Number 54 in Junkerngasse, Bern in Switzerland might be hiding more than just old history and dust. The legends of this long abandoned house just won’t let go with the tale of the Headless Ghost Woman.
Taking a stroll down the eye catching Junkerngasse is like taking a stroll through time. The old architecture of old Bern, Switzerland is all around as the best preserved street in the city. The street was once called Edle Gasse (Noble Lane), and it gives a hint of who used to live here.
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Stately houses with Baroque façades and big garden terraces still give off these noble vibes as you walk along the old street, feeling the fresh air of the Swizz cities in your lungs as well as the old history of the city on your shoulders.
The Haunted Street: Junkerngasse street in the old part of Bern in Switzerland and was once a place were the rich lived. Today many of the old houses still remains, including the abandoned ones.//Photo by: Tony Badwy/wikimedia
The Haunted House on Junkerngasse
Along the noble houses there are prominent families and old money that can be smelled just as well as the wild gardens and decaying houses fight amongst themselves to be noticed. Inside Junkerngasse 54 though, it is said even the old ghosts of a headless ghost woman of the house who still lingers and suddenly makes an appearance.
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Junkerngasse 54 is an abandoned house and has been unoccupied for decades and therefore the legends and rumours of the house are old and plentiful like how it goes with many of the abandoned buildings. Most likely it was always used as a stable for nearby houses like the Von-Wattenwyl-House, but from the outside it looks like a normal residential building. Check out the picture from inside here.
Who started the story of the headless ghost woman originally is still a mystery as the house was built in the middle ages but left empty since the 1800s. Therefore names and faces, facts and dates are muddled.
Headless: The headless ghost woman seems to still lingers in the old parts of Bern.
According to the story however, around twelve and one in the morning the windows of the house opens and the ghost of a headless woman appears, laughing, creeping out anyone that catches a glimpse of her and is walking past.
There are also tales of a woman in black that seems to be walking through the rooms of the house. If this is suppose to be the same ghost as the headless ghost woman, or another additional ghost is unsure.
Das Gespensterhaus The Movie
Das Gespensterhaus (The Haunted House) is a film directed by Franz Schnyder . The horror comedy was filmed in Bern and Zurich in the spring of 1942 and premiered in Bern on August 28. One of the location of filming the movie was in Junkerngasse 54. It was based on Uli Wichelegger’s novel The Ghost House: A Story from the City of Bern.
The movie was set in the old town of Bern there is an abandoned house that is said to be haunted by deceased residents. The new journalist Rico Häberli receives the order from the editor Oppliger to scout out the house. He spends a night in the building and discovers a ghost. Together with the young owner of the house, he tries to get to the bottom of the matter.
Minxiong haunted house, otherwise known as the Liu Mansion is located In the Taiwanese countryside and the old baroque mansion left abandoned and decayed by weather and time. And after being abandoned by the owners, rumours of ghosts started to be told and the mansion is one of the well known haunted places around.
On the serene countryside of Taiwan, amidst rice fields and forest, a mansion is left abandoned between the Banyan trees that have soon claimed the mansion as its own. The majestic red brick building must have been beautiful when first built, but now, it only holds the mysterious charm that old ruins have with its secrets and signs of the passing of time.
The Baroque styled house, also known as the old Lui Family Mansion (劉家古宅民雄鬼屋) is located in Chiayi, southwestern Taiwan. It’s a hot and humid climate, but the story surrounding this house is a chilling one. The Minxiong Mansion is an eerie place, so forlorn, but famous as it is considered Taiwan’s most famous haunted place. A fact especially seen during ghost month were visitors flock to the site to catch a glimt of something paranormal going on in the quiet countryside.
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The Haunted Minxiong Mansion
So what is it about the house that make people claim it is haunted one? A lot of factors have contributed to its rumour of Minxiong Mansion being haunted. Firstly, It’s located along a road with a graveyard close on either side. This has made drivers vary about driving pass for a long time.
The house is also today in a constant state of decay as no one is really paying any attention to it, and the old and dangerous ruins of the house turns out to be a perfect setting one. Then finally, there is the local legend about the house being haunted and cursed from the start. According to this one legend, the one who built it placed some sort of a charm or spell in the house in secret, making everyone living there hear strange noises, footsteps and unexplainable sounds. Who built it though and why it was cursed never really makes it into this particular legend though.
