Abandoned castles of the world with ghosts. The history of real haunted houses

Gothic novels about shadows wandering through ancient abbeys are popular with romantics and convinced materialists alike. This is why the ghosts of many castles in Europe have become travel brands. Having studied the rumors around the noble nests and their famous owners, we were convinced that Russian ghosts are no less inventive than their foreign "colleagues". We present five mystical estates in Russia.

Estate Mikhailovka

Petrodvortsovy district, Saint Petersburg The abandoned palace, never recovered from the ruin by the Nazis, remembers a lot. Located in the suburbs of St. Petersburg between Strelna and Peterhof, Mikhailovka is named after Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, son of Emperor Nicholas I. cook Johann Felten, shipbuilder Tikhon Lukin and Alexander Menshikov himself (his estate was called ingenuously - "Favorite"). Later, there were the dachas of Field Marshal Minich and Hetman Razumovsky (in his honor the area was called Hetman Manor). In the 1830s, all the plots were united, and after a couple of decades, they erected here grand palace the grand duke. Today, the vast territory is partially occupied by the SPbU campus, and the rest of the premises, including the old palace, have been abandoned. The spirits of the great figures of the past live here: only their presence can explain the anxiety and even panic that often grips those who are brought here by curiosity.

Vadim Razumov

Glinka's estate

Schelkovsky district, Moscow region The owner of this estate was the famous scientist and statesman Jacob Bruce, who was called a warlock during his lifetime. Contemporaries recalled that Bruce liked to show guests different "devilry". For example, he could freeze a pond in the middle of summer or melt it in a harsh winter. According to rumors, giant dolls walked around the estate and iron birds flew. It was alleged that Bruce organized a huge network in Glinki underground passages for practicing witchcraft. In addition, many visitors notice that the eerie masks that adorn main house, smile and wink at everyone who looks at them for a long time.

Vadim Razumov

The baker Filippov's estate

Moscow region The fabulous and solemn appearance of the mansion is very deceiving. The son of a famous baker Dmitry Filippov hid in this estate one of the main secrets of life - his extramarital hobby, the gypsy Azu. Here she led a secluded life, content with rare meetings with her beloved. Realizing that Dmitry Ivanovich fell out of love with her, the girl decided to take her own life and threw herself from the tower of the estate. Local residents and patients of the medical center, which long time was in the estate, they admit that they have repeatedly seen the ghost of the unfortunate gypsy woman in the park.

Vadim Razumov

Oldenburg Palace

Settlement Ramon, Voronezh region It is believed that the palace in Ramon was cursed by a powerful sorcerer many centuries ago. So he took revenge on the owner of the estate, Evgenia Maximilianovna Oldenburgskaya, for her rejected feelings. Since then, strange events began to occur on the estate. That's not all: the son of the Oldenburgsky couple, Peter, was feared in society and considered, to put it mildly, unusual - allegedly in the dungeons of the palace he conducted experiments on people, and in its vicinity he was looking for traces of ancient Egyptian civilization. It is believed that three ghosts have lived on the estate for over a hundred years. But the most surprising event happened in Ramon not long ago, when the museum staff discovered that plaster had collapsed in the "bad" basement. The crumbling fragment formed a female silhouette on the wall, in which many recognized the first owner of the estate, Evgenia Maximilianovna Oldenburgskaya.

Vadim Razumov

The Vasilievskoe Estate

Smolensk region The Povalishins' estate can be safely called an encyclopedia of Russian Freemasonry. The layout of the alleys, the location of buildings, the decor of the facades of the main house - everything in this estate is associated with the symbolism of "free masons". The most remarkable objects of the estate are two earthen pyramids, a classic one and an inverted one. It is believed that the owners, inclined to mysticism, wanted to leave hidden messages to their descendants, which they encrypted in Masonic signs. Leading experts in the field of the study of symbols and cultural studies still cannot figure out these signs. And among local residents, the Vasilievskoye estate is notorious - they say that uninvited guests begin to feel bad from the first minutes of their stay.

Dilapidated mansions, of which there are many around the world, make a depressing impression, but always attract many fans to delve into old stories.

Peeling walls, on which traces of graffiti are visible, the remains of broken furniture, empty windows and things of the previous owners have their own unique energy, and they look very photogenic, so such houses are just expanse for photographers and lovers of mysticism!

One of these incredibly atmospheric places is Villa de Vecchi, once abandoned by the owners, also known as the "Haunted Mansion". This old house is located among the mountains of Italy, not far from Lake Como, and for many years it has been known as a rather mysterious place.

