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The Ghost Ship SS Valencia

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Rowing in the lifeboats of the wrecked ship SS Valencia, the skeleton remains of the passengers that died are doomed to row the sea for eternity. 

The Valencia was headed out from San Francisco towards Seattle with clear weather with both seasoned crewmembers as well as passengers not necessarily used to the sea. The iron hulled passenger steamer was not a well liked ship to sail with along the Pacific Coast as it was too small and also, too open to the elements that made her difficult to handle in the winter. 

This was in January and the weather was cold. And soon it was going to become another tragedy in the area that is known as ‘The Graveyard of the Pacific’ where almost 70 ships have wrecked in these parts. 

The Wreckage of SS Valencia

When they reached Cape Mendocino outside of San Francisco on the 22. January in 1906, they encountered dense fog and had to slow the speed and sound the whistle as they battled against the fog with the danger of a wind that had turned on them. The ship got off course because of the wind, the current and the fog. Then they ran into rocks right before midnight on the 22 January and the disaster unfolded. 

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The passengers of the ship panicked and rushed to the lifeboats that were so ill handled in all the chaos that few made it to the water and even fewer made it safely. Some of the lifeboats were smashed to the side of the ship, some were lowered too soon, or too late. Several of the lifeboats were never seen again.

They were so close to land, only around 50 meters from the shore, but they couldn’t reach it at all. Stranded at the railing on deck were hundred people with the captain and the remaining crew. 

“Screams of women and children mingled in an awful chorus with the shrieking of the wind, the dash of rain, and the roar of the breakers. As the passengers rushed on deck they were carried away in bunches by the huge waves that seemed as high as the ship’s mastheads. The ship began to break up almost at once and the women and children were lashed to the rigging above the reach of the sea. It was a pitiful sight to see frail women, wearing only night dresses, with bare feet on the freezing ratlines, trying to shield children in their arms from the icy wind and rain.”

– Survivor Chief Freight Clerk Frank Lehn
The Tragedy: Wreck of the en:SS Valencia, seen from one of the rescuing ships on January 23, 1906. So close were they to salvation, both to shore and to the rescue ships, but they never made it home again. // Source: BC Archives

No Hope for Rescue

The remaining people hoped to get rescued, but when the rescue fleet finally arrived, they realized that it was too dangerous to get close to the impaled ship on the rocks with water flooding in the strong current and wind. 

The rest of the night, the ships Salvador, Queen and Topeka could only watch as the ship went down together with the rest of the people onboard. They all either drowned, were killed by getting hit by something on the ship or dying of hypothermia when they landed in the water. 

The Lifeboats: Not many were picked up from the waters that day. Since then, lifeboat manned by skeletons have been reported on from this area. Here are a pictures of the survivors from the SS Valencia being picked up by the SS City of Topeka on January 24, 1906.//Source: University of Washington Digital Collections

Of all the passengers and crew on board, only 37 men survived this tragedy with every woman and child onboard dying. The complete death toll varies, but at least 117 up to 181 people died and it is known to be one of the more tragic wreckage in maritim history. 

The Rowing Skeletons

The remains of the ship was never recovered, but left to its own devices. Some of the remains drifted to shore, finally, and the remains have been left mostly untouched. Outside of the Pachena Beach you can still see it, clinging to the coastline. Not long after the tragedy of the ship, the rumors, the tales and stories started to come from the wreckage. 

The Ghost Ship: Not only the lifeboats, but also the entire ship has been reported on being spotted, years after it sunk to the bottom of the sea. Here are SS Valencia, circa 1905. // Source: BC Archives

When they were transporting the few survivors they found from the wreckage to Seattle, the crew of the ship City of Topeka spotted something unexplained. They stopped to pass the news of Valencia to a passing vessel that came towards them. When it passed them by, they saw that it was in fact the Valencia, the ship that had just sunk to the bottom of the sea. 

The people that observed this, told that the crew were all skeletons and were heading towards the rocks as the Valencia had already hit and sunk on. When passing the City of Topeka, the Valencia signaled to it like it would have if they really met. After this, the Topeka continued back to Seattle without further incidents, but it was not the last one that were reported on. 

Six months after the sinking of the ship, a local Nuu-chah-nulth fisherman named Clanewah Tom spotted a lifeboat together with his wife in a nearby sea cane in Pachena Bay  at the southern end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. But there was something deeply wrong with the lifeboat. In it sat not eight people, but eight skeletons. Although having survived the initial wreckage, it looked like they had starved to death. There was no way of recovering the lifeboat however and it was a mystery of even how it got into the cave. 

Since then local fishermen reported of lifeboats with skeletons rowing in the area. In 1910, the Seattle Times reported that sailors claimed to have seen the ship that looked eerily like the Valencia, near Pachena Point. What looked like human figures held onto the ship like it was about life or death as the waves washed over the ship. 

In 1933 they found one of the lifeboats drifting in Barkley Sound. The boat was in excellent condition and the paint looked almost fresh. No skeletons onboard this time, and perhaps never again?

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The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, August 23, 1906, Page 5, Image 5 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

https://web.archive.org/web/20051205210100/http://collections.ic.gc.ca/folklore/ocean/img_oc/valenlif.jpg

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Azzurrina of Romagna

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On the night of the solstice, the sound of a little girl is echoes through the old castle. A little girl with blue hair.

