there are a lot of things that we can't explain and whether or not you believe in ghosts there are some places in the world that are just plain scary places that give you goosebumps so here are the top 15 most haunted structures on earth
number 15 fairmont banff spring hotel in the 1980s the shining managed to make something as harmless as a hotel and turned it into a big scare fest so now when you see the fairmont banff spring hotel in canada don't be surprised when chills run down your spine built all the way back in 1888 to encourage tourism and bring in the local train economy out of a rut the fairmont banff spring hotel is a chateau style structure that sits right by the gorgeous rocky mountains when you walk inside the hotel it takes on fittingly a more gothic style tone reports of multiple resident ghosts have been made over the decades one of which being a bride who allegedly fell down the stone staircase during the wedding ceremony but it must have been because she said until death do us part because she's now haunting the halls still in her gown but if that's a little too scary for you then then why not try looking for sam the bellman who worked at the hotel until he quit in 1975 promising to haunt the location now the spirit of sam supposedly moves the guest luggage around when they're not looking and this is one bellman that you don't have to tip
number 14 eastern state penitentiary even within the realm of the living a state penitentiary is a pretty scary place but the eastern state penitentiary in philadelphia takes things to the next level first off the entire structure is built to look like a castle when it was built in 1829 they were known for their solitary confinement prisoners lived alone and when they did have one hour a day to leave the cell guards threw a black bag over their head when the prison became overcrowded they had to let their solitary confinement cells go in 1913 to make room for an influx of inmates but they still needed ways to punish them with one story saying inmates had their tongues chained to their wrists yeah that's pretty rough the eastern state penitentiary eventually closed for good in 1970 but it's said that some of the inmates still haunt the building's halls people often say they can hear laughter in the distance see shadows moving about and can hear footsteps coming from empty sections thousands of people still come to visit each year and they even throw an annual halloween party there so it looks like for some of the inmates visiting hours are never over
number 13 chateau du brezek why does it feel like old castles are always haunted the chateau de brasac is in france his absolutely a breathtaking structure to look at someone else had their breath taken away within its walls years ago this seven-story castle is one of the tallest in france and is known as the home of the green lady who was supposed to be the ghost of charlotte of france according to the legend she was the illegitimate daughter of king charles vii and was murdered by her husband when he found out she was having an affair and guess what color her dress was when she was murdered yep green it's a story that's as sad as it is scary but now as part of her tale of revenge and woe she roams the chapel's tower room in the wee hours of the morning moaning and freaking out anyone crazy enough to go up there [Music]
number 12 la recoleta cemetery you can't have a list of haunted structures without mentioning a graveyard or two the recoleta cemetery in argentina is home to some truly beautiful statues grottos intricate tombstones and mausoleums it's even home to eva perron better known as evita but this good architecture is home to something a bit more sinister la recolota cemetery has plenty of ghost stories hiding in the walls and through the winding walkways of the grounds and it's not the type of place you want to be in in the dead of night but the most famous of the ghost stories from these haunted structures tells the tale of david eleno a former gravedigger and caretaker who worked in the cemetery for three decades before taking his own life was he haunted by something before his untimely death no one really knows for sure but today people say they can hear his big set of even bigger keys jangling around at sunrise as his spirit walks the pathways around the graves perhaps mr eleno has a little unfinished business
number 11. jesuit alhamra the united arab emirates is one of the most extravagant places on the planet it's a beacon representing not just human ingenuity and architecture but also vast amounts of wealth and while a lot of the uae is new there are still plenty of structures that weren't included in the great leap forward that propelled the area into the future one such place is jesuit alhamra which is 14 miles outside of a major city and in between a shopping mall and a water park but it's also a literal ghost town jezerat alhamra was established in the 14th century becoming a thriving pearl fishing village in the 1800s and then being abruptly abandoned in 1968 but all of those structures are still there attempting to defy the sands of time the first roads mosques and houses are all still there and totally haunted visitors claim that although the once thriving village is empty strange noises and ghostly apparitions abound many of the locals will also tell you that jezerat alhamra is home to jinn pre-islamic versions of genies who in this particular instance take on the form of animals