The history of the old villa begins in the 1850s, when the local Count Felix de Vecci, after returning from long travels around the world, decided to build a cozy nest for his family. As an architect, he hired an Italian specialist Alessandro Sidoli, under whose leadership the building was built in the Baroque style.

In the early years of its existence, Villa de Vecchi produced for guests unforgettable impression: its walls and ceilings were decorated with graceful frescoes, a beautiful grand piano stood in the huge reception room, and a richly decorated fireplace warmed the house with the warmth of its fire. A wonderful park was laid out around the villa, in which a rather powerful fountain was even installed, working under the pressure of water from the mountainside. It was a luxurious mansion, surprising guests with many hitherto unknown construction innovations.

Unfortunately, the further history of this house is rather gloomy - despite the wealth surrounding the family of the owners, they could not live there happily ever after. Returning home one day, the count found his wife brutally murdered, and his daughter completely disappeared from the house, leaving no trace. The desperate father spent several weeks looking for her in the surrounding forests, but never found her. Distraught with grief, Felix de Vecci committed suicide at the age of forty-six.

This tragedy happened in 1862, after which the villa passed into the hands of the Count's younger brother, who became the last tenant of this house. Now the building is in an abandoned state, frightening local residents with its gloomy beauty and scary stories.

Some time ago I talked about abandoned cities that people left for one reason or another. And today I want to continue the topic and show you the abandoned places, where no human has set foot for many years. As a rule, these are dwellings; for many years they kept the warmth of the hearth until the people who inhabited them left - who were in search of better life, and who and into oblivion.

For those buildings, which will be discussed below, it is clearly noticeable that not only people can grow old, but also houses. As soon as the house is deprived of the signs of human presence - the smells of food, the sounds of voices, things and decorations that give comfort, and as soon as there is no one to take care of it - the building decays, grows old and slowly dies. Just imagine how good these buildings would be if they were needed by someone, who would put a piece of his soul into them.

When I was preparing a selection, it turned out that there are innumerable abandoned houses that I want to talk about, and in this article I decided to limit myself to only castles. If it is interesting, we will return to this topic and get acquainted with other abandoned places - mansions, factories, factories, fortresses and many others. Here we go?

Miranda Castle in Belgium.

Miranda Castle in Belgium was built by an English-born architect in 1866 for the family of the Count of Lidkirk-Bifort, who lived there until World War II.

In the post-war years, the owners of the castle were forced to sell it to the Belgian railway company, after which the castle passed from hand to hand many times. Since 1991, it has been abandoned: the owners cannot maintain it, since the ownership of the castle is an expensive pleasure, and they do not want to transfer it to the municipality.

Meissen castle

Meissen Castle (Belgium) was built almost five hundred years ago, and in different time served as a mansion, tobacco factory and even a distillery. When the First came World War and the Belgian "elite" of society invested energy in education, a women's boarding school functioned in the castle of Meissen. The institution ceased to exist in the seventies, when French education was prohibited in most of the Flemish regions.

By the way, I thought that Meissen Castle still exists, frightening rare visitors with ghosts and slowly collapsing, but it turns out that a couple of years ago it was nevertheless demolished. Very sorry. It was a magnificent building with a long, unusual history. Alas, I did not have time to go there.

Bannerman Castle

At the beginning of the last century, an immigrant from Scotland, the famous arms dealer Bannerman, bought an island in America for the needs of his business. An enterprising Scotsman built a castle on it, the remains of which we can still observe today.

Bannerman left in 1916, leaving no heirs, and the castle was left without an owner, but with huge stocks of ammunition - some of them exploded two years after the death of the businessman. Part of the structure collapsed, but the building survived. In the fifties, the only thread that connected the castle and the rest of the world - the ferry - ceased to exist, and if earlier at least rare tourists wandered into the island, now the castle is left alone with its old age.

In 1969, a massive fire broke out - the roof burned out in the castle and part of the floors were damaged, but this did not break Bannerman's castle - he continued to menacingly bulge his countless turrets into the sky.

In 2009, almost a third of the walls of the building collapsed, and today it looks like this:

Prince Halim's Palace (Egypt)

The project of this stunning luxury building was designed by the famous architect Antonio Laskiak.

The palace was built at the beginning of the 20th century as a residence for the ruling family, but over time the building was transformed, and for more than half a century it housed Al-Nassriyah, one of the best male schools in Egypt. In 2004, the building was finally abandoned, and today only the wind walks in it.