Castle on a Hill: The ghost of Azzurina of Romagna is supposedly haunting the castle Montebello di Torriana.
Attribution: Carlo Pelagalli

The sun lingered for a long time over the mountain area where the castle of Montebello di Torriana was. The castle stands in what was known as Romagna, a historical part of northern Italy that no longer exists. It was a stormy June day, in 1375 with thunder going on all around the castle grounds. Towering 400 meters above the ocean, the castle looks out over the valleys of Marecchia and Uso when it was still under the Papal rule. The earliest name of this castle was Mons Belli, or War Mountain in English. 

That day was the day of the solstice. The lord of the house’s daughter, Azzurina was playing with a ball, being watched over by her bodyguards Domenico and Ruggero. She was around five years old and running around in the castle with her ball made out of rags. They were distracted for just a moment, and when they turned around, the child was gone. A scream was heard from the castle icehouse and the bodyguards rushed over. Perhaps she had chased the ball and fell? But no trace was left and they were never able to find the child — at least not alive.

The Blue Haired Girl

Centuries later, around 1600 a priest put the legend to paper for the first time as we know of, although the writing itself is lost. The title of the story was Mons Belli ed Deline, hinting that the name was Deline or Adelina, but to most people hearing the legend, her name was Guendalina.  

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Guendalina was a normal girl wanting to play around the castle grounds. But to the people in the castle, she was more of a secret. She was born as albino, which at the time was connected to persons of a diabolical nature. Her mother tried again and again to color her hair darker with pigments from plants. But the black color wouldn’t stay, and the color faded, leaving only a blue tint of it. This is where her nickname, Azzurrina, meaning blue comes from. So instead she was hidden away from the public eye. This is also why her father ordered her two bodyguards to always watch over her every move as he was worried about the superstitions and rumours surrounding his daughter’s affliction. 

The Mystery of the Solstice

Solstice: When the sun is on the sky the longest is the summer solstice. A lot of paranormal rumours surrounds this day, and this is the supposed day the little girl went missing.

What happened to the girl is still debated to this day. Perhaps only a tragic accident? The most gruesome theory is that of her father, Ugolinonuccio, that he himself ordered the death of his daughter because of her being an albino and therefore a problem for him, his reputation and his career. At the time he was supposed to be far away fighting in a war. Even her mere existence is debated as the records of the past are far and few between.

Now, every five year, or to be more exact, on every summer solstice ,strange occurrences have been reported from the castle. Paranormal researchers flock to the place then, to hear “the sound”.

Since the museum opened in the 90s, visitors have heard stories about a child crying or laughing. She is sometimes seen, looking a bit different than the others, running around and disappears in the castle like smoke. 

The Claim of the Supernatural

The sound of a child is what the paranormal researchers find over and over again together with strange images. Shame about the manuscript from the priest that could have given more details, which by the way is more of a claim of existence than a trace of it. However, the first real recording we have of the legend actually dates back to 1989, so quite recent, and very in line with the commercial museum that opened up the next year. 

But as they say on their web site, they welcome all to have a listen for themselves. Have a look and open your ears. Maybe you as well are able to hear the sound of a faint child’s laughter through the old halls of the castle’s basement?

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The legend of the ghost of Azzurrina of the castle of Montebello | e-borghi 

Montebello (Poggio Torriana)

Azzurrina – WikipediaLa Leggenda

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The Caleuche – The Chilean Ghost Ship

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Outside the shores of Chile, there a tales of a ghost ship that will take you away if it gets you to make you one of their crew. Could you join to sail the sea forever with The Caleuche?

Outside of the Chiloé Archipelago, the group of islands outside of mainland Chile, rich folklore and mystical myths of the sea that surrounds the islands thrives. Here they believe in the great battle of the two serpents of earth and sea that created the area. 

Fishing and sailing were the main thing the locals did for a living, and the mythology of the place reflects it. And when the fog comes creeping up to the shores of the canals, bright lights and the sound of jolly music can be heard from the sea. Just a fishing boat passing playing loud music? Or can it be The Caleuche, a ghost ship that collects the drowned and enslaves people to work on the ship forever?

Background of the Mythology

The Caleuche is a ghost ship from Chiloé mythology in southern Chile that has a pretty distinct mythology different from the rest of Chile as a mixture of the indigenous people and the Spanish settlers. It in particular reflects just how important the sea is in the life of Chilotes. 

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The word Caleuche comes from the Mapuche word Kalewtun, meaning to transform or to change and che, meaning people. It is also called The Enchanted Ship, Barcoiche or The Warlock Ship and has many different variations to the legend. 

It has many similarities to the Flying Dutchman in the sense of being a ghost ship you can sail with for an eternity. 

According to Chiloé mythology, it is Millalobo that is both the creator and owner of the ship, the second most important being of the sea after Caicai, God of water. 

Ghost Ship of Never Ending Partying

The Caleuche is a ghost ship of music and light that sails along Chiloé canals. It has an extraordinary speed. You can not always see the ship, but in certain weather, like on a foggy day, you can both sense as well as see the ship. 

