not certain of who this ghost of a man used to be. However, apparently, this house spirit had its roots in the time when Samuel Werenfels gave the Abbess’s Court its baroque appearance in 1748. It also seems that the haunting started way before the Schetty family moved into the house as well.
The Gray One was a creature of habit and, it seems, of unsettling intent. His favorite haunt was the bedroom of the two young Schetty daughters, where he would appear without warning, standing silently in the dim light, a spectral observer from another age.
When he appeared to them in their room, staring at them from the corners, the younger sister would try to hide under the covers, as the oldest screamed pious refrains at the ghost, seemingly offending the ghost who would vanish into thin air when he heard it.
It seemed that the fear he held over the girls slowly subsided. One evening, one of the daughters was sitting in the living room sewing, when a hand was suddenly laid on her shoulder and she said in a stern voice: “Who’s that messing around behind me?”
She knew well that it was the Grey Man. But her fear had turned to anger, and she simply stared at him. This made him disappear, at least for a while.
Rumbles in the Attic from the Gray One
When foul moods overtook him, whether stirred by the behavior of the living or by some ancient grievance now lost to time, The Gray One would retreat to the attic of the house. There, in the dead of night, he made his displeasure known by loud, relentless rumbling that echoed through the house, keeping the Schetty family awake with its strange, otherworldly clatter of chains or moving the furniture around.
These disturbances became so notorious that even Basel’s typically skeptical townsfolk began to murmur about the restless house spirit on Claraplatz.In the end it was decided that they needed to do something to keep him away. According to the legend, they decided to paint a pentagram on the threshold of the house. But did this truly keep him away?
A Legacy of Hauntings
The legend took an even stranger turn after the death of Joseph Schetty, the patriarch of the household that tried to banish the haunting of his daughters when he was alive. It was said that he, too, became bound to the ancient residence after death.
According to one enduring tale, a cleaning maid worked in the house some years later after his death. She claimed to have seen Joseph’s ghost seated solemnly in his old study. The room was empty, and yet there he sat as an unquiet shade amid the flickering lamplight.
She continued cleaning the room, not bothering about his ghost, perhaps thinking it was just a visitor in the study. But when she tried to pull the fur out from under his feet to brush it, he threw it at her with an angry look. Evidently, he wanted to be left alone.
The Spirits Beneath Claraplatz
The Haunted Streets: View from Claraplatz into the lower Rebgasse, on the left the junction with Greifengasse, corner house Greifengasse 1 [Biri restaurant], then houses nos. 3 – 17, in the foreground house Claraplatz 1, factory chimneys in Rappoltshof, on the right Aebtische Hof [no. 3]. Many of them are said to have been haunted by The Gray One.
Though the Abbess’ Court was demolished in 1951, the legends did not entirely vanish with its stones. Locals claimed that, for years after the building’s demise, strange phenomena continued to occur in the vicinity: phantom footsteps, inexplicable knocking, and fleeting glimpses of a gray figure moving in reflections or corner shadows, particularly near the old foundations.
Abbess Court Today
Today, Claraplatz bears little resemblance to its ghostly past as the haunted house was demolished and replaced by a modern residential and commercial building. Modern shops and trams now cover the old ground. But for those attuned to such things, the sense of something lingering, a presence beyond reason and time, occasionally seems to cling to the night air.
Said to be the mass burial place for the dead Irish Independence rebels from 1798, the Croppie’s Acre in Dublin is said to be haunted by their lingering souls.
Once a green paradise, the legend says the fairies protected the people of Val Gerina valley in the Swiss alps. Driven by greed to impress a woman however, the son meant to continue the tradition and friendship with the fairies, brought it all down.
Haunted by its former Fellows, Trinity College in Dublin is said to be filled with eerie spirits where even the bell tolls after dark when the shadows take over campus.
A true story morphed into a fairytale, the life and death of the French Countess Marie Louise St. Simon-Montleart has become the stuff of legends. Buried in the forest close to Wildegg Castle in Switzerland, it is said she is haunting the castle and the forest, her sanctuary.
Crossing through the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, an urban legend about the ghost of a lady in white is said to have haunted the Belchen Tunnel and was widely known and written about in the 80s. Question is, is she still haunting the tunnel?