Villa on the island of Como

This building was built on the island of Como (Italy) and in the first period of its history - and it began in the middle of the 19th century - was called Villa Vecci, after the name of its creator, Philip de Vecci, who built a mansion for his family. Today, the people call it a "haunted house": it is believed that it is inhabited by the spirit of the head of the family's wife, who never found shelter, who committed suicide.

These are the stories. It is sad that these houses are apparently doomed: they need a lot of money to renovate them, and it is much more profitable not to restore the old building, but to build a new one. But most of the abandoned castles have problems with determining the owner, so they cannot be taken under their wing even by any funds to support ancient monuments. On the other hand, there is some kind of sad beauty in these bricks overgrown with moss, empty windows and the silence of the rooms.

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There are many places in the world to which human rumor attributed the presence of evil spirits. But it's one thing when there are rumors that voices, footsteps and strange shadows are wandering in the house, and another thing is when otherworldly entities can be captured.
site made a selection of the most famous buildings in which visitors were able to take pictures of ghosts. These photographs have been reviewed by professionals who have concluded that the photographs are genuine.

Edinburgh Castle, Scotland, UK

This gloomy castle holds the record for the number of ghosts living there. The ghost of a piper who got lost in the labyrinths of the castle, never leaving it to death, the spirit of a drummer from the army of Oliver Cromwell, the ghost of a dog walking around the local cemetery, the spirits of French prisoners, townspeople who died from the plague.

In addition to these "well-known" ghosts, visitors meet other unidentified entities, hear groans, footsteps, and many have a deterioration in their health.

Myrtle plantation, Louisiana, USA

This is one of the most famous haunted houses in the United States. The ghost of the black slave Chloe is wandering around the plantation. According to legend, the owner found Chloe when she was eavesdropping at the door, and cut off her ear. The offended Chloe baked a poisonous cake for the owner, which his wife and three daughters accidentally ate. The owner, in despair, unleashed anger on all the slaves of the estate, executing anyone who, in his opinion, was under suspicion. The slaves, in turn, lynched Chloe and lynched her.

Since then, the dark ghost of the tortured slave has repeatedly made itself felt and attracts paranormal researchers and ordinary tourists to the estate.

Queens House, Greenwich, London, UK

This the White house, trimmed with ebony, was the place of imprisonment of Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard (fifth wife of Henry VIII), Lady Jane Gray, Queen Elizabeth I. To this day, the ghost of the Lady in Gray walks along the tulip stairs of Queens House (who exactly is this prisoner, so and not established).

In 1966, photographer Ralph Hardy managed to capture a silhouette climbing a staircase. The photograph has been determined by Kodak to be genuine. In addition to the Gray Lady, there are other anomalies in Queens House: children's choral singing, the ghost of a woman wiping blood from the floor.

Newby Church, North Yorkshire, UK

Newby Church has not been famous for ghosts since its construction, but in 1963 the Reverend C.F. Lord took a picture of the altar, and when the film was developed on it, the outlines of an eerie phantom measuring 9 feet (275 cm) were revealed.

The ghost in the photo turned out to be so clear that the authenticity of the photo raised doubts, but experts, having studied it, came to the conclusion that this was not a double exposure or some other photo trick. I wonder if this picture inspired the creators of "Scream"?

Port Arthur Prison, Tasmania, Australia

In the 19th century, Port Arthur was a prison in which a large number of prisoners died, unable to withstand the harsh living and working conditions. Now the old building of the prison is dilapidated, and no one lives in it all the time. Nobody but ghosts. At night, footsteps are heard here, old doors creak, and lights flicker in the windows every now and then. Port Arthur has become a real Mecca for all lovers of the supernatural.

Winchester House, San Jose, California, USA

The California home was bought by Sarah Winchester, daughter-in-law of gunsmith Oliver Winchester, in 1884. After the death of her child, and then her husband, Sarah went to a medium who told her that the unhappiness in the family was due to the spirits that had died from the weapons created by Winchester.

To prevent the vengeful ghosts from reaching her, Sarah rebuilt the house on her own project, making it incredibly confusing and huge (there are about 10,000 windows in it).

After Sarah's death, strange phenomena began in the mansion: shadows in mirrors, slamming doors, moving objects. According to the mystical version, these spirits are still looking for Sarah, wandering through the endless corridors of her house. Rumors about the presence of ghosts attract crowds of tourists to this house, it is called the most extravagant attraction in California.

Berry Castle Pomeroy, Devon, UK

Visitors to this castle for no reason begin to feel despondency, fear and irritation on its territory. The reason for this, in the opinion of many, is the ghost of the White Lady, who was repeatedly met in these gloomy walls. Locals say that this is the soul of Margaret Pomeroy, whom Eleanor's own sister, out of envy, imprisoned in a tower and starved to death for 20 days until the unfortunate woman died. Most often, a translucent ghost is seen hovering silently over St Margaret's Tower.

