Deep in the Valencian mountains in Spain you will find the abandoned town La Cornudilla. According to the rumors, the villagers were haunted for years and it was so intense they decided to leave it completely. Today, the ghost town have nothing but ghosts living there.
Spain is home to a plethora of haunted abandoned towns tucked up on the mountainsides and deep in the forests, far from the bustling cities closer to the coast. These ghost towns are believed to be haunted by the ghosts of their former residents, and some believe that these ghosts still linger in the shadows of these forgotten places.
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The stories of these haunted abandoned towns in Spain continue to fascinate people from all walks of life as you see the abandoned buildings that no one lives in anymore. At least, not any living things anyway.
From mysterious disappearances to inexplicable noises, there are plenty of tales that surround these eerie locations. La Cornudilla is said to be a haunted town between the towns of Requena and Utiel in the Province of Valencia.
It is located in deep the hills of the Sierra de Los Visos or La Ceja and today it is abandoned and according to legend the place is haunted even before the people left it.
The Ghosts that Drove the People out of Town
Most haunted towns became haunted first after the people left it and the silence left were filled with ghost stories. La Cornudilla town was a bit different though as the haunted rumors started before the people left. Together with the lack of drinking water, electricity and other things for the modern world, it is said that a series of paranormal events drove the people out of town.
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According to the villagers, they heard voices and screams around La Cornudilla up to the end of 1950s and the villagers couldn’t even sleep, the sounds were so intense. There were however no one that could find out why or from where the sounds came from.
In the middle of the night they kept hearing the sound of children crying and chains clanking, and eventually the fear ate the town up and the people left it.
In the end the strange noises in La Cornudilla stopped except in one place, called The House of Noises that plagued the entire village. Today the house is just a rubble of ruins and stones, but people still claim to hear strange noises coming from it according to those visiting the ruins.
Why Did the Town Become Haunted?
So why did this quaint little town tucked in the mountains in Spain suddenly become haunted without any explanation? The fact that the town didn’t have modern electricity, were far off from the rest of the civilisation and lacking drinking water certainly contributed to people packing up their things and leaving for other opportunities in the cities.
Still, the legend about the town being haunted persists. Some people believe the strange things happening is because of the Arab cemetery that was already there where La Cornudilla village was built.
Could the disturbed souls from the cemetery that used to be there be a contributing factor for the intense poltergeist activity the villagers of La Cornudilla experienced and eventually drove them from their homes?
In the foggy mountains in northern Spain you find the abandoned town of La Mussara. It is said that people have disappeared into the fog, perhaps been transported to another place. There are also those visiting claiming to hear ringing from the empty bell tower.
Mother, if you give me a husband Don’t give him to me from La Mussara There is always fog there And I don’t like the soil – Local chant
Spain is home to a haunted and abandoned town, where the ghosts of its former inhabitants still linger. It is an eerie reminder of a once thriving community that has now been left to decay and where nature now is claiming everything back.
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The abandoned town in Spain has become a popular destination for thrill-seekers looking for a unique experience. But it’s also an important reminder of how quickly our lives can change, and how even those who have lived in one place for centuries can suddenly be gone without a trace. But what happened to the La Mussara town, and what are the ghostly legends surrounding it?
The Abandoned Town in La Mussara
Northern Spain has some fantastic hiking routes and a wonderful nature to experience. One of these hikes will take you through the abandoned town of La Mussara in the Prades Mountains. It is also a mysterious town at 995 meters above sea level that is said to have swallowed up the people that used to live there.
La Mussara Abandoned Town: The ghost town found in the La Mussara mountains are now mostly in ruins as the last residents moved ages ago. Here from one of the walls from the former church.//Source//Jordi Gili/Wikimedia
La Mussara Mountain in Tarragona is a mysterious place tucked away in the mountains of Catalonia. The mountain was named after the abandoned ghost town that was deserted in 1959 in the range.