People have always had a fear of being captured by The Caleuche and there are particular trees that you can hide behind that will give protection of being spotted, such as the Chilean wineberry and the olivillo. The reason being that in some versions of the legend, you can be enslaved and cursed to work on the ship forever. 

The Caleuche: From the fog light can be seen and the sound of music can be hears. According to Chiloé mythology and folklore it is the ghost ship The Caleuche, filled with enslaved sailors, drowned bodies or evil sorcerers depending on what version you hear.

One of the things the ship is known for is the music and sound of partying. In some legends, it is to lure the people to them so that they can be forced to work as a crewmember for eternity. 

It is not always for a sinister reason that the party music is so loud from the ship however. In many of the versions it is a ship that recovers the dead bodies from those who drowned at sea, and offers them a place as a crewmate on the ship. They will then be able to spend the rest of eternity partying and celebrating. 

Making Pacts with Sorcerers

Another version of the tale is that it is in fact a ship that transports the sorcerers. It is said that they make a voyage every 3 months to gain more power. It is from this legend the idea of merchants trading with these sources to gain wealth quickly, and explaining when a person in Chiloé becomes rich quickly, they have made a pact with the crew on The Caleuche. 

It is not a very old myth that never gets told anymore. In the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, or the Great Chilean earthquake, there were many fires, landslides, tsunamis and floods in the area after the initial shock of the quake. Many houses were left untouched by the natural disasters and rumors and talks about a pact having been made with The Caleuche were told. 

In the same decade stories about the sound of an anchor being dropped outside of the houses of many prosperous and rich merchants in the area. According to the legends they would lend out their houses to The Caleuche for a party location and other dark purposes. Although many could probably put the blame and the reason for getting rich on normal and mortal smugglers.  

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The Accursed Mountains of Albania

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The mysterious mountains in Albania is a place known for its myths and legends. Strange tales are told of this place and has been named The Accursed Mountains. 

“I could not help feeling that they were evil things– mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss.”
– H. P. Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness

The Albanian Alps, officially called Prokletije is a breathtaking sight in the Balkans with glacial features, pointed peaks and weathered landscape, stretching from northern Albania, all the way to Kosovo and Montenegro. The lush green valleys and thick forests filled with wolves, old traditional stone villages makes you feel you really are in a fairy tale like place.

But the beauty of the accursed mountains comes with a bittersweet aftertaste when learning what the translated name of the mountain is. In English Prokletije is roughly translated to the Accursed Mountains and has a legend and myth that rests amongst the mountain peaks. And according to legends, it was the devil himself who created the mountains. As the name suggest, the legends surrounding The Accursed Mountains are more sinister than fairytale like.

For more mystical mountains, read about Fengdu Ghost City:

Fengdu Ghost City

The Fengdu Ghost City in China is steeped with the paranormal and cultural afterlife as well as being a big tourist attraction. Weird?

Keep reading

It is difficult to understand why such a serene place has been dubbed a cursed one, because how could the devil create such a beautiful thing? Anyway, that is the tale, and that is the mountains origin story.

From then on, the mountain range has been cursed and synonymous with blood feuds and bandits as well as natural disasters like avalanches. From 1946 to 1992, the country was under a harrowing communist regime with closed borders to keep people out as well as in. The Accursed Mountains were used as patrolling spots with buried landmines and bunkers for wars. So it’s not only because of its legends they are known as the accursed mountains, but because of their history as well.

It is a sparsely populated place, home to Albanians as well as Serbs, Bosniaks and montenegrins. It is a secluded place that is cut off from the rest of the world for weeks during the winter months. This is a place where the shepherds take their flock during the summer rather than staying for a the whole years.

The Legend of the Brothers and the Fairy

The legend of it being the devil himself who created these mountains is not the only legend of why this mountain range is supposedly cursed. The other legend is steeped much more in Albanian folklore than Christian religion and really comes out from a fairytale.

The Fairy Myth: According to legend, the name is from that one fairy tale were the mother of hunters cursed a fairy from Albanian folklore.

A long time ago three brothers went out hunting. Up in the mountains they met a fairy. The brothers found her so beautiful and wanted her. This turned into a fight about who saw her first, who she belonged to and escalated to become quite violent. So violent that it ended in their death.  

The fairy was watching from afar, but had no way of helping and couldn’t choose for them. She hoped for an agreement, but when her brothers died, she ran and hid behind the peaks of the mountain.

The Accursed Mountains

Days went by for the mother without a word from the sons. When none of the brothers returned from their hunting trip, their mother took up the search. She went up to the mountains and found all of her sons dead. She wailed as she buried her sons, her cries echoing through the mountain range. 

The fairy heard her and went to her and told her what happened, that it was because of her that they had argued and died. But the mother didn’t want to hear the reason and only looked at the fairy as the cause of their death. The mother cursed both the fairy and the mountains, blaming them for her son’s deaths. And ever since then, the place has been called the Accursed Mountains and known for its mystery. 

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An interesting story hidden under the name of Prokletije Mountains 

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Ghosts of Canyon Hill Cemetery

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The haunted rumors of the haunted cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho includes everything from a female jogger to an old lady. So much so that it even draws paranormal investigators inside the gates of Canyon Hill Cemetery. 