So who used to live there when it was first built? The three storey house was built in 1929 by Liu Rongyu (劉溶裕), a local businessman and landowner. The baroque architecture the house was built in was very in style with the wealthy merchants in Taiwan at that time.
Liu Rongyu had seven children and wanted somewhere peaceful and quiet to enjoy the countryside and the grandchildren that would follow. But not long after the building was complete, the mansion was completely abandoned, and the owners never came back in the 1950s. And so, the legends about it being haunted started creeping into the once beautiful family mansion.
The Maid in the Haunted Well
Local legends have a lot to say about the reasons the family left Minxiong haunted house. Was it just because of the remote location? The building was so far from everything and an inconvenient place to commute back and forth from work that maybe the family would rather relocate to the city? Or is it something about the story that has been told about the maid?
The Haunted Well: The allegedly haunted well that can still be found on the property of Minxiong haunted house. It reminds a lot of the ghost story of Okiku who was also a maid that drowned herself in the well on the estate.// Photo: Koala0090, source.
One of the legends about the place, we find a more disturbing reason for the abrupt escape from the mansion. In the surrounding garden from the house there is an old well sealed shut that no longer is filled with water. And from this particular well, the legends of this house seeps through the cracks of the dried up well.
It is said one of the maids of the house had an affair with the man of the Minxiong Mansion. When the story came out, she ended up jumping to her death in the well that can be found outside.
Some versions of the story tell that the wife found out about the affair and tormented the maid, both mentally and in some accounts even physically, until she couldn’t take it anymore and ended her life by drowning herself in the well. But the story didn’t end with the tragic death of the young maid though, and the maid came back for revenge against the masters of the house. As a spirit she returned to torment the family who had tormented her. Every night her ghost terrorized the family until they packed up their things and left to never return.
In the following years the visitors coming at night to the abandoned building were also haunted. And so many have been rumoured to be struck by bad luck or even illness, taking their life as the vengeful ghost still haunts the grounds. Especially the soldiers of more than one army have been allegedly chased away by the ghost.
For more ghosts haunting the wells, check out some of our other stories in the MoonMausoleum:
The tale of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, The Dish Mansion at Banchō) is a well known Japanese ghost story (kaidan). It was popularized in the kabuki theater tradition, and lives on in popular culture and folklore alike.
The story of the maid has been said to be nothing but gossip and false lies several times, and the Liu family themselves are tired to hear about the strange stories surrounding their old family home. But the following strange happenings after the family left the Minxiong Mansion helps keep the story of the alleged curse of the house.
During the time the Minxiong haunted house was built and the family lived there, the island of Taiwan was under Japanese rule (1895-1945) that could factor into the story. During this time business flourished after the Japanese built up the city of Chiayi after a devastating earthquake in 1906. At the time, this was the fourth biggest city in all of Taiwan. Perhaps that was not the case after the Japanese left and could that be some of the reasons that the Liu family eventually left the Chiayi countryside?
The more rational explanation would perhaps be that the Liu family simply relocated themselves for business reasons by moving downtown in Chiayi City, something that the family itself have expressed on multiple occasions although it doesn’t fit well with the rumours of the Minxiong Mansion being haunted.
There also has been stories about the Japanese army opening gunfire around Minxiong haunted house for no apparent reason when the Japanese army temporarily stayed there, ending in killing innocent soldiers in the crossfires. Who or what did they think they saw in the dark and remote old mansion? The story about the killed soldiers in the mansion have not been verified as a historical fact, and is more told as an anecdote. Verified or not, several holes in the walls from what appears to be from gunfire can be seen still to this day, making one wonder who and why they were fired.
The Strange Deaths of KMT Soldiers
A few years later after the Japanese army also left the mansion was occupied by the KMT (Kuomintang of China) the Chinese nationalist party of Taiwan, which in fact is officially known as Republic of China (ROC) came into power in 1949. By this time, parts of the Minxiong haunted house had already been damaged during bomb raids by the American army during the second world war and the interior of the house had been stripped away to build the nearby schools. You could say that the place already looked a little haunted.
Some soldiers from the KMT were stationed at the house in 1949. At this time there was no electricity and the Minxiong Mansion and the grounds around were completely left in darkness during night time, something the soldiers themselves refused to endure. There were several complaints from the KMT soldiers about seeing a ghost floating outside their window, demanding they had to put up electricity to fight the darkness they thought surrounded them in the house.