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Why was the town abandoned though? The place has been settled perhaps since Saracen times, perhaps even as far back as the bronze age. In 1857, there were 323 people living there, far from the rest of the world, tending to their farms. Some say it was because of the insects that destroyed the local vineyards and the inhabitants livelihood that made people leave. It was also far from drinking water and the rest of society. There are those that claim something strange is the reason for its abandonment though. According to some, people left because they knew the town was doomed.
The Rocks That Takes People Away – La Piedra del 6
People also claim this is a place where strange things like time jumps happen and where people just disappear without a trace. According to local legend, there is a giant rock in the village called La Piedra del 6 next to a farmhouse.
Historically, Muslim armies area said to have marched through Mussara, a name derived from the term meaning “the place to march.” As these forces made their way toward the valley below, they routinely paused at the Sixth Stone. It was believed that this stone possessed magical properties capable of aiding them in overcoming their adversaries in forthcoming battles.
It is said if you jump over La Piedra del 6 you will be transported to another dimension and lost forever in the worst case. Some claim that you will get transported to another town, some call it Vila del Sis, some claim it is another place in the USA you get transported to.
The Missing People in the Fog
Over the years several people have gone missing from La Mussara after visiting and haven’t left a trace. The writer Lorenzo Fernandez Bueno claims in one of his books that features the abandoned town, that the number of disappearances is much higher in these parts than in the rest of the country.
What happened to those taken away is unknown but the legend coming from the locals, says there is a mysterious fog that covers the countryside around the town, like opening a gateway to another dimension or world. The hikers and visitors have according to this been swallowed and transported because of this fog.
The Strange Fog: One of the things people claim is that it suddenly appears a strange fog were people just disappears into and never comes back.
This is something often called the Peluda, a meteorological phenomenon happening through January and February were a thick and white fog wells over the mountain range between Tossal Gros, Miramar and Torre del Petrol mountain. Could it be a supernatural fog as the legends claim as well?
The Disappearance of Enrique Martinez Ortiz
One example of a mysterious disappearance was the case of Enrique Marinez Ortiz, a 37-year old man who disappeared in the area on October 16 in 1991. He was with a group of friends picking mushrooms and walked past where the TV-antennas are. Some sources claim that the group had passed the rock to investigate, and his friend, Jorge, had talked about the magical and mysterious rumors of it all and all but one had touched the stone. How true that is, is not sure though, as they had been to this area many times before and knew it well.
The Disappearance of Enrique: After he disappeared and the strange details of the case were revealed, the area saw an influx of paranormal researchers and those interested in the occult.
They were walking and talking 300 meters from the television repeater when one of the friends asked Enrique a question. When he didn’t answer, the friend turned and saw he had disappeared, leaving only a wicker basket with a mushroom inside.
They searched for days and even brought in 200 soldiers from Los Castillejos to completely sweep the era. They didn’t find a single trace. It has ever since joined the mystery of the town and the surrounding area. As the years went by and no answers have been given, there have come up many legends about this case. Did they all touch the stone? Did it have something to do with the strange fog?
Months later, in January 1992, Jorge, who was one of Enrique’s friends that was present when he disappeared, went to the Tarragona courts. He wanted to speak to the judge and was very worried and upset as he had experienced something he couldn’t explain.
The three friends who had accompanied Enrique when he disappeared had returned to La Mussara. Around midnight, they heard a noise coming from the church of Sant Salvador. They thought it was horse hooves but unsure so they went to investigate.
Once inside they claimed to have seen seven figures in robes wandering around the temple. Suddenly, they disappeared into thin air. How much of it was true, and who they could have been, has also remained a mystery.
The Strange Interference With Electrical Equipment
There is also something weird going on about the electric stuff in the area. And with the case with Enrique who disappeared close to the TV Antennas, people think it is something more.
Because of this, the abandoned town also attracts UFO seekers to peer to the sky in search of the strange object that is rumored to be seen there.