The cemetery is located at 2024 North Illinois Avenue in Caldwell in Idaho. Canyon Hill Cemetery is an old cemetery that dates back to the early 1800s and houses many souls as their final resting place. But some will have it that not all of the spirits resting there, are at peace. 

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from USA

People have thought the cemetery haunted for a long time. Those claiming Canyon Hill Cemetery to be haunted say they can feel the temperature change suddenly, becoming colder the second you enter the cemetery. There are also rumors about a strong smell no one can explain or figure out as well as the feeling of someone following you. 

Haunted Cemeteries

Haunted cemeteries have long been the subject of chilling folklore and spine-tingling tales. These resting places of the departed are believed to be inhabited by restless spirits, giving life to stories of ghostly apparitions, eerie sounds, and inexplicable phenomena. In the moonlit hours, legends tell of tombstones that come to life, shadowy figures that wander among the graves, and mournful whispers carried on the wind. Whether fueled by superstition or genuine encounters, haunted cemeteries capture our imaginations, inviting us to ponder the mysteries of the afterlife and the ethereal connections that bind the living and the dead.

Read More: Check out all of our ghost stories from Haunted Cemeteries

Several paranormal investigators have taken the trip to the Caldwell Idaho Cemetery themselves to have a look. There are especially two ghosts that most people tell of. 

The Old Lady at the Bench at Canyon Hill Cemetery

Apparently there are rumors about an old lady who only sits on the bench late at night at Canyon Hill Cemetery, not saying anything to those passing the graveyard. According to those who have claimed  to see here they looked away for just a second just to find her gone when looking back. 

Who she is, who she is watching over no one knows. She is however not the only one said to haunt the cemetery.

The Lady on the Bench: Who is the ghost of the old lady just sitting on the bench. Some sort of a watcher of the graves? Perhaps she herself is six feet under the earth of one of the tombs in the Caldwell, Idaho Cemetery

The Midnight Jogger at Caldwell, Idaho Cemetery

The Midnight Jogger is a ghost story that is told to haunt Canyon Hill Cemetery in addition to the old lady on the bench. Apparently the ghost of the jogging female appears when you park between the trees that are overlooking the cemetery just ahead. According to the stories she appears as you drive past her, but are gone as soon as you turn to have another look.  

Read Also:

The Running Lady of Beeford

A ghost haunts the roads of small English village. She is known as the Running Lady and according to legend, known for causing accidents.

Some reports that she doesn’t have any legs to carry her and just floats above the ground around the Caldwell Idaho Cemetery. Some even go so far to claim she comes over to knock on the window of the car, although her intentions are unclear.

Ghosts of Canyon Hill Cemetery

As the rumors of hauntings continue to circulate around Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho, the curiosity of paranormal investigators and daring locals alike grows stronger. Despite the chilling tales of the old lady on the bench and the ghostly midnight jogger, the true nature of these apparitions remains shrouded in mystery.

Whether fueled by superstition or genuine encounters, haunted cemeteries like Canyon Hill Cemetery carry with them an undeniable allure. So, if you ever find yourself passing through the gates of Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, Idaho, take a moment to feel the shift in the temperature, listen closely for whispers carried by the wind, and keep an open mind. Who knows what spectral secrets await those who dare to explore the haunted grounds of this ancient cemetery?

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Haunting at Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell

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The Ghost that Designed Iulia Hasdeu Castle

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Through the power of spiritualism, the bereaved father built a castle designed by the ghost of his dead daughter. And today, the Iulia Hasdeu Castle still stands as a mysterious and haunted place. 

Iulia was the beloved daughter of Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu (1838-1907) in Romania. He was a Romanian scholar of both history, philology and a great writer. Iulia was somewhat of a prodigy child as well and read by the age of two. Like her father, she was fluent in many languages and spoke French, English and German fluently by the time she was eight. At only 16, she got her degree in philosophy with plans to continue her studies in Latin and Greek Languages at the prestigious University of Sorbonne. 

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But then on the 29th of September 1888, just a month before her 19th birthday, she tragically died of tuberculosis, a tragic but common way to die in this time. She left behind her many poems, manuscripts and plays to her father who couldn’t move on with his life. That is when he turned to less common ways to keep in contact with his dead daughter.

The Seances to Get in Touch with her Spirit

He was deeply in grief and turned to spiritualism to get in contact with his beloved and missed daughter. There are recordings of over a hundred summaries of these sessions, saying something about his obsession with it.

The Ghost: Portrait of the young prodigy Iulia Hasdeu.

And after he moved to Câmpina which is a bit further north from Bucharest , he spent the time at seances together with the metropolitan bishop, three generals and a processor. All in hope to get a glimpse of his daughter.

He also built an altar for her in their family vault at the Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest that looks more like a Greek temple to pay tribute to her. But this altar was not enough for him to keep as a memento and after six months of trying to reach her in the spirit world, he made contact, and she gave him instructions to build a castle that would later be known as Iulia Hasdeu Castle. 

Together with his wife, they went to a mansion in Câmpina they decorated as almost a temple to their dead daughter to sort of keep a part of her with them in this world after it was built. He named it Second of July after his two Iulias as his belated daughter was named after his beloved wife.

