From illustrious fortezza to tuberculosis treatment center to....

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abandoned work of master Italian architect, Andrea dell'Aqua.  Constructed between 1635 and 1640, the Pidhirtsi Castle is a magnificent Renaissance palazzo in Ukraine. 

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This impressive castle is the oldest castle in Ukraine and all of Eastern Europe and holds exquisite nightmares from the past. 

The walls of the castle literally hold a dark secret and everyone who has spent the night in the castle since the 18th century have reported seeing a woman dressed all in white roaming the castle. 

It is believed that she was 19-year-old, Mary, the wife of 60-year-old, Vaclav Zhevutsky.  Allegedly, Vaclav was insanely jealous and insecure because of the age difference so he decided to lure Mary to the dungeon and walled her up alive.

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After WWII, the Soviets turned the castle into a tuberculosis treatment facility and the ghost of Mary was reportedly seen by workers and patients on a regular basis.

In 1956, the castle caught on fire that burned for three weeks and caused millions of dollars in damage.

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In 1997, the Lviv Gallery of Painting bought the property in the hopes of turning it into a museum but as of 2013, the funding was not available so now this opulent treasure sits in silence.  Tourist are allowed to visit the property but no one is permitted inside.

A white lady, a grey lady, and an Earl...

I randomly came across a story about the oldest castle in Denmark which also happens to be the "most haunted castle in all of Europe," the Dragsholm Slot.  The word Dragsholm means islet by the drag in which drag refers to the isthmus that connected Odsherred with Zealand before being reclaimed by Lammefjorden.

The Dragsholm Slot was constructed in the Renaissance around 1215 under the direction of the Bishop of Roskilde.  The castle was home to kings and noble families and functioned as a fortress against attacks.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, part of the castle was used to imprison evil-doers from the church and/or noble families with the most famous detainee being unruly Scottish nobleman, James Hepburn, the 4th Earl of Bothwell (third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots).

Hepburn lasted about five years and was only given enough food and water to survive.  He eventually lost his mind and ended up dying in a dungeon in the Dragsholm Castle in 1578.

It is alleged his ghost haunts the entire castle and endless reports of hearing the sounds of his horse and carriage in the courtyard outside the castle.

The castle is also home to at least 100 other ghost including the ghost of the White Lady.

She frequently wanders around the castle.  During a reconstruction project in 1930, builders discovered a female skeleton encased in a wall, and she was wearing white!!

She is said to be Celina the daughter of nobleman Bovles who owned the castle at one time.  Celina was promised to marry another noble but when she turned up pregnant by a commoner who worked at the castle, her father decided the only option was to seal her up behind a wall.  What a nutjob!!

And the third most standout haunter is the Grey Lady.  She is a "good" ghost according those who have interacted with her.  She was a maiden at the castle.

She developed a toothache, and she was given treatment for her tooth pain by the castle owners at the time.  The story goes they took great care of her and even though she did not die there, she comes back every night to make sure everything is in order.

Sadly, today, much like most of the other ghost-filled goldmines, the castle serves as a hotel, a rather luxurious hotel complete with a gourmet restaurant that is said to be one of the finest restaurants in Denmark.  The room prices vary and can cost upwards of $300 so if you can swing it, check out those prices and book a room here.

Whilst in Amsterdam, watch out for the Ghost of Black Matthew...

In the 13th century, there was a shady lad by the name Matthew, a wandering magician and thief who filled his days gambling always winning by using trickery and dark magic. 

Eventually, his luck did run out when he tangled with the devil.  It is said that Black Matthew roams the streets all over Amsterdam hoping to start up a game and regain his luck.

Ghost stories Nordic style...

Put the Vicarage (a vicarage is a residence set up by the church for priest) of Brogvattnet on the travel list for next Halloween and check out what is said to be the most haunted location in Sweden with the highest number of ghost-to-person ratio anywhere.  There are only 50 residents in the village of Borgvattnet but still that is a pretty high ratio.

The Vicarage was built in 1876 for priests to have a place to stay.  The legend surrounding the Vicarage are that of babies buried in the yard, abused maids, and even that past Vicars haunted the house.

 The first reports of supernatural occurrences was in 1927 in a letter written by Chaplain Nils Hedlund who lived in the haunted house for holy men.  In the 1930s, Chaplain Rudolf Tangden claimed to see a woman in the house, and in the 1940s, Chaplain Otto Lindfren and his wife witnessed paranormal activities including moving objects and odd noises.  

There were also reports of rocking chairs rocking, three women sitting at the end of the bed, chairs tipping over, crying, screaming, knocking, footsteps, people in the shadows, and a Madonna (Mary) seen in a mirror.

