Top Haunted Castles for Traveling in Europe
Spooky season has arrived!
It’s time to get ready for Halloween. But instead of the usual dressing-up and trick-or-treating, we offer you a different experience.
A spooky experience.
The Popularity of Halloween in Europe
In Europe, Halloween is as popular as in the U.S. In the UK alone, people spent over 400 million pounds on Halloween-related products last year:
Spending money on costumes, confectionery, and food for Halloween is a tradition around the world, which has made Halloween one of the most commercial holidays.
But what if you swap all the pointless money-spending for something different and more memorable?
This spooky season, we offer you to visit some of Europe’s oldest castles, but not for the sake of learning their history.
This spooky season, we offer you the experience of going ghost-hunting in Europe’s top haunted castles.
#5: Château de Brissac, France
One of the most haunted locations in France, Château de Brissac is the home of the ghost of the Green Lady
‘La Dame Verte’ is supposed to be Charlotte de Brézé, the illegitimate daughter of King Charles II and his mistress. She was married to Jacques de Brézé against her will. She often cheated on her husband, and she didn’t get away with it when he found her and her lover and killed them both in a blaze of anger.
Reportedly, the haunting started immediately after they were killed, and Jacques de Brézé had to move out of the castle because he couldn’t stand hearing their ghosts moaning.
Today, the inhabitants of the castle still see the Green Lady wandering around the castle, with her favorite room being the tower room of the chapel. She has holes where her eyes and nose should be, perhaps, hinting at the way she was killed.
#4: Burg Burnstein, Austria
This castle has been turned into a hotel, so you can stay overnight to enjoy the spooky atmosphere of this place!
Two ghosts, reportedly, haunt this castle.
The first one is the famous White Lady, known back in the day as Caterina Frescobaldi, who was buried alive by her husband as a punishment for adultery. Caterina goes under the name of the White Lady because the visitors of the hotel, who encountered her, felt her ice-cold touch on their foreheads in the middle of the night. To encounter her, you need to stay overnight in Tantalouis or Vinzenz rooms.
The second is the terrifying ghost of Red Ivan. His true name was Johannes, he also went under the name of Raging Wolf. He was a bloodthirsty knight, who murdered a bishop, and his restlessness as a ghost is his punishment. Visitors often see him standing near children’s bends with flaming-red hair and a wicked smile on his face.
#3: Moosham Castle, Austria
A place, where even the bravest person will feel uneasy, Moosham Castle hosts hundreds of spirits of killed witches.
In the age, when hundreds of women were accused of witchcraft, this castle was a place where they were imprisoned and tortured to death. The methods of torture were ghastly. “Till today, you can see all the torture devices stored in the dungeons of the castle”, says Marcus Dickinson, a researcher at Flatfy and an avid traveler.
The castle has a truly spooky atmosphere, with visitors often reporting that they are being watched. Guests also report feeling touched, hearing someone breathe right near them, and seeing shadows.
#2: Houska Castle, Czech Republic
This place doesn’t have typical castle vibes either. As it once was a prison, visitors often see a chained line of people walking through the corridors and moaning. Some ghosts were reported to be carrying their heads or limbs in their hands.
But the most popular feature of this castle is that it has been built on a bottomless pit. One of the volunteers, who decided to slide down this pit, lost his mind and was sent to the asylum, where he died of unknown causes.
The pit is believed to be the gateway to hell, and the castle was built to contain the evil. Visitors often report seeing the shadows of deformed creatures wandering around the castle (not to mention that the castle is located in the middle of nowhere).
#1: Colchester Castle, England
England, Scotland, and Ireland are reported to be the countries with the most haunted castles in Europe, and Colchester Castle is England’s most haunted sight (and the oldest castle in Britain).
One of the spirits that haunt Colchester Castle is the ghost of the Roman soldier, who haunts the dungeons of the castle. During its history, the castle was used as a prison, where prisoners were held in poor conditions. Visitors report hearing them moaning.
There are hundreds of other ghosts reportedly inhabiting Colchester Castle, as it is one of the oldest locations in Great Britain. You can watch the stories of all the hauntings in the video by BuzzFeed Unsolved, where they investigate this popular location:
Get the Most Out of Spooky Season
The best way to spend Halloween is to go ghost-hunting in Europe.
And, with these locations, we guarantee that you will never forget this experience!