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
What really happened within the walls at the Crawley family and their grand Monte Cristo Homestead in New South Wales? How come there were so many violent deaths, and is it true they are all haunting the house to this day?
There are many places that warrant being haunted in Australia. In the wilderness of the outback to the mysterious legends from the Aboriginals and the first Europeans sent to the country when it was a prisoner camp. However, few places are as notorious as The Monte Cristo Homestead in New South Wales, Australia is known as one of the most haunted places in the country.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Australia
Visitors have reported eerie experiences, including sightings of ghostly apparitions and unexplained noises. Learn more about the history of this haunted location and the spine-tingling encounters of those who have dared to visit the manor overlooking the town.
The Monte Cristo Homestead: Australia’s most haunted house, steeped in history and ghostly tales.
The History of The Monte Cristo Homestead
The Monte Cristo Homestead was built in 1885 by Christopher William Crawley, a wealthy pioneer. Originally a farmer, he and his Wiradjuri wife, Elizabeth settled close to the Railway line that opened in 1878. They opened a hotel and it was big business. They went from barely getting by to be the top of the social class in town and the wealthiest in the region.
The Crawleys: The ghosts of Christopher and Elizabeth Crawley are believed to haunt Monte Christo Homestead.
The Victorian homestead remained in the Crawley family for over 90 years until it was purchased by Reg and Olive Ryan in 1963 for 1000£. Between the Ryan’s it was left empty for a decade with several caretakers coming and going. Although they tried to watch out for the place, the house was vandalized, the furniture stolen, and it looked like it would decay to ruins. Even the Catholic church refused it as a gift because of how ruined it was.
Instead, the Ryans restored the homestead and opened it to the public for tours as a museum, souvenir shop and antique showcase. When they first moved into the bat-infested house, they had a couple of chairs and air mattresses, but little by little, it was restored to its former glory as the finest house in town.
The House is a Haunted One
However, it wasn’t long before visitors began reporting strange occurrences to the Ryans and their five children, leading to the homestead’s reputation as one of the most haunted places in Australia as they advertised themselves as.
The first sign for the Ryan’s that their new forever home was haunted was one foggy evening when they came from town with supplies. Back then, the house didn’t have any electricity. When they saw light coming out from every door and window in the house they had to stop the car, thinking it was squatters that had moved in. When they got closer, the lights turned off, and when they checked the house, there was no one there.
They tried to explain it away, but over the years, the family noticed a lot of weird things happening they felt had to be a part of the house’s haunted history. When bringing pets, they refused to enter the property and didn’t want to stay in the house. In one of the more extreme cases, they once came home to find all of their chickens and pet parrot strangled to death as well as a litter of kittens who had been murdered.
The Ghosts of The Monte Cristo Homestead
The Monte Cristo Homestead is said to be home to at least ten ghostly inhabitants, including the ghost of a maid who fell to her death from the balcony, a stable boy who was burned alive, and a former caretaker who is said to still roam the halls.
Visitors have reported hearing footsteps, seeing apparitions, and feeling cold spots throughout the homestead. Some have even claimed to have been touched or pushed by unseen forces. Despite its spooky reputation, the Monte Cristo Homestead continues to attract visitors from all over the world since the Ryans opened the house for visitors in the 90s, who are eager to experience its ghostly inhabitants for themselves.
The Ghost of Christopher Crawley
The Monte Cristo Homestead is known for its many ghostly inhabitants, but there are a few rooms that are said to be particularly haunted. The Blue Room, where the former owner of the homestead died, is said to be the most haunted room in the house.
According to rumours, he died from a sudden blood poisoning because his starched collar infected a boil on his neck in 1910. They seemingly looked like any other hardworking victorian couples, but rumors about mistreatment and them being cruel to their servants started spreading.
Over the years, the children of the Ryans have always had a feeling of being watched by an elderly man.
A Night at the haunted house: For years, you could stay at Monte Cristo Homestead to have a look for yourself if there is any truth to the haunted rumors.
The Ghost of Elizabeth Crawley
Also his wife, Elizabeth is said to haunt the manor. She became a recluse after the death of her husband. During the 23 years she lived on after her husband, it was said she only showed herself twice and spent most of her time in the chapel attic. She died when she was 92 of a ruptured appendix.