Hauntings were continued to be reported and getting a lot of media attention which prompted Tore Forslund, an unconventional Lutheran priest, to try and clear the house of these mysterious mischief-makers.  He earned the nickname Ghostpriest.  He gave up after a year.  

Today the house is a bed and breakfast.  You can even rent the entire house if you dare and if you are brave enough to make it through one night, you will receive a certificate of bravery.

Only fools rush in.....

unless, of course, you are talking about the Fools Tower in Vienna, Austria, in which case, no one in their right mind would rush in.

If being plagued by the daunting fact that Austria is the birthplace of Hitler, welcome to an even darker history of the abused and the tortured of Vienna, Austria.

The Narrenturm, Europe's oldest building and one of the first asylums, was built in 1784 to accommodate psychiatric patients and now is home to the Federal Pathologic-Anatomical Museum.

This medieval prison looking structure is a 5-story fortress built by Isidore Canevale for Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.  The massive structure was completed with underground passages and dungeons and was actually built over a Capuchin Monastery.  It is believed that the monks hid their own mentally-deficient brethren there.  It is a sprawling 28 room building designed in a circular fashion.  There was also a lightning rod installed on the roof. 

The asylum contained 139 individual cells for the mentally ill sent there.  They were referred to as inmates, lunatics, idiots, and madmen.  These inmates were essentially treated like animals and often times chained to the walls.  Their sleeping provisions included just a single straw mat for the floor.

Photo from Wiki

These people were essentially locked away in unsanitary conditions from others in society because of their lunacy.  They were ridiculed, degraded, and physically abused.  Sick patients were provided with little-to-no treatments.

Today, the museum houses at least 4,000 extremely shocking anomalies from the past which a few are never on display to the public but can be viewed with special arrangements.  They are said to have a stillborn "devil baby" born in 1827 that looks like Satan himself. 

The Viennese people are said to be conflicted by which scenario is actually the worst when it comes to the history of this fortress.  The rounding up and abuse of the poor or the grotesque abnormalities currently residing there.  Either way, that is enough spooky, sadness to last until next Halloween.

Just a little example of what you might encounter if you dare to visit.

Photo from Federal Pathologic-Anatomical Museum.

October, ghost story, Venice, Italy, si grazie....

Image from wikimedia.org-
Campiello del Remer

I love October because that means Halloween, yeah, yeah!! 

So quickest ghost story ever.  

If you are planning a visit to Venice and want to see a tormented, guilt-filled, wife-murdering ghost man wandering aimlessly through a tiny Venetian square carrying the head and torso of his dead wife, set your GPS to 45°26'6"N   12°19'37"E.

Here is the deal.  In 1598, the Doge Marino Grimani (Doge is Italian for an elected chief of state for various city/states during the medieval times and the Renaissance) was walking with his men in the Rialto area (Venice) when he heard the screams of a woman.  Later discovering the source of the screaming was his niece, Elena, who was trying to escape from her husband, Fosco Loredan.  

Image from wikimedia.org-
Doge Marino Grimani

He was accusing Elena of infidelity and became so violent he ended up decapitating her.  Grimani was overcome by grief at witnessing such a horror.  






Grimani and his men ordered Fosco to collect his wife's head and go to Rome for the Pope to decide his punishment for the crime.  

wikimedia.org-Grande Canal

In shock, the Pope sent Fosco back to Venice without uttering a word.  


Fosco began to fall apart because of the guilt he felt over his actions and ended up taking his wife's head and body and drowning himself in the Grande Canal in front of the Campiello del Remer, a small workshop.  

Apparently, Fosco appears on nights with full moons and on the anniversary of his death walking earth with his beloved decapitated wife in his arms.

Terror behind the walls of the infamous Eastern State Penitentiary.....

If you search the internet for the world's most haunted places, you will find that Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP, weird, right?) in North Philadelphia will be on EVERY list you find.

Could it be because of the numerous accounts of the sound of crying as if someone is in extreme pain?

Cell block 1

Could it be the random streaks of light or orbs that appear and disappear reported by multiple witnesses?

Could it be the abundant descriptions of hearing someone walking through the prison halls when no one is there?

Could it be the countless statements from visitors to ESP hearing someone calling their name, again, with no one being present to do so?

Could it be the infinite recollections of various people feeling tapping on their shoulders only to find no one there?

Could it be the sadistic laughter, the slamming of cell doors, the jiggling sounds of the cell door handles, stones being thrown, the sound of furniture being dragged around?

Could it be that multiple visitors have fallen ill while visiting the penitentiary?

Could it be the too numerous to count reports of hearing babies screaming from inside Cell Block 7?