Minxiong Haunted Mansion: Entrance to the Old Liu Family Mansion still have visitors, although no one have lived there for ages. Now, it seems to belong to nature and the wild. It is now mainly visitors that are in search for the paranormal and to try to spook each other that visits.// Source/Flickr
Here, a string of deaths started to give fire to the haunted house rumours. According to the rumours of the deaths it was either that the KMT soldiers residing there got sick and died or on other accounts, thought to be suicides. All of this made the mansion get a reputation as haunted.
But also here, we have some counter intelligence that tells another story and although not haunted it is a tragic one. According to the other version many of the soldiers stationed there suffered badly from homesickness to their mainland China that in turn drove them to kill themselves on this foreign land so far from home.
Minxiong Haunted House Movie From 2022
In 2022, it was even made a movie about the place and based on the urban legends surrounding the mansion called Minxiong Haunted House(民雄鬼屋). It didn’t really do so well in the box office, but it certainly renewed the interest for the old haunted ghost mansion.
The story is set to the Minxiong Mansion where a mother goes looking for her daughter who goes missing inside the old mansion. They go there during the Qingming Festival to visits the tomb at Chiayi Minxiong Cemetery when her daughter disappears. And on her search for her daughter, she ends up encountering the ghosts within the mansion and has to deal with a haunting past as well.
Minxiong Haunted House: Poster from the 2022 movie called Minxiong Haunted House about the Liu Mansion. The movie is based on the many legends and myths that the ghost mansion has acquired over the years it has been left abandoned. Photo: Disney+
Hauntings During Ghost Month
The story of the Minxiong Mansion continues to inspire and attract visitors, especially during ghost month when people flock to try to see a ghost or two at the old Lui Family Mansion that never seems to rid itself of its haunted reputation.
Ghost Month: Traditionally, that ghosts haunt the island of Taiwan for the entire seventh lunar month, known as Ghost Month. The first day is marked by opening the gate of a temple, symbolizing the gates of hell. On the twelfth day, lamps on the main altar are lit. On the thirteenth day, a procession of lanterns is held. On the fourteenth day, a parade is held for releasing water lanterns. Incense, food and spirit paper money are offered to the spirits to deter them from visiting homes. During the month, people avoid surgery, buying cars, swimming, moving house, marrying, whistling and going out or taking pictures after dark. It is also important that addresses are not revealed to the ghosts.//Photo: mahe haroutinian on Pexels.com
Every year, especially in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, or Ghost Month, the Minxiong haunted house gets plenty of visitors. The floors of the house have long collapsed, and the red bricked walls has started to crumble, soon it will perhaps disappear completely.
Any plans to restore the haunted and decaying house have long been rejected by the Liu family as they want nothing to do with it anymore. The Minxiong Mansion will soon be taken by the forest and swallowed whole, unable to reveal the truth of what actually happened at the manor.
One of the more well known Icelandic ghost stories that are told over the cold and desolate island, is the haunted hut in the middle of nowhere. Here the ghost of a lady in gray is haunting the place. This is the story of Hvítárnes hut, one of the most haunted places in Iceland.
South on the Island of Iceland a small hut is placed on a field in the middle of nowhere. From it you can look far into the distance in every direction, nature, beautiful nature, lonesome nature that in the winter turns pitch black. And the legends surrounding the Hvítárnes hut, is of the paranormal sort.
The Icelandic Touring Association built the lodge in 1930 for a place off the road were one could be in peace in the southern highlands of Iceland. The turf roofed hut is protected by Icelandic law because of its old age and uniqueness. The hut is the oldest mountain hut owned and operated by the Ferðafélag Íslands, The Iceland Touring Association.
The hut, the name of it meaning white is far from everything else and the closest neighbour to the hut is some old farm ruins in the distance. Farming was a way of living here in the old days, although, no one lives there all year today, and the only true neighbours are the echos from the surrounding mountains.
The Haunted Hut In solitude: Hvítárnes hut in the wild is one of the most well known icelandic ghost stories. There are stories about a woman haunting the little hut in the wilderness and many of the guests have felt her presence.
To the north towers Iceland’s second largest glacier, Langjökull over the horizon, always reminding the passing summer there is a cold winter after it that will take over the landscape. In the winter, storms can havock the highlands for days, making the area harsh in the winter, and green in the brief summer.