There are also talks about some electromagnetic interferences that have been measured in the abandoned town.
The Bells Ringing from an Empty Belltower
In La Mussara there are around eight buildings still standing. One of them is the remains of the church of San Salvador from the 12th century. The old church has a bell tower from 1859. According to people they claim that they hear the church bell ring, even if the church has been empty for decades.
The Haunted Belltower: Esglèsia de Sant Salvador a La Mussara is the ruins of the church and according to legends, it is said the sound of the bell ringing can be heard in the night..//Source/Wikimedia
People have also said they have heard strange voices coming from the church. They have also said to have seen ghostly figures, perhaps trying to get back from beyond the veil.
The Foggy Haunted Road to La Mussara
Also the road to the town is said to be a haunted stretch. It always seems to be covered in the same fog found in the village surroundings and the wind is constantly howling.
This old road T-704 leads to the ruins of the town of La Mussara now abandoned and looks like the perfect setting for a horror movie and is considered one of the most haunted roads in Spain.
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Also on the roads it is said something strange is happening. Once a German engineer drove through the place in 1995 and claimed to have disappeared for three hours. He reappeared in an unknown place and didn’t know what had happened.
The Legends of La Mussara
The place has had rumors of terrible things for centuries and it is as if the town is cursed. Some say it was just bad luck that made the town deserted. But why would this town be cursed?
There are those that claim this place was a center of satanic rituals and is a cursed place where misfortune happens, and many claim it was just a quaint mountain town where the inhabitants were drawn to the bigger cities.
Now, the only life there is in the Refugi La Mussara, a bunkhouse for hikers as well as supernatural seekers that was built in the 80s. Here you can take refuge from the thick fog that comes down the mountain and swallows you whole. And who knows, perhaps you can hear the faint ringing of the bells from your bunk bed late at night?
Right outside of the abandoned town of Jafra in Spain there are tales about a ghost girl haunting the place called the Ghost Girl on the Curve. After she was chased from the house by her father she was never seen again until she started to appear in front of lost hikers, helping them find their way home.
Nestled amidst the picturesque landscapes of this abandoned Spanish town lies a legend that has intrigued locals and visitors alike for generations.
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The abandoned town is Jafre and right outside it is said a ghost girl appears for hikers sometimes to guide them. She is today called The Girl on the Curve, but before she died she was called Melinda.
The Haunted Town in Garraf Natural Park
Jafre Spain, an abandoned town forgotten within the Garraf Natural Park, is a place of enchanting beauty. Its rolling hills, dense forests, and winding roads create an otherworldly atmosphere that seems to be frozen in time.
Jafre is a Catalonian town that was abandoned in the 1980s or perhaps so far back to the 1960s according to some, and left beyond only ruins of the village, legends of murderers, mysteries and ghosts.
Garraf Natural Park: The Ghost Girl on the Curve is said to haunt the Garraf Natural Park, outside of the abandoned town of Jafre in Catalonia, Spain. She is said to guide lost hikers back on their paths.//Source//joan ggk/wikimedia
From a distance, the park’s dense foliage appears as a dark, foreboding mass, casting an eerie shadow over the landscape. As you approach, the twisted branches and gnarled trees seem to take on a life of their own, whispering secrets to those who dare to listen. It is within this hauntingly beautiful setting that the legend of the Ghost Girl on the Curve unfolds.
Locals believe that the park is inhabited by restless spirits, trapped between this world and the next. The air is thick with an inexplicable energy, and visitors often report strange sensations and unexplained phenomena. It is within this ethereal landscape that the Ghost Girl on the Curve is said to roam, forever trapped in her tragic fate.
The Legend of the Ghost Girl
Once, a wealthy Austrian family moved there a century ago with three children. They moved into an abandoned farmhouse a bit outside of the town, and seemed to have a lot of money.
The father spent the next three years building a huge garden for them to play in. It had a huge maze of trees and shrubs. No one from the outside was allowed to enter. The children suffered from a skin disease and the parents didn’t want anyone to see them.