Could it be due to the 50 suicides and over a dozen murders which occurred within the prison walls?

Or could it be the hundreds of people saying they have seen ghosts or shimmering blobs appearing and fading away while visiting?

I am no expert on hauntings, evil, or inhumane treatment of others but ESP does look like the perfect breeding ground for being a notoriously haunted place.

The penitentiary was built in 1829 and was the first "real" penitentiary in America and was the largest building in America at the time.
The architecture for the penitentiary was a new wagon wheel concept which was the model for hundreds of other penitentiaries that were built subsequent to ESP.

The concept of the wagon wheel design was accompanied by a new idea of punishment.

Instead of lumping all the inmates together in one large cage or holding pen, the key idea here was based on solitary confinement; inmates were kept away from other inmates.

The yards were enclosed by extremely tall walls.  Inmates were assigned times to be outside that would never overlap with other inmates.  They even had sound-proof doors.

It was felt that if the wrong-doer was completely alone, they would actually be able to feel remorse or regret for their actions (spiritual reflection, if you will).

If a prisoner ever left their confined space, a hood was placed over their head so the other prisoners would not see their face.  

Basically, the entire concept for the solitary confinement was a social experiment that was created at the home of Ben Franklin by a group of Quakers.

ESP is on the list for most haunted places because of its over 140-year-history of disease, murder, punishment, torture, suicide, and complete madness.

The punishments/torture the inmates endured include:

The mad chair.  So the mad chair was used to strap an inmate down so tightly that all circulation to was cut off to one or more body parts with resultant need for amputation.

The iron gag, an iron collar was placed in an inmate's mouth and that iron collar was attached to a strap that was tied to an inmate's hands.

Basically, any movement would cause tearing of the tongue, lips, and gums which caused profuse bleeding and unparalleled
pain.

The "hole," an underground cell with no light, no toilet, no exercise, no human contact, barely any food, and barely any air.

And finally, the water bath.  This punishment was used during the winter months.  Inmates were dunked and hung out on a wall.  They basically hung around until ice formed on their skin.


It is not hard to image why ESP would be haunted with the crude cells, decaying corridors, and depraved execution of punishments inflicted on inmates.

The penitentiary closed in 1971.  Between 1829 and 1971, there were an estimated 75,000 inmates 
include a few famous evil-doers.

Famed Chicago mob boss, Alphonse Capone, spent eight months in ESP.  He was a guest on the "Park Avenue Block" of the prison.  His cell was furnished with lamps, plants, paintings, a radio, rugs, and two skylights were put in at his request.  He also had his tonsils taken out in the medical wing free of charge.

Having a lot of money afforded him the luxury to have access to the things he was used to on the outside but it did not help him with his sanity.

Rumor has it that by the time Scarface had served his eight month at ESP, he was reduced to a terrified, blubbering wreck of a man.

Yeah, the deadliest mobster not scared of one living thing was extremely fearful of the ghost of a man he killed named Jimmy (James Clark).

The other inmates report that he would frequently yell out in a high-pitched wailing voice at night for "Jimmy" to leave him alone, and he must have been pretty scared since as you will recall these cells were practically sound-proof.

Slick Willie

Slick Willie Sutton, one of the most famous bank robbers in American History with 50+ bank robberies to his name.

Willie spent 11 years at ESP and in 1945, he and 11 other inmates dug a tunnel 100 feet underground.

Even though he was captured minutes after his escape attempt, he was successful in escaping from other prisons on 3 separate occasions.

Escape tunnel

He ended up serving 30 years behind bars and died in 1980.

Leo Callahan

Over the years at least 100 inmates tried to escape but only one was actually successful, Mr. Leo Callahan.

He was in ESP for assault and battery with the intent to kill.

Callahan and five other inmates tried to build a ladder to scale the east wall of the penitentiary.

They all made it out but he was the only one that was not captured and returned to ESP.

Callahan was never seen again and if he were still alive today, he would be over 110 years old.

Freda Frost

ESP also housed female inmates and Ms. Freda Frost was the last of them.

She was transferred in 1923 to a home for women.

She served 20 years for the poisoning death of her husband. 


There were a few more interesting inmates at ESP but I think the most fascinating inmate for me was hardened criminal #C2559 accused of murdering the cat of Pennsylvania Governor Pinchot.

He went by the name of Pep and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.  Sounds incredible I know.

The other inmates actually embraced and loved Pep, they even called him Pep The Black.

But did I mention the part about Pep being a black Labrador?  Yes, a cat-
murdering dog who also belonged to Governor Pinchot.  He literally had his own dog arrested and placed in prison for allegedly snuffing out his feline, what a nut!