She is often dubbed the Grey Lady, wearing her black lace dress, lace cap and with a stand up beaded collar and walks through the halls, still treating the house as her own, ruling it with the same strict manner as when she was alive. It is said that she doesn’t particularly like having guests.
It is said she is dressed in all black, carrying a silver cross as she comes out from the little room she converted into a chapel.
The Children Playing
The Nursery is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a child who died. The Crawley had a 10 month old baby named Magdalena or Ethel who died when the nanny dropped her by accident down the stairs in 1917. Or was it actually on purpose as some have speculated? Visitors have reported hearing the sound of a child crying and feeling a cold presence in the room.
The sound of children playing in the mansion’s halls have also been reported together with the flickering lights and sudden drops in temperature.
The Ghost of the Maid
Finally, the Servant’s Quarters are said to be haunted by the ghost of a maid who fell to her death from the balcony on the second floor. It is said that you can still see the bleach stain from when they tried to remove all of the blood. Some say that she was pregnant with Crowleys, and her death was actually a murder to cover it up. Was it actually Elizabeth who pushed her?
Visitors have reported hearing footsteps of a busy maid in the dead of night and some people claim to have seen the ghostly figure of a woman on the balcony.
The Stable Boy
Another servant thought to be haunting the estate was the stable boy named Morris. He slept on a straw mattress that was set on fire after he called in sick for work and he died from the burns. Was it Crawley who wanted to teach him a lesson, or just a spark from a fire nearby?
To this day, it is said you can hear the dying screams from the young stable boy Morris coming from the old Carriage house.
One day, a maid died after giving birth. Harold Steel, who was the son, grew up on the estate. Why was he the illegitimate child of Crawley perhaps? The rumor is speculating about this. Some also say that the maid died much later, and kept her son hidden in the servant cottages.
The Servant Cottages: The original homestead was used as the servant quarters. //island home/Flickr
He got into a carriage accident in Junee and developed a mental illness. This caused him to become aggressive, and they had to chain him in the back of the cottage for more than thirty years. His hair became dreaded and he howled in the night, making the locals believe that it was a creature chained in the house until they put him in an asylum when the authorities discovered him.
Still to this day, some claim they can hear the howling and hissing that Harold used to make coming from the cottages in the night.
The Caretaker
In 1961, Jack Simpson, a caretaker, was shot dead by a boy who was inspired by the movie, Psycho and had seen the movie three times before the murder. The words “Die Jack, ha ha” were carved into the shed door, where they can still be seen today. “
It is said that the caretaker has joined the rank of the ghosts, although not much is found about the murder or if it ever happened at all.
The Enduring Haunting of The Monte Cristo Homestead
Visitors to the Monte Cristo Homestead have reported a range of spine-tingling experiences. Some have reported feeling a heavy presence in certain rooms, while others have heard unexplained noises or seen ghostly figures. Many visitors have reported feeling a sense of unease or fear while exploring the homestead.
What happens not to the Monte Cristo Homestead though? In January 2025, the family closed down the house for visitors because of the passing of Olive Ryan. They said that the Monte Cristo Homestead would never open again on their official Facebook page. Although the the house is now moving into a new phase, many ghost tours and guides want to keep the legacy and the houses history alive together with the ghosts.
Said to be the mass burial place for the dead Irish Independence rebels from 1798, the Croppie’s Acre in Dublin is said to be haunted by their lingering souls.
Once a green paradise, the legend says the fairies protected the people of Val Gerina valley in the Swiss alps. Driven by greed to impress a woman however, the son meant to continue the tradition and friendship with the fairies, brought it all down.
Haunted by its former Fellows, Trinity College in Dublin is said to be filled with eerie spirits where even the bell tolls after dark when the shadows take over campus.
A true story morphed into a fairytale, the life and death of the French Countess Marie Louise St. Simon-Montleart has become the stuff of legends. Buried in the forest close to Wildegg Castle in Switzerland, it is said she is haunting the castle and the forest, her sanctuary.
Crossing through the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, an urban legend about the ghost of a lady in white is said to have haunted the Belchen Tunnel and was widely known and written about in the 80s. Question is, is she still haunting the tunnel?
