Supernatural tourism is a trend that gathers more and more followers and that consists of visiting haunted houses and enchanted places around the world and in Spain. These buildings are the subject of several urban legends and the scene of alleged paranormal phenomena linked to real events that are mixed with the invention.
From houses that were the scene of real crimes, such as 112 Ocean Avenue (Amityville) or Cortijo Jurado in Malaga, to buildings in which urban legends and witnesses to paranormal events, such as the Casa de la Tia Tona, in Mexico , or the Palacio de Linares, in Madrid, have created authentic temples of mystery.
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The creepiest haunted houses around the world
Paranormal events, poltergeist phenomena, open doors to the underworld and urban legends lurk in these places that will make your hair stand on end. Located in different parts of the world, these haunted houses are the object of desire for mystery lovers.
1. Tia Tona’s house, Mexico
Tia Tona’s house. | Social media.
Without a doubt, one of the most terrifying haunted houses in Mexico is the house of Tia Tona, due to the urban legend that hides behind it . In a remote place that is accessed by crossing a bridge in ruins, in the thick of the Chapultepec forest (Mexico City), a house recalls the terror of some events on the border between reality and imagination.
Legend has it that a lonely old woman lived in this house and avoided the one they knew as Aunt Tona. To alleviate her loneliness, she used to invite orphaned and homeless children to her mansion, where she offered them company, food, and a warm bed. But the children were mischievous and soon overwhelmed the old woman’s patience.
In a fit of rage, she murdered the children and disposed of the bodies by throwing them into the river down the ravine. Prey to her remorse, she committed suicide in her bed. Reality or invention, the truth is that many say that when you cross the bridge you can hear the laughter and cries of children, and when you see the house, always covered in fog, you see Tia Tona’s face in the window.
2. Mansion Winchester, San Francisco
Winchester Mansion. | Wikimedia Commons.
Sarah Winchester, the character at the center of the 2018 horror film Winchester: The House the Spirits Built, actually existed, as did the ghost story surrounding the mansion built after the tragic death of her husband and wife. daughter. If you want to visit the famous Winchester mansion, you have to go to San Francisco.
There, the heir to the fortune of the inventor of the Winchester rifle, erected a 24,000-square-meter house that was under permanent construction from 1844 to 1922. For lovers of mystery, this architectural monster with seven floors and hundreds of rooms is actually the continent of the ghosts of the disturbed mind of its owner.
According to Mrs. Winchester, the ghosts of people who had died from the weapon invented by her husband kept coming back to her.
3. Amityville, United States
Amityville. | YouTube
Another of the houses that has been the subject of horror film plots is 112 Ocean Avenue, better known as Amityville, whose history also contains a mysterious legend of ghosts and paranormal phenomena .
This is the most typical of the images of haunted houses in the movies: a colonial-style house that includes a plot with a garden and a pier.
The black legend around this place begins on November 14, 1974 when the De Feo family died at the hands of the brotherolder while they slept. A year later, the Lutz family acquired the property, and there began a real ordeal that included levitation of the girls, screams and whispers, red eyes in the dark and other poltergeist phenomena.
From then on, the house became the center of attention for numerous investigations and its fame grew in parallel with the debate about the fraud or the reality of the facts.
4. Boleskine House, Scotland
Boleskine House. | DailyExpress.
Located in an enclave with a long tradition of mysteries and legends such as Loch Ness, in Scotland, the Boleskine House is still considered one of the great doors to the underworldsince the famous occultist and magician Aleister Crowley opened a mystical dimension for the invocation of spirits and the celebration of rituals.
The idea that this esoteric had bewitched the house seemed to take shape when, after he left, the neighbors claimed to have witnessed recurring strange events. The later owners of the farm never lived in peace, and one of them even ended up committing suicide . Crude reality or pure suggestion
Ironies of fate, the property was acquired by Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin guitarist who, fascinated by the satanic, recounted some chilling episodes that occurred in those four walls. Boleskine House remains a temple for lovers of the occult .
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The most mysterious haunted houses in Spain
Spain has always been a place of legends and mysteries, and as such could not miss an authentic map of haunted houses that extend throughout the country with the most terrifying stories about apparitions and paranormal phenomena.
5. The house of the faces of Belmez, Jaen
Caras de Belmez. | Social media.
Undoubtedly the most famous of the mystery houses in Spain is located in Belmez, Jaen, and it is famous because pigmentations in the shape of faces supposedly appeared on the ground . The paranormal case was revealed in 1971, and after dozens of studies and investigations, the truth remains unclear.
The defenders of the reality of the case assure that it is a paranormal phenomenon that has its origin in a medieval cemetery discovered in the basement of the kitchen. On the contrary, the supporters of the fraud are based on a series of studies of the soil material and the possible manipulation by means of different materials.