St David's Cathedral, Wales, UK

All over the world there are abandoned buildings covered with legends of the past. Fans of tickling nerves often go there to see paranormal activity with their own eyes. And skeptics, who cannot be scared by any ghosts, listen with interest to stories related to this or that house. In this post, we've rounded up some of the creepiest abandoned buildings that will give you goosebumps.

There are many legends surrounding this eerie, abandoned hotel in Cyprus. Many people claim to have seen ghosts there. "Why would ghosts go there?" - you ask. And it was like this ...

In 1930, the hotel flourished and was the most popular tourist destination. Berengaria was owned by one very rich man who had three sons. When his father was dying, he decided to divide the inheritance in the form of a hotel and family wealth between his sons equally.

After a certain time, the brothers began to quarrel over the division of the profits brought by the hotel. And soon after the outbreak of the conflict, they all died under very strange circumstances.

Not knowing the true cause of their death, people decided that their father and the hotel had taken revenge on them, which, by the way, turned out to be abandoned. Local residents took out everything they could carry away from there. And it is believed that the hotel has become a haven for the ghosts of greedy brothers.

This abandoned former sanatorium building is located in Louisville, Kentucky (USA). In the 20s of the last century, this city had the highest death rates from tuberculosis, as it was located in a swampy area. In 1926, a sanatorium was built here, famous for its advanced methods of treating then incurable tuberculosis.

Nevertheless, the mortality rate in the sanatorium was very high. In order for the patients not to see how many people are dying, it was decided to build a special tunnel 150 meters long and send the bodies of the dead through it to the railway station. It was named the "Tunnel of Death".

When a cure for tuberculosis was finally found, the sanatorium was empty. After that, it housed a nursing home with a treatment center, which was closed due to the terrible conditions of detention. There was even talk of conducting experiments on elderly people. Since then, the building has been empty, vandals smashed the windows in it, took out all the furniture.

Everyone who visited this abandoned place vied with each other about the high paranormal activity there. In addition to strange sounds, slamming doors, randomly moving objects, visitors saw here a little boy playing with a ball, a woman with slashed wrists calling for help; a hearse driving up to a service entrance to a building where coffins were loaded into it. We also saw the ghosts of two nurses here, one of whom hanged herself upon learning about the infection with tuberculosis, and the second threw herself out of the window.

The forgotten estate of the Demidov family is located in the village of Taitsy in the Leningrad Region, about 39 km from St. Petersburg. The owner of the house was the industrialist Alexander Demidov.

They say that Demidov's daughter, Sophia, suffered from tuberculosis in her youth. So that she could, without leaving the house, arrange walks in the fresh air, the corridor of the house passed in a circle along the windows, and wide glazed terraces were arranged on the sides of the building.

Legend has it that seriously ill Sophia read a lot, and dreamed of doing natural science following the example of her grandfather. But the disease did not leave her. Once in the fall, from the terrace of the mansion, Sophia noticed an unfamiliar young man in the park. The girl violated the doctors' ban and left the house to meet the young man. They started dating every day. But one day the young man did not appear at the appointed hour. A thunderstorm broke out outside the window, and Sophia now and then ran out onto the front staircase to see if her friend was coming. Running out again, Sophia slipped and, hitting her head on a stone step, died.

Since then, her ghost has appeared on the terrace and halls of the house during a thunderstorm.

Source: vsenovostint.ru

In fact, this is just a legend. And Sophia recovered safely and married the Chief Jägermeister, Count Pyotr Gavrilovich Golovkin. She died at the age of 62.

But extreme travelers claim that in the estate you can meet the spirit of Alexander Demidov himself. If you hide under the cover of night on the front staircase of the house, you can hear rustles on the upper floors, as if something or someone is quietly flipping through the pages of an old book.

The abandoned Villa de Vecchi, also known as the "Haunted Mansion", is located in Italy near Lake Como. For many years now, it has attracted mysticism lovers from all over the world, thanks to its mystery.

In 1850, after returning home after long wanderings, Count Felix de Vecchi decided to create a cozy nest for his family. And he succeeded. In the first years of its creation, the villa enchanted guests with its warmth and comfort. It had a grand piano and a warm fireplace, and the walls were decorated with expensive frescoes. A wonderful park was laid out around the villa, in which a rather powerful fountain was even installed, working under the pressure of water from the mountainside.