The Most Haunted Place in Iceland
Today it’s those fond of nature and solitude that are drawn to this place, to Hvítárnes hut. The hut has two floors and room to 30 persons in bunk beds with a warden watching the place during the summer months. The kitchen is narrow, but has running cold water and a gas oven and the toilet is outside. In other words, the Hvítárnes hut is a place for people seeking something simpler. Although, perhaps the rumours and legends of ghosts are not really a part of that simple life.
Hvítárnes hut is said to be one of the most haunted places in Iceland, and that is saying something for a country so steeped in the supernatural ways and legends. Since Hvítárnes hut was built, the hut has had complaints about something lurking, howling as the winter storms outside, although no one can really pinpoint exactly where or from who the howling is coming from.
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Story goes that when guests arrive late at night, maybe coming down from hiking the ancient Kjölur hiking trail, they have vividly seen the face of a woman inside the hut through the window, expecting to meet her when entering. But once inside, there is no one but the gathering dust and coldness of solitude. However, as the short days and long nights in Hvítárnes hut passes, the ghost of this female present won’t leave the guests alone.
The Ghost of the Woman in the Window
According to the stories, the ghost of this mysterious woman you can see through the window, is refusing the guests to get a good night sleep after a long day in the wilderness and she is persistent in making her presence become known for the guests.
What she does varies, but it is often during their sleep they can feel her presence. She is been known to almost sit on top of people chests, pressing them down so that they are unable to breathe as well as being haunted by horrible nightmares.
Sometimes she even kicks them out of the many bunk beds they were assigned to. There are particular male guests that have been tormented, some even driven out from the warm hut out in the freezing cold because of the fear of what the ghost of the woman are capable of.
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There is especially this one bed in the hut that are rumoured to be the most haunted one, and if you are so unlucky to be placed on it, try to move or accept that you might not get a good nights sleep. According to the stories no one are able to get a good rest on the bed and it’s nicknamed the ‘ghost bunk’ or ‘her bed’. The bed is placed on the opposite way than the rest of the beds by the door, so it’s easy to see if you got the short end of the stick.
The Ghost in the Window: According to many of the guests staying at the hut, they claim to have seen a woman in the window. Many also reports of having their sleep disturbed by something paranormal. Who can she be, is there really a ghost haunting this place?
In all lodges with a long history as this and as many guests passing by, there must be a guest book. Guest Books are meant to leave nice messages about your stay, how the weather was, and how the days went by in the little hut. And in this one, countless of frightened visitors have scribble down how they slept in their car instead, or didn’t get a single minute of sleep because of the hauntings. Someone just scribbling down the word: Ghost. This is a very old entry as well, and it shows that the hut has been deemed haunted for a very long time.
Who is the Ghost Haunting Hvítárnes Hut
There are several theories of who this girl can be. The building was built for travellers, and no one ever lived in the hut. Perhaps it is a lost traveller that disappeared a long time ago, trying to seek shelter. Perhaps there is something about the ruins of the farm that can shed some light of this?
Just a stone throw away from the hut there have been discovered traces of the ruins of a village, at least settlements called Tjarnarkot. Could the ghost be from this time? It is said to have been inhabited as soon as Iceland was discovered, but after Hekla, the volcano erupted around 1104, the place was deserted. Was it before this? Was it after? Was it ever?
There are many theories of who she could be, and they are almost all linked to the farm ruins nearby. Some claim that there was a girl working for the farmer and his wife once upon a time. The farmer tried to sleep with the girl once, but she refused him. Angered by her refusal, he locked her outside in a snowstorm, which around these parts can rage for days. She died in the snowstorm. But the farmer didn’t live long after as his wife killed him to avenge the poor girl that was under their care.
A Country of Fairy Tales: Iceland is a highly superstitious country. Here is a little cottage made for the fairies they believe lives on the island. There are plenty of places were they think these supernatural creatures lives, and they even have the modern infrastructure like making roads go around so not to disturb them.
Another theory of what happened is that she was the farmers wife, and her husband cut of her arm and drowned her in a lake nearby. Another is that she died after being left by him while pregnant. Classic tales of female ghosts in these icelandic ghost stories. All trying to explain why she mostly goes after male guests.
Whoever she is, she refuses to leave. In 1996, there was a priest named Björn H. Jónsson that blessed the hut, but to no avail, she won’t leave Hvítárnes hut. Books, podcasts, the news and paranormal researchers of icelandic ghost stories have tried and failed to find her identity or proof of her existence for years. And she is not likely to be leaving anytime soon. She has been her long before the guests started arriving at the hut, and she will be staying long after they have gone.
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.