Then the plans of the castle started to take form. Hasdeu claimed that he had received messages about the building plans for it through the spiritualism seances he took part in. 

The Building Designs of Iulia Hasdeu Castle from Beyond

Work on the Castle began in 1893 and took a lot of Hasdeus’ time, energy as well as wealth. It is more of a folly house than a full fledged castle. She would advise him to use the numbers three and seven, something she considered to be magical numbers. That is why these numbers repeat themselves throughout the building with three underground rooms, three towers and seven steps to every staircase. 

The building was completed in 1896 and has since seen its fair share of tragedy befall it. It required a lot of reparation, even when Hasdeu was alive. During the first world war as well as the second world war, the earthquake in 1977 where it suffered many damages. But the castle fought back. There even is a legend to this that during the second world war, the Germans tried to loot the place, but failed as they were ‘struck by some mysterious force.’

Spiritualism: During the turn of the century, seances and spiritualism was a big thing. This is a Seance scene in the classic German silent film Dr Mabuse (1922). People would get together with a medium in hope to make contact with a spirit beyond the grave.

Today the Iulia Hasdeu Castle is still a sort of altar in Iulias memory. With her personal belongings as well as transcripts of the seances that her father attended. The castle itself is described to have a spooky vibe over it, perhaps because there are entire rooms designed specifically for spiritualists rituals, with seats made for the attending ghosts. A shrine like this was bound to get more sinister rumors about it, and it was claimed that Hasdeu used it to worship Satan rather than memorializing Iuelia. 

The Ghost of Iulia

The Iulia Hasdeu Castle is not the only place she is reported of haunting. Also back at the cemetery in Bucharest, the ghost has been spotted, dressed in all white while walking through the cemetery in Bucharest holding daisies. 

Back In Câmpina at the castle they have also felt her presence. In the night there is the sound of piano playing with the applause and cheering from an old man. So many rumors that the museum itself had troubles finding someone to take the nightshift at the museum. 

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Discover Iulia Hasdeu Castle | Daytrip

Iulia Hasdeu Castle: The Eerie Romanian Castle Designed by a Ghost

Iulia Hasdeu Castle, where mystery and culture go together

Iulia Hasdeu Castle

Iulia Hasdeu Castle: Spiritism, romance and science all in one – The Romania Journal

http://www.muzeulhasdeu.ro/index.php?meniu=71

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The Haunted Ghost Street Calle Jaen in Bolivia

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In the secluded and mountainous streets in La Paz, Bolivia, the ghosts of the past are still roaming the streets. Both dangerous widows and Bolivian freedom fighters. 

The street in La Paz has rumors of ghosts roaming. And it is not an anonymous ghost we are talking about. The ghost that supposedly roams these streets is the Bolivian folk hero, Pedro Domingo Murillo, who played a key role in Bolivia’s independence. 

Calle Jaen is one of the old streets in La Paz and it looks like a ghost of colonial times with the architecture. This is the place where Murillo used to live. The streets are also known for the ghostly apparitions that are seen both by the locals and the tourists visiting. 

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The Ghost of Bolivia’s Freedom Fighter Murillo

He is reported mostly appearing to both locals and tourists by the museum during sunset where he tries to communicate with the people seeing him. They even put up a green cross at the end of the museum to ward off spirits that don’t belong in this world anymore. 

Haunted Street: Jaen Street, named after the revolutionary Apollinar Jaén, is the best-preserved colonial street in La Paz with its cobbled streets and Spanish architecture. The houses date from the 18th century. One of the homes was owned by Pedro Domingo Murillo.// Photo: Dan Lundberg/wikimedia

Murillo is known for leading a rebellion against the Spanish crown. He was eventually captured and hanged in 1810. He had this to say:

“Compatriots, I die, but tyrants won’t be able to extinguish the torch I ignited. Long live freedom!”

Many see him as a spark that ignited the battle to free South America from Spain, and each year, there is a parade through central La Paz with lit torches in his honor. 

The Black Widow of Calle Jaen

He is not the only ghost of this street though. The ghost of a widow crying for her dead husband begs for help in her black mourning clothes. She looks innocent and manages to lure kind people, especially men. When they try to help her, they will disappear forever. 

The staff working at the bars in the streets are serving Ajenjo: a Bolivian variety of absinthe. They claim that the hallucigen from the drink has caused people to see both ghosts and spirits after a few sips, especially the ghost of Pedro Domingo Murillo.

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Featured Image: Casa Jaén, 5 November 2012, source: LucianaDeckerOrozco//Wikimedia

Bolivian Express | THE GREEN GHOST OF LA PAZ

6 Haunted Places to Visit in Bolivia

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Madam Koi Koi and The School Hauntings in Nigeria

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‘Koi Koi’ goes the sound of high heels in the hallways. And this sound is terrifying for students at the haunted boarding schools in Nigeria. Because Madam Koi Koi is after them in this terrifying urban legend about a dead teacher out for revenge. 

The myth of Madam koi koi and her high heels is an urban legend about a ghost of a female teacher in Nigeria that has spread throughout many African countries and is today a well known legends among students. The ghost of Madam Koi Koi is said to have been haunting boarding schools in Nigeria for decades and there is no way of telling where the now urban legend surfaced. Many sources attribute the legend to the surface in the 90s. However, on the internet, she first appeared in the forums as Madam Koi Koi in 2011. 