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
One of the most well known haunted house stories in Hawaii is said to be inside of a mysterious house mostly known as the Kaimuki House. Throughout the decades, tenants and owners have gone through terrible ordeals they all claim is from something supernatural, and that the entity of the house wants to hurt them.
In the quiet neighborhood of Kaimuki, Honolulu, stands a house that has long been the source of fear and whispered legends. Known simply as the Kaimuki House, this unassuming residence harbors a dark and terrifying past that continues to send shivers down the spines of those who dare to recount its story.
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The Kaimuki neighborhood is filled with many older homes where sometimes many generations have never sold once. The houses on the rolling hills between Kapahulu to the west and Kahala to the east was mostly first built in the 1940s, some as early as the 1910s. Today though, many of the original houses has been torn down to give way to newer one.
One of the things that made people move here initially was actually the 1900 Chinatown fire in Honolulu. Many of the Chinese and Asian families who were left homeless made a new start her, and when we have a closer look to the haunted rumors, seems to have brought with them some of the Asian ghost stories as well, and in this case, a spirit from Japanese folklore have taken the center stage of the haunting surrounding the house.
Kaimuki House: Exactly what house in Kaimuki is haunted is up for debate. This is the image mostly used when depicting it, although the original house is said to have been demolished and this duplex built on top of it.
The Murders of the Kaimuki House
At the core of the hauntings there are said murders happened that perhaps was the catalyst for the haunting the next residents would experience throughout the decade. There are actually several supposed murders that were said to happen in the Kaimuki House and started the haunting.
One of the murder legends tells about a father who killed his two children as well as his wife in their home in Kaimuki. The son and the wife’s bodies were later buried in the backyard, but the body of the daughter was never found.
There is also a story about a lesbian couple who moved into the house in Honolulu as a fresh start. One of the women ended up having an affair with a man. The boyfriend then killed both her and her lover before killing himself in the house.
In both of these cases there are not many corroborating evidence for the murders, but are often relayed as facts. What is true though is that playwright Hannah Li-Epstein wrote a play based on the lore of the house called The Kasha of Kaimuki, telling the story of the lesbian couple moved into the house and came face to face with the spirit haunting the ghost in that were in theaters in 2021.
The Young Couple Calling the Police
Some of the more famous stories told about the house reached the newspapers, but people are said to have complained about stuff happening in the house for ages before it ever reached headlines. Before the house reached infamously, it is said that a young couple moved into the house. Not long after the neighbors claimed to have heard a lot of loud bangs and crashes from the house. They thought it could be case of domestic violence and called the police. When the police arrived at the scene though, they met the couple who had another story to tell. According to them, they had been attacked by an unseen force.
Then came the summer of 1942, who brought with it a night of sheer horror that would cement the Kaimuki House’s reputation as one of the most haunted locations in Hawaii. On that fateful evening, of August 13th the police were called to the residence by a hysterical mother at 1:25 am, her voice filled with panic and dread. She pleaded for help, claiming that an evil spirit was in her home, threatening the lives of her children.
When police sergeant Moseley K Cummins and patrolman Robert Ansteth arrived at the scene, they were met with a scene so chilling that it defied all logic and reason. The Hawaiian children, a boy of 10 with his two sisters of 18 and 20 were on the sofa, screaming. The mother was at their side, waving ti leaves and threw Hawaiian salt at them to rid them of the ghost she thought was attacking them.
She told the police afterward that her son had noticed the smell of ghosts around 10 p.m. The ghost got angry at him for being found out and attacked the boy, then moved on to strangling or choking his sisters.
The mother said that the one to blame was her husband who had left them.
Over an hour passed and the police and family had to leave the house to kahuna at 3 a.m, leaving the family at the sister of the mother.
The debacle held the neighbors awake and even made the news in Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The story and article grew, and so did the exaggerations of what really happened there that night. In later years the legend of the haunted house often claims that the children were thrown around, levitated and the spirit are even said to have slapped both the children and police officers. Some sources even claim that the children died of their injuries.
The Rented Haunted House
In 1967 there appeared an ad in the Honolulu Advertiser that caught the eyes of many. It was a renting out bedrooms and in Kaimuki there was a 2 bedrooms for 155 dollars a month said to be haunted.
