Haunted places
Cemeteries, crypts and ossuaries
A cemetery is a natural setting for ghost stories, but some necropolises have a special reputation: the Paris Catacombs holding the remains of millions, chapels lined with skulls in Czermna and Sedlec, the overgrown avenues of London's Highgate or Scotland's Greyfriars with its 'Mackenzie poltergeist'. There are stories of apparitions, lights at night and visitors who come back with bruises. Many are simply beautiful, dark places with a fascinating history.
- cases
- 15
- years
- 1599–2026
Disputed: 1 Legend: 10 Explained: 4
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16th century
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17th century
- 1672 The Mummies in the Crypts of the Reformati Church, Kraków Crypts of St Casimir's Church, Reformacka Street, Kraków, Poland Beneath a Baroque church lie friars and townspeople whose bodies – never embalmed – turned into mummies thanks to a unique microclimate.
- 1686 The mummies in the crypts of St Michan’s Church St Michan’s Church, Church Street, Dublin, Ireland In the vaults of a Dublin church the bodies turned into mummies of their own accord. Visitors shook “the Crusader’s” hand for luck – until his head was stolen in 2019.
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18th century
- 1776–1804 The Skull Chapel in Czermna Skull Chapel, Czermna, Kudowa-Zdrój, Kłodzko Land, Poland The chapel's walls and vault are lined with some 3,000 skulls and bones of war and plague victims, and its crypt holds the remains of tens of thousands more.
- 1786–present The Paris Catacombs – “the Empire of Death” Catacombs, Place Denfert-Rochereau, Paris, France The remains of more than six million people lie in old quarries beneath Paris – along with stories of the lost who never returned to the surface.
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19th century
- 1812–1820 The Moving Coffins of the Chase Vault, Barbados Christ Church Parish Church cemetery, Oistins, Barbados Heavy lead coffins in a sealed Barbados vault were said to be found scattered every time it was opened – one of the most famous mysteries of the 19th century.
- c. 1840–present Difunta Correa – the Dead Mother Whose Body Fed Her Child Difunta Correa Shrine, Vallecito, San Juan Province, Argentina Legend says Deolinda Correa died of thirst in the desert, and her baby survived at the breast of the dead woman. A million pilgrims a year visit her grave.
- 1865–present The Mummies of Guanajuato Museum of the Mummies by Santa Paula Cemetery, Guanajuato, Mexico Clearing crypts for unpaid fees, Guanajuato's gravediggers found bodies frozen in grimaces – now one of the world's most macabre collections.
- 1881–present The Tomb of Marie Laveau, New Orleans’ Voodoo Queen St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States People still come to the tomb of America’s most famous Voodoo priestess with their requests. On St. John’s Eve, they say, she is seen in the cemetery.
- 1893–present Cheesman Park – Denver’s Park on an Old Cemetery Cheesman Park, Denver, Colorado, United States An elegant Denver park was laid out on a cemetery whose bodies were scandalously removed in 1893. Thousands of them are said to still lie under the grass.
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1900–1909
- 1902–present Rufina Cambaceres and Recoleta Cemetery Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina Buenos Aires's most famous cemetery holds “the girl who died twice” – according to legend, buried alive on her nineteenth birthday.
- 1903–present The Ghost Boy at the Orthodox Church in Chróścin St George the Victorious Orthodox Church and former Orthodox cemetery, Chróścin, Wieruszów County, Poland By the church where the young son of Russian landowners was buried in 1903, a boy in old-fashioned clothes is said to appear in the evenings and ask about his parents.
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1960–1969
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1970–1979
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1990–1999