number 10 saint augustine lighthouse even after automation lighthouses are incredibly lonely places keepers would stay there for weeks even months at a time often alone it's easy to go crazy when you're all cooped up in there too but the saint augustine lighthouse in florida has a sordid history that draws almost a quarter of a million visitors a year several tragic events took place within the claustrophobic walls of the lighthouse and have given birth to plenty of paranormal activity a lighthouse keeper once fell to his death while painting the tower and now his ghost can be spotted watching over the grounds and manning his post even in the afterlife while he may be harmless sounds like one horrifying night but then there are the sounds of children playing in the lighthouse even when there are no children present it's said that decades ago three little girls were playing in a cart that broke and fell into the ocean as you can imagine all three drowned looks like their game never ended which is probably why they're still playing after all this time
number nine whaling house thomas whaley built his eponymous family estate in san diego california in 1857 right on the former site of the city's public gallows this already sounds like a recipe for disaster not long after thomas whaley moved into his new home he said he could hear footsteps coming from the other rooms even when he was home alone these footsteps though belonged to none other than yankee jim robinson but two bed robinson was hanged for stealing four years before the whaley house was built and the hauntings didn't end there whaley's family played with all sorts of tragedies like deaths and suicides most of which occurred within the walls of the home if you can believe it a lot of whaley's family members still haunt the grounds which have become a museum and the smells of their heavy perfumes and cigar smoke can be smelled throughout the place and seeing as how this site was haunted even before mr whaley got there we think it's best not to spend the night here ever
number eight obodney canal the obodney canal in st petersburg russia is an artificial body of water that has earned the unfortunate nickname of the suicide canal construction began in the late 1700s which was plagued by strange and unfortunate events right from the get-go lots of the workers would constantly complain about the persistent headaches having sudden outbursts of violence and many as the canal's name suggests ended their own lives so what was going on here it had to be more than just a simple case of disgruntled underpaid and overworked employees no one really knows for sure but some stories would tell you that in the 13th century under peter the first rule swedish knights massacred the woman of a small indigenous tribe and in return the village shaman cursed the nights before he too was murdered but the shaman and the women were all buried in the place that would become the abodney canal there is a possibility that the canal's granite plates are their tombstones
number seven raynham hall there's no shortage of haunted structures in england the city is incredibly old which is probably why so many ghost stories take place there but if you ever venture out to norfolk be on the lookout for raynham hall the haunted 7 thousand acre estate that is raynham hall was built at the beginning of the 17th century and is easily one of the most impressive structures in that area it's the former home of one lady dorothy townsend wife of viscount turnip townsend the elegant couple lived in the raynham hall in the 1700s during that time the lady of the hall was locked up in her home by her husband and so naturally her ghost roams the halls probably making up for all of the lost time she spent as a prisoner so it's pretty normal to hear things go bump in the night in raynham hall but the scariest part is probably the proof of the spirit's existence in the form of a photograph in the 1930s a photographer managed to catch a photo of lady dorothy
number six hofty house the huffty house is an incredibly famous home that overlooks the reykjavik waterfront and it's earned its place in history from all of the famous and historical figures it's housed ronald reagan and mikhail gorbachev met there in 1986 and queen elizabeth marlene dietrich and winston churchill all spent a night or two on the property and that's not to mention all the countless british ambassadors the huffty house has a history but it also has a history of being super haunted too the most famous otherworldly presence who calls the hofty house home is the white lady a ghost that many people believe died at her own hand the phantom white lady tends to pop up at all hours of the night but she's caused so much panic and fear in the hufty house that one ambassador convinced the british foreign office to sell the house immediately the house was sold back to the icelandic government that same year but some icelandic locals will tell you that the huffy house sits on a viking burial site and every now and then the spirits of the dead warriors will raid the liquor cabinet at night a drunk ghost hopefully is a happy ghost