Here, there was not a specific address given either, but now it was truly official. The house in Kaimuki was haunted.
The Next Haunting
Years passed and the neighbors around the house remembered the story vividly and the house was by then considered haunted. Or was it? In neither of the news articles any address was given, but the legends have certainly combined the two.
In 1972, on October the 31st, there was another news article telling about a haunted experience from the house. The editorial was specifically written for Halloween, but was written by Charles Kenn and Rubellite ‘Johnson, two respected Hawaiian historians. So was it really based on facts, or where they just having some Halloween fun?
According to the legend, three girls were sharing the house and yet again the police were called when strange things started happening there.
A patrol car arrived late at night to the house as the girls had heard strange noises inside of the house. It sounded like someone was moving around and talking, one of them had even felt a hand on her arm.
They were so scared and didn’t want to stay in the house a moment longer, making the police follow behind their car to one of the girl’s mothers in Papakolea.
As they were driving down Waialae Avenue, the girls pulled the car into the parking lot of the Oasis Cafe. Today the place is where the public storage on Waialae and Kapahulu is.
According to the police report, the girl sitting in the middle of the front seat was said to be fighting off someone. No one could see what, but whatever it was, it was choking her. The policeman jumped out of the car to help, but there was nothing he could do. He said in his report: “A big, strong calloused hand that could not possibly belong to a teenage girl grabbed my arm and twisted it. I radioed for assistance.”
The officer that came to assist thought there would be a fight meeting him at the parking lot. The girls were hysterical and his colleague simply said: “There is a ghost in the car.”
They managed to get the girl who had been choked into the police car and made the girls car follow them. But when they started the car, the motor died and wouldn’t start again. They put her back in the girls car and it immediately started again.
Back on the road they managed to get about five yards before the door of the car belonging to the girls flew up and the choked girl fighting the ghosts fell out on the road. She was tearing at her throat like she was still being choked and the two policemen were not strong enough to pull her hands away.
The police sergeant, a Hawaiian man, remembered what his grandmother had told him to help chase away ghosts. He ran into the cafe and grabbed a handful of Hawaiian salt and a glass of water. He sprayed it on everyone and it seemed to work and the girl got calmer.
The Obake Files Book
In 1994, the American history professor and writer published a story about the legend and really cemented the story about the Kaimuki House as a Hawaiian legend. Although fictional, the book looked at many of the well known ghosts stories from Hawaii and used them as a backdrop. It certainly gave rise to the old legend again and this is were the kasha ghost from Japan comes in.
The Kasha Spirit: An illustration of a Kasha, a spirit from Japanese folklore associated with the haunting tales of the Kaimuki House. Kasha means ‘burning chariot’ and is a Japanese yōkai that steals the corpses of those who have died as a result of accumulating evil deeds.
The Demolition of the Kaimuki House
Now, the original house built in the earlier part of the 1900s are said to have been demolished in 2016. In its place though another house was built on the property, and even to this day, we have people that have stayed in it, claiming to have experienced some of the haunting.
But exactly were is the Kaimuki House? In neither of the accounts the address is mentioned, but many have pointed to it being on the Harding Avenue, more specifically on 8th and Harding. There once was a true murder that happened in the house, but could it really have been the house people talk about?
When ghost teller took a drive with Glen Grant in 1999, who had looked into the case, he pointed to the second to the last house on the left of 2nd Avenue and Harding. According to him, this was the true Kasha House of Kaimuki and he said there might have been a headstone in the back of the house where the ghost from the Kasha story was buried.
Could it be in the same place, only different buildings as time has passed and houses have been torn down and rebuilt during that time? There also used to be houses condemned to build the highway going through there. Could the house have been one of those condemned buildings, and could the haunting have manifested in the neighboring houses in the later tales?
The Kaimuki House Today
The Kaimuki House remains a place of dark mystery, its walls still echoing with the terror of that long-ago night. Over the years, the house has been the subject of numerous reports of paranormal activity. Residents and visitors alike have claimed to hear disembodied voices, see shadowy figures, and feel an overwhelming sense of dread within its confines.
But what about today? According to one blogger, he claims to have lived in the house for a year. According to the blogger, the original house is gone and a bland two-story duplex built there instead.