In 2014 , the television program Cuarto Milenio hired two scientists to find the possible fraud. After analyzing part of the faces, the chemical engineer Jose Javier Granecea assured that they were not made with paint or manipulated. The mystery continues.
6. The Sworn Cortijo, Malaga
The Sworn Cortijo. | Wikimedia Commons.
This neogothic house in Las Campanillas (Malaga) called Cortijo de Jurado is among one of the most famous haunted houses in Spain . It is a creepy-looking mansion built on an unknown date during the second half of the 19th century that belonged to one of the great families of the Malaga oligarchy.
Between 1890 and 1929, five girls were found murdered near the property, a tragic event that was later joined by several executions during the civil war . During this period the Cortijo Jurado served as a hospital, while the cellars were used as dungeons and a place of torture.
Interestingly, in subsequent years the house remains abandoned and forgotten, until in the nineties stories and legends about strange paranormal events begin to circulate. Parapsychologists record psychophonies and apparitions , and in a short time the house becomes a place of pilgrimage for mystery lovers.
7. House of the Bayon, Asturias
House Bayon. | Peoples of Spain
The paranormal chronicle of Spain narrates that in this house located in El Rayan, Asturias, a chilling event occurred whose end continues to represent one of the great mysteries of black Spain and the first Spanish case of poltergeist.
A wealthy family lived in this stone building.Leon headed by Eusebio Leon, who along with his wife Concepcion woke up startled by the cries of their baby in the early hours of 1915. Arriving at the little boy’s room, they discover to their horror how the cradle rocks on its own with extreme violence.
This was the beginning of a series of poltergeist phenomena : noises of chains, objects that moved on their own, sudden noises… Civil Guard agents were present at the scene, and many left the scene in panic.
The end of the story is even more disturbing: Concepcion got up one morning and stood for a long time talking to someone.. Then he just revealed that if he didn’t go to Leon’s church to light some candles the phenomena wouldn’t stop, but he refused to say who he had talked to. He died at the age of 103 without revealing the secret…
8. To Escusalla, Santiago de Compostela
To Escusalla. | Youtube.
There is no doubt that Galicia is one of the most magical places in Spain , and inside it you can find authentic legends of mystery such as the one that hangs over A Escusalla, a house located near the Lindoso reservoir (Santiago de Compostela).
It is actually the remains of a building of unknown origin that, according to the most accepted theory, was built by an inquisitor priestwho had amassed a considerable fortune around 1727. Today it stands as a dilapidated set of stones overgrown with weeds in the middle of the forest. A truly haunting place.
The house was always surrounded by legends, having been a place of torture and witchcraft, but the most disturbing was the one told by its last tenant, a man they called Tio Roque. He claimed to have seen on more than one occasion the ghost of a friar accompanied by two nuns . The ghost of “O Marrequino” became a celebrity in the place.
According to legend, O Marrequino was the spirit of a friar who lived in the place, and who killed the Portuguese workers so as not to have to pay them and then buried them in the patio.
9. The Andalusian Parliament, Seville
Andalusian Parliament. | EFE
Sister Ursula, the ghost of a nun, is just one of the spirits that haunt the Andalusian Parliament building. This was built as the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas, one of the most important medical centers in Europe in the 16th century, and which was later converted into the parliamentary seat of the Andalusian government.
Due to its past as a place of suffering and pain, several stories of apparitions and noises have made this building, in addition to being a first-rate political institution, one of the most famous haunted houses in Spain. Apparently, Sister Ursula was one of the nuns who dedicated herself to the nursing service, and one of the toughest and strictest.
One of the most horrifying events was recorded early in the morning of March 2002, when the security guard heard shouts: “Help! Get me out of here!”. While making a security round, he witnesses, terrified, the presence of a nun strolling through the courtyard.
10. Linares Palace, Madrid
Linares Palace. | Wikimedia Commons.
Another emblematic building known for the mysteries that its walls enclose is the enormous and luxurious Palacio de Linares, in the heart of Madrid. This was built at the end of the 19th century and its dark legend goes back 130 years.
The businessman who had the palace built, Don Mateo Murga Michelena, had a son who had fallen in love with a girl of humble origins, Raimunda Osorio. Without explaining why, when Don Mateo found out, he sent his son to London, but when he died he returned to Madrid . The young man married Raimunda, but shortly after he discovered a letter in which his father explained that this girl was his sister.
In spite of everything, both decided to continue with their love story and had a daughter, Raimundita, who was murdered as soon as she was born. This is the starting point of a string of ghosts and apparitions, psychophonies and strange phenomena that ensure that Raimundita’s ghost continues to haunt the place.
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