Time went by and a fourth child named Melinda was born in the farmhouse and her mother died that very night. The three older children were also dying one by one because of this unspecified skin disease. Some of the darker rumors were that the father was poisoning the children with frog soup.
Both the garderes and household workers in the big house of the Austrian family started leaving one by one as the father started to behave strangely, bordering on a maniac at times, and he kept getting worse.
The Farmhouse Outside of Jafre: The family is said to have lived in one of the many farmhouses close to the abandoned town. Melinda was the daughter that is remembered as the ghost girl on the curve that haunts the national park. Today they are mostly left to ruins. Source//Clemens Schmillen/Wikimedia
In the end all was dead or had left the house except Melinda and her father. Because he had lost almost his entire family is said to be the reason why he slowly lost his mind completely.
We don’t have much info about what happened inside of the old farmhouse once everyone left, but we do know it ended in tragedy. Melinda was six years old when one October fled to the garden with her father following her, chasing her. According to the legend she fell into a well in the garden and both she and her father were never seen again.
The Girl on the Curve
After this, the ghost of little Melinda has been reported to appear in the forest, helping lost hikers and visitors finding their way. People have also said that Melinda can be seen on the curves of the winding pathways in Garraf National park, which have given her the name, The Ghost Girl on the Curve.
Reports of encounters with the Ghost Girl on the Curve have been documented throughout history. Witnesses describe a young girl in a flowing white dress, her ethereal form glowing in the moonlight. Her eyes, filled with sorrow and longing, seem to pierce through the veil of reality, leaving those who see her in a state of awe and terror. Some claim to have heard her plaintive cries, carried on the cold night breeze, echoing through the trees.
More Than a Ghost Haunting Jafre
The girl is not the only thing that is said to haunt the abandoned town of Jafre though. Several claims of UFO’s have also been called in as in several of the other abandoned cities across Spain.
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There are also rumors about black masses happening in the town filled with the spirits. It is even a rumor about them desecrating the cemetery where they dug out the bones buried there and scattered them across the town.
The Enduring Mystery of the Ghost Girl on the Curve
The legend about Melinda or the Girl on the Curve continues to captivate the hearts and minds of those who dare to venture into the Garraf Natural Park.
Is the Ghost Girl a figment of collective imagination, a product of the human need for the supernatural? Or is she a real manifestation of a tragic soul, forever trapped in the realms between life and death?
Discover spooky tales and legendary ghost stories from Greoux-les-Bains, France. Tales from the haunted castle of the knight templar are said to be plentiful and the entire historic town is rumored to be haunted.
Gréoux-les-Bains in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in France is not for the faint of heart. It dubbed itself as a picturesque Provençal town known for its therapeutic thermal mineral water and the old building of Château des Templiers.
The old fortress town in southeastern France has certainly been a significant place in France during the course of history and a lot of bloody, tragic and events have scarred the place over the years. Even healthy mineral water has been unable to cure.
Greoux-les-Bains is a mountain town located in Provence, France. Not only is it famous for its thermal baths and Roman ruins, but it is also home to many tales of hauntings and mysterious encounters. Many of the stories involve old castles that still stand around the area, as well as other haunted locations throughout the region.
The Haunted Town of Greoux-les-Bains
For centuries, this small town has been home to a multitude of eerie tales and haunted locations. From empty castles to spooky cemeteries, there’s no shortage of places to explore in search of paranormal activity, and Greoux-les-Bains is said to have all this.
But where do these ghosts really reside? People say that you can encounter a haunting in every street in the town, but there is especially one place that is said to have a paranormal aura bigger than other buildings.
The Haunted Château des Templiers
The most well known place in Greoux-les-Bains is the Château des Templiers, or the castle of the knight templars, often remembered as a mysterious group of knights who traveled far away and ended up coming back with many secrets of the occult.
