From children’s voices to horrifying vampire figures, the world’s forgotten castles, hospitals, penitentiaries, and battlegrounds are home to some truly scary stuff.
The stories of these forgotten places and the people who inhabited them have colored our histories and our understandings of the past.
Growing up in the American south, I am no stranger to a good ghost story. I grew up visiting haunted places such as the ones on this list.
The experience of walking through a place that is believed to be inhabited by spirits is unlike anything else I have done before.
But I never fully understood the extent of paranormal activity that occurs all over the world.
From India to Mexico, Kentucky to St. Augustine, Florida, these eerie places will make you rethink everything you know about conventional ghost stories, haunted places, and paranormal activity.
I know I did. Scroll through this list to see which places are supposedly the scariest in the world!
1. Château de Brissac, France
This noble residence is said to have been built in the 11th century and occupied by royals and noblemen alike. One noble inhabitant, Charlotte de Brézé, was reportedly murdered in the castle by her husband because she was caught red-handed with her lover.
The ghostly presence that is now said to haunt the French castle is known simply as “The Green Lady.”
2. 432 Abercorn Street, Savannah, Georgia
432 Abercorn Street is located in Savannah, Georgia’s infamous Calhoun Square. Built atop a slave burial ground, the location has long been rumored to be haunted. It is supposedly the site of both a brutal case of child torture shortly after the Civil War and a triple homicide in the 1960s, though historical records have rendered those reports to be more legend than fact.
Nonetheless, visitors to the house have reported seeing the ghostly figures of children in the upstairs windows.
3. Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa
This 7th Century structure was originally used by The Dutch East India Company in the 17th century as a rest place for passing ships. One ghost that reportedly haunts the grounds is of a tall man who has been observed leaping from the castle walls.
Another ghost, believed to be that of the female remains recently excavated from the castle, has been seen running through hallways weeping.
4. St. Augustine Lighthouse, Florida
According to urban legend and old reports from a local newspaper, The St. Augustine lighthouse has been haunted from the very beginning. It is said that a lighthouse keeper fell 60 feet to his death when a scaffold he was using to paint broke.
It is also believed that a group of children drowned under the lighthouse gate during the summer of 1873. One ghost tour guide in the area reports being grabbed by the ankle while on a tour, and visitors often describe a female's loud cries for help.
5. Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, Victoria, Australia
Beechworth Asylum was a mental hospital in Victoria, Australia that operated from 1867-1995. It has since been bought by La Trobe University and been converted for other uses.
Ghost hunters and patrons alike have observed the ghosts of several rumored occupants of the old asylum, including a friendly orderly and a kitchen hand.
6. Bhangarh Fort, India
Bhangarh Fort is a structure located inside the deserted town of Bhangarh, Rajasthan in India. Legend has it that a scorned suitor attempted to hex the princess into marrying him cast a curse on the entire town.
Some even believe the entire town was decimated that day. Visitors are not permitted inside the fort after sunset, as strange voices and other paranormal happenings have been reported at nighttime.
7. Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia
According to Eastern State Penitentiary’s website, the Philadelphia prison opened its doors in 1829 with one goal in mind: to make its prisoners truly regret their actions as criminals. An NPR article about the penitentiary reports torturous methods such as forced ice baths, isolation, and other more extreme forms of torture.
Guards and visitors alike have reported hearing voices and seeing silhouettes within prison walls and cell blocks.
8. Central State Hospital, Milledgeville, Georgia
Opened by the state of Georgia in 1842 as the “Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum,” Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia was once the largest insane asylum in the world with over 13,000 patients. Almost anyone could be admitted there with very little grounds other than being strange, and common treatment practices for patients included lobotomies and electroshock therapy.
The dilapidated campus still stands today, where thrill seekers and students from the nearby Georgia College come in hopes of encountering the spirit of one of the thousands to die in this creepy asylum.
9. Island of the Dolls, Mexico
The Island of the dolls, a tourist attraction in Xochimilco, Mexico, is rumored to be the site of a recluse’s superstitious shrine to a drowned young girl. When Julian Santana Barrera moved there, he found the body of a young girl, so he hung her doll from a tree in hopes of repelling her spirit.
Over the years, he kept adding more and more dolls to the trees, in what is now an eerie display on the island for visitors to enjoy.
10. Waverly Hills Sanitorium, Kentucky
Waverly Hills Sanitorium in Louisville, Kentucky, originally opened as a one-room schoolhouse before it was expanded and converted into a tuberculosis treatment hospital in the early 1900s. The community was completely self-contained, and it was said that once a patient arrived at the hospital they were never permitted to leave because of the highly contagious disease.
Rumored hauntings of the dilapidated hospital include the ghosts of nurses who committed suicide there and strange baking smells coming from what was once the kitchen.
11. Highgate Cemetery, London, England
Highgate Cemetery opened in 1839 on a hillside of suburban London to alleviate overcrowded cemeteries due to overpopulation. It quickly became the site of lavish displays of wealth from the elites trying to outdo each other with ornate tombstones and statues but fell into disrepair in the 1960s and was eventually abandoned.
Around the same time, terrifying figures such as a creature with red eyes were reported inside the cemetery gates. Today, visitors report seeing an elderly woman with long hair and a pensive man who is unaware of onlookers.
12. Aokigahara Forest, Japan
This bone-chilling forest is located about 2 hours outside of Tokyo. For years it has been a popular location to commit suicide, second only the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
Because of the alarming rate of suicides here, the forest itself is rumored to be home to signs of paranormal activity, such as compasses not working within the forest.
13. Gettysburg Battlegrounds, Pennsylvania
On July 1, 1863 Confederate and Union soldiers faced off in what would come to be known as the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over 50,000 men lost their lives on that day, and rumors of hauntings have circulated ever since.
Visitors have reported hearing voices, seeing ghostly figures, and even capturing the apparitions in photographs.
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