Pep The Black spent 10 years locked up for the grisly kitty murder.  When he died he was buried on the property of the penitentiary.

If you pay ESP a visit, you can buy a stuff Pep in the museum's gift shop.

I think it is pretty clear why ESP is on the world's most haunted list year after year with the thousands of prisoners who were in agony daily.  They were abused, tortured, and left for dead behind the bleak grey walls of ESP.  Click here for ESP's awesome website to plan your trip at the world's most historic and most expensive prison.  You can click here for an online tour.  Scroll down and click on an area to explore.  Click here for Hands on History.  Also, check out this audio tour.  Former inmates, guards, staff of the prison when it was open, and several wardens of the prison take you on an audio tour of the prison.

I know Halloween is over but there is never a bad time to learn a little history, especially when it involves the disembodied supernatural.

Island of terror......

Because my love for Halloween is expansive, I love learning about perilous places, spine-chilling ghost stories, and all things paranormal. 

I heard about a small island in Italy (I love Italy too) called Poveglia which has been christened the most haunted island in the world!  In the entire world!  That is a big label for such a tiny island.

The original residents arrive in Poveglia around 421 AD trying to escape the barbaric invasion of Venice.  The island was densely populated and while the residents of Poveglia did win many of the wars against the barbarians, the group was permanently displaced in 1379 by the Venetian government.

The bubonic plague hit Venice around 1348 and continued to run rampant off and on all the way through 1631.  The deadliest outbreak occurred between 1629-1631 with an estimated 80,000 deaths in just that 17 month span. 

Quarantine centers were set up on many of the small islands around Venice including Poveglia.  Anyone showing any symptoms of being ill were dragged to the islands to wait for death, some were even burned alive.  The islands surrounding Venice were ultimately mass graves for the damned.  So many people were burned and buried during the plague, it is said that at least 50% of the soil is actually human ash.  In 1922, the existing buildings on the island were converted into a mental hospital.  Legend has it that the primary doctor of the asylum committed heinous acts and experiments on the patient before he ultimately went "insane" himself and fell to his death from the hospital's bell tower. 

If you are in Italy, the locals will not recommend you go to this ghost-ridden island of Poveglia.  In fact, there are no boats that make regular stops to or from the island and the majority of the boat attendants are unwilling to go there.  The Italian tourism board actually prohibits visiting the island (technically), and there is an application process for which you must be approved before you can visit
the island haunted by more than 100,000 diseased ghosts. 

If you are brave enough to visit the forbidden shores, beware!

Name the only place in Romania that even native Romanians are afraid to go to at night.......

 If you said the Hoia Baciu Forest, you would be correct.  In fact, this forest is so taboo, most Romanians will not even speak of it out of fear of what my befall them.  

Hoia Baciu Forest translates to Shepherd's Forest and is also referred to as the Romanian Bermuda Triangle.  Sorry Dracula, it looks like the legend of the Hoia Baciu Forest is gaining in popularity. 

The forest gets its name from a sheep shepherd who mysteriously disappeared along with his flock of 200 sheep; just vanished in the thick of the trees never to be seen or heard from again.  

Another interesting fact to note is Hoia Baciu is the world's most haunted forest even surpassing that of the Japanese Suicide Forest.  

A few facts about Romania's mystical woodlands:  

~The forest is located west of Cluj-Napoca.

~At one point the local villagers began to build steps up to and into the forest until they found themselves beleaguered by the acute onset of headaches, skin burns, nausea, and extreme anxiety.

~The forest spans roughly 618 acres.

~Back in 1968, a local military technician, Emil Barnea, brought attention to the forest when he captured a photograph of a UFO hovering above the forest.  Apparently, this is the best documented photo of all times of a UFO.

~People have reported a myriad of ailments while in or near the forest including apparition siting, ghost, unexplained images in photographs, migraines, nausea, and vomiting.  More than 1,000 people have gone into the forest but never returned.  It is like they stepped right off the planet.  Some people report lapses in time while in the forest.  Reports of strange lights and blowing wind which seems to speak to people.  There are also reports of magnetic anomalies inside the forest.

~It was reported a 5-year-old girl went into the forest and returned 5 years later wearing the exact same clothing.  She was cleaned and unharmed but had no recollection of where she had been or what happened to her.

~Other commonly reported phenomenon are the voices of females laughing, people being scratched, and mysterious orb-like lights in the sky above the forest.

~It sounds extreme but there are actually people who believe this forest is a gateway to another dimension.

~The trees inside the forest have odd curvatures about them.