Located by the right bank of the river Verdon is the castle that once belonged to the knight templars where it got its name from. The castle which is the third largest in the region was built in the 12th or the 13th century and today the square courtyard is now a place where they host shows and concerts. But it is also the place they say has the most paranormal activity attached to it.
People that have taken a nighttime stroll on top of the hill close to the stronghold claim that they have heard whispers from the shadows belonging to no one, and there has even been spotted one or two shadows over the stone walls that didn’t have any real body attached to it.
In a former foundry village at Bærums Verk in Norway, they have experienced strange hauntings since the the founder of the place died there. Phones calls in the dead of the night and ghostly figures have been spotted for a long time.
Norway is perhaps remembered as two things. Either as the savage Vikings, plundering Europe and beyond, or they are perhaps remembered as this rich oil country of today. Most often, perhaps not remembered at all, were it sits at the edge of the world. But few people know of the dark times in between.
It was only in the 50’s and 60’s that the country grew in wealth, and before that, it was one of Europe poorest countries. So centuries with coldness, starvation and ghosts. The folk lore is still thriving and the ghosts of the past, lurking around the corners, in between the walls, and inside the houses and homes.
Bærums Verk: The little village of Bærums Verk in Norway still stands as an old foundry settlement, and is an active place, both as a place to work, and as a place to live. It is also said it’s an active place for ghost visitations./Wikimedia
On a very un-scary place like Bærums Verk, a village east in Norway, the quaint streets and not the most busy city life in Oslo not far from it, we find one of the country’s most haunted place along the river and mountains were it is built. Between the old wooden walls of the ancient houses creeks the history from the many lives that walked through this place since it was first built in the 1600s when it was found iron ore there.
The ghostly tales of the Bærums Verk are many and it’s supposedly haunted by more than one ghost. According to the stories, dogs refuse to go into certain rooms in the old buildings. There are steps and doors creaking when no one is using them. Doors that never wants to open, even when you have the key.
Read More: All our ghost stories about Haunted Towns from around the world.
The Times Were Changing
Norway is perhaps not very known for their factory and mining, but at the birth of the industrial revolution, the tall mountains were hacked into and the gushing waterfalls harvested to use as energy. The grouping of people changes from being a small farming country to taking its first steps into the modern world.
Conrad Clausen: The former owner of the foundry Bærums Verk and the one that expanded it and made it as big as it became. /Wikimedia
Going from being a country spread out on small farms and along the coast, they grouped together inland to work the land, hack into the mountains and train the water to make their bidding.
Some of these communities from the start of the industrial revolution are alive and thriving today, like at Bærums Verk were people still live and work, long after the iron foundry the settlement was founded on closed. And so does the ghosts of the past as well if we are to believe the rumors.
So who is the one said to haunt the entire place? One of the supposed ghosts said to still roam the place has been there from the very beginning.
The legend wants to tell of the former owner of Bærums Verk, Conrad Clausen haunts the street called Verksgata. At least he is one of the ghosts, and according to the workers and people living there, there are a lot of them.
But back to Conrad. He was only a young guy when the whole place fell on his shoulders. He took over the iron foundry in 1773 at 18 years old. In those time, small villages for the workers was often built around foundry like what happened at Bærums Verk, a lot of the little villages still standing to this day.
Clausen gave all of his life and his energy to the place were he lived and worked. Even if his life was going to be a very short one. Only at the age of 31 he died in his bedroom. The same bedroom now operating as a meeting room for people working there today, now that the foundry is turned into a shopping mall.
Ghosts on the Phones at Bærums Verk
Typical, isn’t it? A young man dies too soon, steps in the night, creaking of the doors and sceptical dogs to watch over his life work. But perhaps the strangest with the haunting must be the phones acting up at Bærums Verk.
It is the middle of the night, a very dark and desolate nordic night. No one is at work at Bærums Verk yet, no one is there to answer the phones. No one is up to make a call to them. But still, the phones are ringing. The people employed in the offices of the shopping mall, where Clausen lived, claims that phones calls constantly during the night. To the same time, quarter past twelve or quarter past one. Depending if it is summer- or winter saving time.