The blogger named Keith Mann, together with some friends, moved into the brand new, cheap, clean and big place. Although knowing about the legend of the Kaimuki House, the blogger didn’t fill in the blanks that this was the house until changing the address online.
At least five different people approached the blogger when hanging laundry, scared and in disbelief that anyone would live there. According to people around in Kaimuki, no one stayed for more than 3 months after moving in.
Although initially spooked the family upstairs had lived there for some time already and the blogger didn’t want to move anymore. But still, there were some things happening in the house that seemed haunted.
Every night, the blogger would wake up at 4:33 AM, jolted awake to an ice cold room, and the gut telling that something was very wrong. When this happened, the battery powered smoke alarms would beep in unison. The feeling of being watched didn’t stop, even though no one was home. This exact routing happened three times.
Whatever the truth may be, one thing is certain: the Kaimuki House is a place where the boundary between the living and the dead is frighteningly thin. Those who pass by often quicken their steps, unwilling to linger near the site of such inexplicable horror. The house, with its tragic history and ghostly inhabitants, stands as a chilling reminder that some places are best left undisturbed.
Said to be the mass burial place for the dead Irish Independence rebels from 1798, the Croppie’s Acre in Dublin is said to be haunted by their lingering souls.
Once a green paradise, the legend says the fairies protected the people of Val Gerina valley in the Swiss alps. Driven by greed to impress a woman however, the son meant to continue the tradition and friendship with the fairies, brought it all down.
Haunted by its former Fellows, Trinity College in Dublin is said to be filled with eerie spirits where even the bell tolls after dark when the shadows take over campus.
A true story morphed into a fairytale, the life and death of the French Countess Marie Louise St. Simon-Montleart has become the stuff of legends. Buried in the forest close to Wildegg Castle in Switzerland, it is said she is haunting the castle and the forest, her sanctuary.
Crossing through the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, an urban legend about the ghost of a lady in white is said to have haunted the Belchen Tunnel and was widely known and written about in the 80s. Question is, is she still haunting the tunnel?
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
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.
Said to be the mass burial place for the dead Irish Independence rebels from 1798, the Croppie’s Acre in Dublin is said to be haunted by their lingering souls.
Once a green paradise, the legend says the fairies protected the people of Val Gerina valley in the Swiss alps. Driven by greed to impress a woman however, the son meant to continue the tradition and friendship with the fairies, brought it all down.
Haunted by its former Fellows, Trinity College in Dublin is said to be filled with eerie spirits where even the bell tolls after dark when the shadows take over campus.
A true story morphed into a fairytale, the life and death of the French Countess Marie Louise St. Simon-Montleart has become the stuff of legends. Buried in the forest close to Wildegg Castle in Switzerland, it is said she is haunting the castle and the forest, her sanctuary.
Crossing through the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, an urban legend about the ghost of a lady in white is said to have haunted the Belchen Tunnel and was widely known and written about in the 80s. Question is, is she still haunting the tunnel?
After falling to his death trying to escape the debtor’s prison, The Marshalsea Barracks in Dublin, it is said the ghost of Pat Doyle is haunting the remaining walls of the ruins.
Planted to mark the mass grave of plague victims, the Linden Tree in the Aargau valley in Switzerland has become a famous landmark. In the night though, it is said that the ghosts buried underneath it crawls from the ground to haunt as a warning for any oncoming tragedies.
A rebel and freedom fighter for Irish independence is said to haunt his favorite pub, The Brazen Head in Dublin, where it is said he plotted his fight against the English.
The black cat in European folklore is shrouded in mystery and magical lore. From the old parts of Bern, ghost stories of ghostly black cats linger in the shadows, reminding about the old fear the feline specter used to hold over people.
Right outside Basel in Switzerland, the haunted former Rectory in Münchenstein is said to be haunted by one of its former priests.
Mirroring the famous Dance Macabre mural that used to hang on the walls near the Predigerkirche in Basel, it is said that plague victims were buried in the patch of grass outside of the church. Legend has it that when the city needs it, the dead will rise from it in a macabre procession, as a warning of an oncoming disaster.
Where history whispers and shadows reign, the Rathaus in Bern is said to be haunted by a myriad of ghosts. Who are the ghosts lingering in the City Hall after dark?
