Keats-Shelley House

Rome · Italy · Museum

John Keats died at twenty-five in the room above the Spanish Steps — he and Shelley are said to return to the square at dusk.

In the corner house at the Spanish Steps, the consumptive English poet John Keats rented a room, and there he died in February 1821, twenty-five years old. Papal health rules required that everything in the room be burned: furniture, wallpaper, books. He was buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery under a headstone bearing no name, and his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned the following year and was laid in the same ground. Legend gives them both back the square where they were happy: at dusk two young men in early nineteenth-century clothes are said to stand talking by the Barcaccia fountain below the steps, falling silent if anyone comes near. Visitors to the death room report cold and a faint smell of burnt paper.

FAQ

Where is Keats-Shelley House located?

Keats-Shelley House is in Rom, Italy.

More haunted places in Rom

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.