It’s rumored that if you try to take the ghostly phone call it will only answer with a strange beeping sound. Straight after the phone in the room next to will start calling. And then in the room next again. That is how it continues through the whole building during the nights.
Why haven’t the people working at Bærums Verk just called the telephone company to have it fixed? Answer is, they have, several times but no one seems to be able to figure it out. Who is making the calls and how is it possible to not trace them? The leader of the shopping mall, Gry Skådinn told the local newspaper that it was exactly what the workers at the mall tried to and they have tried to get to the bottom of this mystery for ages.
“When we get into work in the morning, the whole switchboard is blinking away.”
But when the telephone company comes to fix the whole thing and explain it all, only more questions rose.
“Before I started here, we found that the phone signals came from the lunch rooms. That was back in the day the bedroom of Conrad Clausen, and were he died,” Skådinn says as if that is the final answer to this mystery and the only explanation.
The Woman in Green at the Tavern
The ghost of Conrad Carlsen is not the only reported ghost, haunting this settlement of iron workers. On the oldest tavern in the country found at Bærums Verk, there are also been reported many cases of unusual happenings. Bærums verk has become somewhat of a cultural place to preserve olden times that used to be. That is what the people planned for at least when working at the tavern as they served recipes based on old ones and classical Norwegian food.
The Woman in Green: The imagery in filled with supernatural connotations to folklore of the huldra and Norwegian literature./wikimedia
Perhaps this nostalgic sentiment and keeping the place frozen in time is contributing keeping the ghosts alive here. The buildings at Bærums Verk are protected and will remain as part of the cultural heritage, the smell of the food coming from the tavern, perhaps similar the one the ghosts used to eat when they themselves were alive. In any case, the strange occurrences, like the with the phones to the malls is happening all over the settlement.
So many instances of these strange occurrences have happened in fact that several journalists, ghost tourists, paranormal investigators, mediums and the ghost hunter tv-show in Norway stopped by at Bærums Verk to get a glimpse of it. Most comes back with claims they did.
At the old tavern for instance at Bærums Verk, the staff as well as the owners have had trouble dealing with a green clothed woman, a very loaded imagery in Norwegian culture that keep popping up in folklore and fairy-tales.
“It’s just not practical working in the oldest tavern when a ghost in green clothes just walks around,” the owner, Ulla Laycock told the local newspaper.
Laycock and her husband found a way for this impractical haunting work for their advantage though, as they published their book on the persistent hauntings of the place.
The local history team have identified the woman in green as a woman called Anna Paulsdatter Vogt Krefting that died in 1766 after running the foundry for more than 50 years. Perhaps she as well put too much energy into the place to let it go after her death.
The Lady in Green: The ghost that have been called the woman dressed in green is said to be Anna Paulsdatter Vogt Krefting (born 23. mars 1683 in Christiania, død 25. mars 1766 i Bærum)//Source: wikimedia
According to the legend about the ghost of the woman in green though, the people working in the tavern claim that the ghost of Anna Krefting still walks among the guests of the tavern as it fits with her period clothes she’s been observed in.
Living With the Ghosts
“There is a lot in the walls in this place, and it is important to take care of,” the writer of the book, Caroline Paulsberg says about the supposed haunting at Bærums Verk.
It is however interesting how the locals and workers feel about living in the country’s most haunted place, or rather, haunted village. On their own facebook group, they claim that, yes, it is haunted, but they would like to keep them around at Bærums Verk as if they ear a sense of pride of the ghosts still lingering in the small and old buildings. Here, everything is going to be preserved, even the ghosts.
Most of people around haunted places would perhaps not feel the same way at those at Bærums Verk. But according to them, the ghosts are only nice, and they have the same right to be their as the living, having once themselves lived and worked there.
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