As the fear of Madam Koi Koi grew, it spread to more countries as well and the ghost of the former teacher goes by many names. In Ghana for instance, she is known as Madam Moke, Ghanian for high heels. She is also known as Miss Konkoko in Tanzania and Pinky Pinky in South Africa. 

The Urban Legend of Madam Koi Koi

With such a popular and saturated story, there are bound to appear variations of the legend of Madam Koi Koi as all good urban legends do. But the most popular goes something like this: 

Madame Koi Koi was said to be a beautiful and fashionable teacher in a federal government secondary school. She was known for her beauty as well as her red high heels that would make a sound every time she walked the hallways of the boarding school where she worked. Thereby the name: Koi Koi as it mimics the sound of clicking heels. 

Madam Koi Koi: The ghost of Madam Koi Koi is described as the ghost of a mean teacher that used to wear red high heels that you could hear clicking when she came down the hallways of the school she worked at.

Although beautiful, she was not known for being a kind woman and was also said that she was a very strict teacher and mean to the students. She was a brutal and violent woman that would beat the students up for no reason and enjoyed punishing them. This is also why she was deeply despised by them. 

Madam Koi Koi was eventually fired after another violent incident where she took it too far and hit a female student. The slap she gave the young student was so hard that Madam Koi Koi injured the little girl’s ear. On her way home that day, Madam Koi Koi got into an accident and died. But before dying, she swore revenge on both the school as well as the students for firing her. 

From the Netflix Adaptation: In 2023 Netflix made a mini series about the urban legend from the 90s called The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi .

After her death, the students at the boarding school said they could hear the clicking of her heels during the night throughout their dormitories. Even today the story persists and it is told between frightened students that Madam Koi Koi comes out in the night to haunt the students that wander out of their beds in the night. 

The Different Versions of Madam Koi Koi

Another version of her ending was when the students took matters into their own hands after they couldn’t take anymore beatings from her. In this version of the legend, the students captured and gagged her and beat her to death. To conceal their crime they threw her body over the school fence after realizing what they had done and hoped they would blame someone else.

But although they had their reasons, she came back for revenge. One by one, the students that killed her started to disappear from the school and ended up dead. After the last person involved with it died the school was shut down forever as they had no way of knowing how to stop the wrath of the former teacher. The students that were transferred started new schools and spread the urban legend about the teacher that haunts boarding schools. 

Popular Urban Legend: In Nigerian schools, especially in boarding schools, they tell the story about Madam Koi Koi to each other and is known as some of the most famous haunted stories in Nigeria. //Photo: Emmanuel Ikwuegbu

Sometimes the legend is retold that she loses one of the shoes, and she comes back to haunt the premise for her other one. Or sometimes, as in the Ghanaian version, it is specified that she was given the rude and bad students and that they one time locked her in a closet where she died and she was more of a victim than a perpetrator.  

Read More: For more ghost stories from schools around the world, check out the The Kong Kong Ghost

In the South African one where she goes by the name Pinky Pinky and is a very different version than the Nigerian one. Here she is only part human, animal, male and female and prays in children’s school toilets to rape the girls if they wear pink underwear. The boys can’t see her, but feel the presence through a slap or scratch on the cheek. 

No matter the version is told, she is always after the students. You can always hear her before you see her. She walks the corridors, opening doors, singing and whistling while her shoes click on the floor. And if you are caught by her ghost in the hallways or in the toilets, she may become violent.

Netflix Series About the Legend of Madam Koi Koi

In 2023, Netflix released a two part series about the urban legend called, The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi that are based on the story of the former teacher haunting the schools.

The series focuses on a young student named Amanda that are sent to an isolated boarding school called St Augustine Catholic College in the 1990s. The school is plagued with a history of sexual violence that seemingly has gone unpunished because of the powerful parents to the perpetrators.

At the new school, Amanda has troubles to fit in and starts having nightmares about something dark that are lurking in the forest outside of her school. Meanwhile, inside of the school she has to deal with the sexual harassment for the male students and the urban legend about revenge starts to unfold.

The Legend about Madam Koi Koi

In conclusion, the legend of Madam Koi Koi continues to captivate and intrigue students and Madam Koi Koi legacy has left an indelible mark on the haunted boarding schools across the African continent. And for every year that the new students arrives at the schools, the legend about Madam Koi Koi evolves.

So the next time you find yourself near the haunted boarding school, take a moment to reflect on the tales of Madam Koi Koi. Listen closely, and you might just catch the faint echo of a haunting laughter or the distant sound of high heels.

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References

The legend of the dead teacher who haunts secondary school students | Pulse Nigeria

Was Madam Moke real or not? – Opera News

https://www.nairaland.com/search?q=madam+koi+koi&search=Search

The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi (TV Series 2023) – IMDb 

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The Joelma Building and the Ghosts of the 13 Souls

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In the 70s, a deadly fire broke out at the Joelma Building in São Paulo, Brasil, killing many people. Later, the building is reported haunted, and the ghosts of the victims are crying for help from beyond the grave.

