The Haunted Cantabrian Tunnel of Engaña

The Unfinished Engaña Tunnel

At the entrance of the Cantabrian tunnel of Engaña people have claimed to have seen strange apparitions and heard mysterious sounds coming from the incomplete tunnel that runs through the Cantabrian Mountains.

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Haunted Roads all around the world.

The tunnel was designed to go to the Bay of Biscay and connect it to the Mediterranean Sea by rail in 1942. With its almost 7000 meters of length it was supposed to be the longest railway tunnel in Spain, but the rails were never laid at all.

Hundreds of people were building on this patch and the structure was also built by political prisoners of the Franco regime after the Spanish Civil War ended.

When they started the project they believed that it would only take a year, but nothing went as planned. The construction for this project lasted for 17 years however, the funds for the project ran out and the final patch of the stretch was abandoned in 1959 and never completed.

The tunnel was built though and sometimes used as an alternative road when the other roads were closed due to snowfall, but the hazardous tunnel was closed after many collapses and was closed off.

**Flooded:** The Cantabrian Tunnel of Engaña is said to be haunted and has over the years also started to collapse or have become flooded.//Source:Roberto Lumbreras/wikimedia

According to the tales, hundreds of lives of the prisoners that were forced to build it died during the unfinished construction.

This number is hard to back up by fact as the first years of construction were not written up. We do know however that at least 16 workers died during the construction from 1951 to 1959. So who really knows the truth about what happened before then?

The construction itself was ot the only thing that killed off those working on the tunnel, as a large number of the workers eventually died of lung diseases caused by inhaling the toxic crystalline silica dust from the tunnel.

The Ghost of the Prisoners

The project itself was looked at as a failure and has stood as a dark entrance to a much darker past. The place was until it was sealed off mostly used by impatient drivers, people carrying illegal contraband and seekers of the paranormal.

Read more: Check out the story about The Haunted Inunaki Village in Japan, The Hangman’s Tunnel in Loja or The White Lady In Freihung for more ghost stories about haunted tunnels.

After the project was abandoned and the lives of the prisoners were almost forgotten, the stories of seeing their ghosts started to be told around the area.

People talked about seeing the unfortunate prisoners that died building it and drivers claiming to have seen their ghosts as they pass the tunnel opening or dare to go through it as a shortcut through the mountains.