number five leap castle so many haunted castles so little time the leap castle in coolderry ireland was built anywhere between the 13th and late 15th centuries and its bloody history sounds like a page ripped right out of game of thrones but this time it's all real local legends will tell you that during a struggle for power within the ruling o'carroll clan one of their members killed his own brother who was a priest during a mass held in the castle's chapel that room is now fittingly known as the bloody chapel just as you would expect the ghost of the priest haunts the church at night in the early 1900s leap castle underwent some renovations and the construction workers just so happened to stumble upon a secret underground dungeon in the bloody chapel and was still home to the skeletons of its victims but not just one or two skeletons were there there were so many that it took a total of three cart loads to haul them out of there upon further investigation they saw that the dungeon was specially designed so that people would fall through a trap door onto spikes protruding from the ground but this area was purposely built close to a main hall so the bloodthirsty clan members could hear you scream while you die a slow painful death
number four castle of good hope castle of good hope is a sprawling building not too far from the beautiful shorelines of table bay in south africa it's built in 1666 and with a number like 1666 you know you're off to a rough start the castle of good hope was built by the dutch east india company as a supply replenishment station for the ships coming in and out of port but it also served as a military fortress and a prison during the second borough war at the turn of the 20th century it is the oldest colonial building in south africa and you can book a tour and check out all the fort has to offer including the torture chamber not only were prisoners tortured at the castle of good hope but it was also where many people were condemned to death by hanging under governor peter van nut in the 1700s so expect to catch glimpses of ghastly specters haunting the grounds there is one ghost especially that holds the grounds in contempt just before being hanged one of the condemned cursed the governor from the gallows governor van nute died of a heart attack that very day now and perhaps a fitting end to the story the governor's ghost has haunted the battlements for centuries condemned by those he had sentenced to death
number three zunantenich everybody loves a good haunted jungle and the ancient mayan ruins of zorantenec in the jungles of belize are going to give you just that the ruin has been abandoned for the last millennium so all of the ancient spirits have had plenty of time to stir amongst the structure and haunt its exotic grounds the once home of a sprawling civilization until a massive earthquake caused everything to crumble explorers were able to find its remnants at the end of the 19th century today it's an important archaeological site but you've got to be pretty brave if you're going to head down that way it's said that the ancient city of zuwantenich is haunted by the stone lady your typical lady dressed in white complete with long flowing black hair and a pair of deep glowing red eyes the stone lady was first spotted when zwontennich was rediscovered and is usually spotted around the tallest building in the complex el castillo no one knows exactly who the stone lady is but the general consensus is that she was a human sacrifice with the ritual performed at the top of el castillo
number two ponte sisto when you've got a city as old as rome you know there are gonna be plenty of haunts to be had every single brick in the city has a story behind it some are gonna be a little more ghastly than others one of these stories though is about ponte sisto the ponte sisto is a bridge that spans over the tiber near the city's center and it's a pretty popular spot for lovers walks at sunset and it just so happens that sunset is when the ghost of olympia maldolkini rides her carriage across the bridge amongst the living she was a 17th century figure and the advisor to pope innocent the 10th giving her the nickname of the female pope my daughter rode in her carriage across the bridge with haste in an attempt to flee the city after the death of the pope in 1655 so it would seem that each and every night she's still attempting to flee a city she'll never be able to run from don't believe the story though then go ahead and sign up for dark roams ghost tours and see for yourself
number one winchester mystery house there was a time in the united states when winchester was the biggest name in rifles and many people had unfortunately been shot down by william ward winchester's firearm but his wife sarah winchester believed she was being haunted by all the spirits who were shot down by the winchester rifle so when she went ahead and designed a victorian home she had to make sure that none of these spirits would be able to find her while she was home this was by no means your typical house sarah winchester built what is essentially a labyrinth to confuse the vengeful spirits and let them get lost in the house the winchester mystery house is four stories tall with 160 rooms 10 000 window panes and 47 stairways and a lot of these windows and stairways lead to absolutely nothing and it's not uncommon to open a door only to be greeted by a wall or the occasional secret passage but despite the scares it's a very popular tourist attraction in san jose california make sure you don't get separated from the group because you may never be able to find your way out watch our scary playlist for more top 15 videos about the most scary subjects sit back relax and binge watch all of our best videos