In downtown São Paulo in the southeast region in Brazil, a building stands that were the site of one of the most horrific fires that the world ever saw. Today the building has been renamed and is called Edifício Praça da Bandeira, but it is probably most known by its former name, the Joelma Building. 

The 25-story Joelma Building is famous because of a fire that started in the building in 1974 that took the life of at least 179 people, and is the world’s worst skyscraper fire in history besides the World Trade Center fire by death toll. 

The Death Fire of the Joelma Building

On a Friday the 1. February at Avenida 9 de Julho, 225, an air conditioning overheated on the twelfth floor in the morning. The building was used as an office building so at this particular time, the working day had started. The banking company Banco Crefisul S/A that worked in the building had 756 employees present.

The Fire: Although the Joelma Building didn’t collapse, the whole building was swallowed by the flames.

The Joelma Building was a brand new building and completed in 1971 and it shouldn’t have any old or rusty things that would malfunction like this. The reason why the air conditioning overheated was that it used the wrong plug that it needed. Also, the materials that had been used to build the interior of wood, the fabrics and such were very flammable, and in no less than 20 minutes, the entire building was engulfed in flames that trapped the people inside. 

There were no emergency lights, fire exits or fire sprinkler systems that would help the people trapped by the fire and smoke inside, and after the tragedy, it put a new focus of how important standard things like this was in a building. But for those trapped inside of the fiery hell, it was all too late.

There was a chain of events that led to the big catastrophe the death fire turned out to be. The firefighters came only 20 minutes after the fire started, but didn’t have proper equipment with them to put out the flames in the tall building. The ladders they had could only reach up to 14 floors of the building with 25 floors, and those above were left to their own devices.

The fire in the Joelma Building turned into a battle of survival. They tried to rescue the people on the upper floors by helicopter as well, but didn’t manage to get close enough to get them safely out.

By the time the fire was extinguished, over 300 people were injured, and they estimate that between 179 to 189 people had lost their lives. 

The 13 Souls in the Elevator

40 people tried to jump out of the Joelma Building when they realized they wouldn’t manage to get down on the lower floors. Of these jumper there were none survivors because of the height of the building. The only way to escape was by getting down to the lower floors, but with no emergency exits, the people inside found themselves trapped. 

13 people tried to escape by using the elevators of the building that was at the time still working. Although not recommended to use under fire, they were desperate enough to try to escape. The plan didn’t work though and the elevator stopped on its way down and trapped them inside where they died of suffocation as the flames were closing in on them.

The bodies were badly hurt by the fire and it even took time to make the carnage of huddled corpses into 13 individuals. They never managed to identify the 13 souls and today they are buried in anonymous graves at the Vila Alpina Cemetery. 

Haunting the Cemetery

These 13 souls have since been suspected of still lingering in this world as ghosts. At the site of the mass grave of the 13 unidentified bodies there were reports of moaning and cries for help for those that in their dying moment, never got rescued. 

The Thirteen Unknown Graves: The graves of the 13 souls that were never identified in the Joelma Building fire. Visitors comes and puts glasses of water for them. // Photo: Wikimedia

The cemetery caretaker at the time, Luiz Nunez was so bothered by this and became desperate to stop the noise of their cries and poured water over the graves. This act of extinguishing an eternal fire he meant helped to quiet them, at least for one day. 

From that day, visitors started leaving a glass of water on the grave instead of the usual flowers. 

The Haunting at the Joelma Building

Back at the building where this tragedy happened, the reports of the paranormal continue to this day as well. People experienced strange phenomena where the cars in the parking lot outside of the Joelma Building would suddenly start blinking with their lights without anyone turning them on, and the inside of the building was also haunted. 

It is said that every floor above the 15th floor is haunted, where the firefighters ladders didn’t reach. People keep seeing shadows in the stairways and experience malfunctioning elevators. Fire alarms going off with no fire is also some of the activity that is apparently going on there. 

Curiously enough It is not the only tragedy that happened on the site of where the building stands either. And the place where the building was built has been called cursed land because of its history.

Cursed Land

In 1948, a chemistry professor named Paulo Camargo lived in a house at the same place where the Joelma Building would be built with his mother and two sisters. They had a lot of illness in their family that took a lot of energy for Camargo that had to take care of them by himself. It didn’t get better when Camargo found a girlfriend named Isaltina dos Amaros that his mother didn’t approve of. 

It all ended with Camargo killing his entire family by shooting them and throwing them down a well. They never really found a clear motive as to why he ended up doing what he did. And they never got a chance to dig further either. When the police came and discovered the well, Camargo killed himself with the very gun he had used on his family.  

When they built the Joelma building it is said they changed the entrance so the address wouldn’t be the same as the murderers. But the place was still the same and some even called it cursed land because of the place.

Even before the gruesome murders in 1948, the place was believed to be a ‘pelourinho’, a public place were they would take slaves and criminals. They would tie them up and torture them, and at times, also kill them for the public up to the abolition of slavery in 1888.  

Purified by a Buddhist Monk

Today the Joelma Building is once again renamed and something stands on the top of a past buried tragedy. After the fire the Joelma Building closed for 4 years for reconstruction. It was renamed Edifício Praça da Bandeira after it opened again to rid itself of its past. But there are some things you just can’t bury. 