~If you dare to venture in to the forest be on the look out for a 300 meter, circular dead zone where nothing grows or has ever grown.  Scientist have conducted countless soil studies which yield no explanations for the lack of vegetation growth.  Legend has it hundreds of Romanian peasants were murdered in the forest, and their spirits protect the clearing which is, in fact, the gateway to other dimensions.  Randomly-appearing thick, black fog is believed to be the tormented souls of the peasants making their presence known while making it difficult for you to see.

~Another theory is that the forest is the lost Atlantean civiliation (Atlantis) and the ancient peoples use this area for teleportation in which they travel anywhere in the universe.  (I know).

To sum it all up, I think there is no denying something extraordinary is going on in this forest which continues to baffle specialists in all fields of study and attract people from all over the world to pay a visit to this mysterious forest of doom.  We may never know what is going on and honestly, it might be better that way.

Dead men tell no tales or do they.......

I usually try to blog a few haunted stories before Halloween but I only had a chance to tackle two since I have been so busy but they are fantastic haunts and both from Georgia.   

Ghostly chuckles, objects shifting about, and pounding footsteps are just part of what goes on at the very haunted Pirates' House in Savannah, Georgia which today is a very popular restaurant and a museum (kind of).

The food is said to be divine but even the best food will not distract from the paranormal activity the house has to share.  Privateers wandering around in the basement, ghosts of pirates hanging around upstairs, drunken calls from Captain Flint asking for more rum, dining chairs being rearranged nightly, a sense that the spirits are watching you, and a general sense of feeling ill while inside the building have all been reported.

The apparitions haunting The Pirates' House are, of course, you guessed it, blood-thirsty pirates.  It is also said to be visited by seadogs, sailors, and privateers.  Arr!

Back in the day, in 1753, the Pirates' House was a gathering spot for degenerate captains, beastly criminals, merchant marines, intoxicated sea rovers, buccaneers, and a few exceedingly villainous inhabitants of Savannah.

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On a side note, the Pirates' House is the oldest standing building in Georgia.  Amazing, I know!

Savannah is also home to many underground tunnels built underneath the city at different times and for different reasons.  There is a tunnel/basement underneath the Pirates' House which is believed to be used for kidnapping, trafficking liquor, and to dump dead bodies during the Yellow Fever.  This tunnel stretched over a block and opened out near the Savannah River.  Now back to the haunted Pirates' House........Wait a minute, another side note, supposedly  The Pirates’ House was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel, “Treasure Island.”

There is no chance you will see me
in this basement!

Okay, now, because sailing was a risky business to be in, not many would voluntarily head out on these voyages but the ships needed crew members.  The Pirates' House was a good place to "recruit" sailors for the openings that had to be filled.

It was fine if no one was eager to volunteer, captains and crew members of ships would provide unfathomable amounts of the finest rum to the able-bodied men at the Pirates' House in an attempt to get them drunk and then just carry them through the underground tunnel beneath the Pirates' House to their ships waiting at the water's edge of the Savannah River. If this tactic failed, these seafaring scoundrels would simply drug the men or flat out knock them unconscious and hog-tie them in order to carry them off to the high seas.  What ever worked.  This practice was outlawed in 1811 by the way.

The men would wake up to find that they had been taken prisoner and forced to work on the ship of the crew who claimed them.

If they did not want to work, that was fine too!  The nefarious buccaneers had no problem to "blow the man down" because there was always plenty of room for them at Davy Jones' Locker-i.e. they were tossed overboard.  One of the most bizarre tales is that of a local police man who came in for a drink after work, he ended up in China for the next two years.

The main evildoers of these behaviors were the French and English Privateers because they felt that they were above the law.

In fact, many had permission from the English government to attack and plunder enemy ships and slaughter the ship's crew members as long as they shared their ill-gotten booty with the English government.


This was referred to as a letter of marque.   This letter of marque was not a 100% guarantee.  The infamous Scottish sailor, Captain William Kidd, had a letter of marque but his government decided to charge him with piracy and executed him anyway.  Blimey!

Another story goes something like this.  While at the Pirates' House, six American sailors were attacked by French Privateers.  Two of the American sailors died and a French privateer was also killed during the brawl.

Another interesting note, it is said that the famous French privateer, Jean Lafitte, stayed at The Pirates’ House many times between dates aboard ship.  You will not be seeing his ghost there as he is off haunting his blacksmith shop in the French Quarter.  

So that is the end of this.  I would not be surprised by the accounts of unearthly activity being reported given the substantial amount of violent acts that took place at the Pirates' House.  Exaggerated folklore or true story?

Another post about Robert Louis Stevenson here.

More about pirates and Jean Lafitte here.