In 2004, they were doing work on the building, but the owners was met with hesitant workers, not wanting to be there at all because of its haunted history. Many wouldn’t step into the new building until it was blessed by a Buddhist monk. The monk that did the blessing said in interviews that she had purified the place and deemed it safe for the living. The Buddhist monk also said that she could do nothing about the ghosts on the upper floors, and that they still lingered.

But is it enough to ward off another tragedy to have a monk purify the place? Is the supposedly cursed land clean and cured? Or was it just a coincidence that they happened on the same land as the past atrocities? 

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References

Joelma Building – Wikipedia

The Killer Doctor, the Swirling Fire, and the World’s Most Haunted Building

13 Haunted Locations Across 7 Continents

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Maidens of Uley

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The spirit of the girl so disappointed in her life on earth she can never move on, continue to echo through time together with the Maidens of Uley in Sibir, Russia.

The Eastern part of Russia can be ruthless. A vast empty land on the map, it is sort of forgotten when looking at pictures of St. Petersburg or Moscow. But there are people there, and they have been there for a long time. And if the Trans-Siberian Railway didn’t pass through it in 1898, we might never have hear about Irutsk Oblast, an area in the southeastern Siberia.

Where we are going the weather is cold. So cold it is almost inconceivable. For almost six months during October to April, the temperature usually is below 0 °C (32 °F). But that is the average, the winter hits harder. In Irutsk the temperature is around −25.3 °C (−13.5 °F) in January. The summers on the other hand is warm, although short. So short.

This is the domain of the tundra. The mountains extend up to almost 3,00 metres (9,800 ft), almost with nothing growing on them.

The Little Song in Love

In the village of Ulei (or Ungin) a legend of the west buryat people have been told for a long time. The Buryats or Буряад are a Mongolic people and the largest indigenous group in Siberia. For a long time they maintained their nomadic lifestyle until being taken over by the Russian Federation were agriculture was more profitable. Although most of the Buryat lives in the federal subject of Russia, some still live in the northeast of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia in China. This is where the legend of the Maidens of Uley comes from.

The Buryat People: Buryat tribe in traditional costumes in the district of Selengiski in South of Sibir. From the early 1900s from the traditional folk museum in Novosibirsk in Russia.

A young lady by the name or the nickname of Bulzhuuhai Duuhai lived in this place. (Duushin means singer in Buryat, Duuhai means something like ‘Little Song’. She had no wish to be married off, but fell in love with a young man that her parents found beneath her and tragedy followed.

But this was wish was not to be granted to Bulzhuuhai, and like so many women before her, she was married off to a richer man her parents found suitable. Some claim he was from Khalyuta, some say he was from Tarasa.

She needed an escape from her home she had with her husband. He was not treating her with respect as she was locked up in a black yurt, and in some legends even chained down, not a traditional white one. In some accounts, it wasn’t necessarily a black yurt, only an empty one.

The White Yurt: The traditional white yurt she was supposed to live in. Novosibirsk State Museum of Regional History and Folk Life.

She asked of her loved one is he could run away with her, but he had nowhere to run to as he was a poor man. She had nowhere to go.

While imprisoned in her yurt, she sang. Every girl that passed her by could hear her song, but there was nothing they could do to help her. All they could, was to throw flowers through the chimney, which was her only source of light.

The Eight Days of Freedom

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For twenty days, she was in chains inside with nowhere to go, but she managed to escape. Eight days of freedom was all she got. Along the road she met many people, and along the way she met a group of people carrying the bride to a wedding in Tuglo. She joined them and sang in the wedding. Many men tried to get her attention, even the shamans, every day until the wedding was over.

After the wedding was over, so was her life she felt, and she fell in a deep desperation and loneliness. She had nowhere to go to. She could not go back, and there was nothing ahead of her either.

After the eight days of singing and dancing in the wedding, she hanged herself in the barn, not being able to take it anymore. But this was not the end. There were so many more like her.

The Call of The Zayan Spirit

Maidens of Uley: Women’s Khori-Buryat costume//Photo: KoizumiBS

After she died she became a zayan-spirit, as those killed by their own hands are called. They can find no rest or find their way to Erlen-Khan which is the Lord of the Underworld. They are not necessary malicious spirits, but can call upon the inner thought of female despair.

Instead she called upon other spirits with a similar fate and a group of girls flocked to her. Around 350 Maidens and spirits just like her answered her call. These spirits are called Olon or Many of Uley by Idin and Osin Buryats.

To this day the Maidens of Uley are supposedly forbidden to sing after sundown because of the danger of being captured and turned into one of the Maidens of Uley.

It was a group of around 350, or even more. Maidens of Uley like her on a revenge mission. They haunt the fiances on their wedding day, mesmerizing them with their beauty. Once taken, they lead them to the underworld where they are never seen again.

Now remembered in folklore for the locals, the story of the Maidens of Uley is passed down to the next generations. Like in this theater play by the Buryat Drama Theatre:

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Featured photo: [Photo/IC]

Special thanks to Reddit user: Witson1991

https://muegn.ru/en/training/osnovnye-zanyatiya-buryat-v-17-veke-buryatskii-narod-kultura-tradicii-i-obychai.html