Haunted Churches (1594)

1594 haunted churches from around the world. Each location includes its story and GPS coordinates.

• 🕯️ Borley Rectory England, Essex 'England's most haunted house' according to Harry Price — burned in 1939, demolished in 1944, but the stories live on.
• ⛪ Church of St Benedict Kraków The Black Princess lives under the steps of the tiny church. She hands out gold, and tears the head off anyone who breaks her one condition.
• ⛪ Alvastra abbey ruin Östergötland A Cistercian abbey from 1143 where the monks' treasure is said hidden in the mountain — and where dusk walkers think they glimpse cowled figures.
• ⛪ Catacombs of St. Stephen's Cathedral Vienna Thousands of plague dead were tipped into the pits beneath the cathedral — and black shadows are said to move in the oldest passages.
• ⛪ The Ride of the Dead at Heiligenkreuz Lower Austria At midnight the dead soldier fetched his sweetheart on a snow-white horse, calling out: how bright the moon shines, how fast the dead ride.
• ⛪ The White Lady of the Scots Abbey Vienna When lights kindle in the cloister passages at midnight, Berta von Rosenberg walks. The white lady's visit has never meant anything but a death.
• ⛪ The White Lady of Hernals Vienna Sooner would the bells ring on Good Friday, said Gundl. At midnight a woman in white pulled the bell rope — and Gundl was gone.
• ⛪ Franciscan Monastery of Halshany Hrodna oblast A young mason's wife was walled up alive in the monastery wall at Halshany – and to this day the White Lady lets night guests feel her wrath.
• ⛪ Basilica of St James the Greater Prague A withered human arm hangs on a chain inside the door. The Madonna seized the thief by the wrist and would not let go until the axe was fetched.
• ⛪ Church of the Assumption and St Charlemagne (Karlov) Prague The master builder made a pact with the devil to make the vault hold. When the scaffolding burned he hanged himself — the vault still stands.
• ⛪ Strahov Monastery and Uvoz Prague A Premonstratensian brother rides at night between Strahov and Nerudova on a white horse. The habit is in order — the head is missing.
• ⛪ Church of St Peter at Porici Prague He called out over the graveyard for anyone willing to play cards. Shadows rose from the graves and sat down around him.
• ⛪ Parochial Church Berlin Beneath the Baroque church floor rest 147 coffins behind three-hundred-year-old burial chamber doors – and when the pastor had them opened, 87 mummies stared back.
• ⛪ Børglum Abbey Nordjylland, Vendsyssel The bishops of Børglum ruled Vendsyssel with an iron hand — and in one particular room, the dead canons are said to still appear.
• ⛪ Roskilde Cathedral Köpenhamn Beneath the cathedral a horse was buried alive with one leg cut off – as a three-legged hel-horse with glowing eyes it still portends death.
• ⛪ Højerup Old Church, Stevns Klint Sjælland, Stevns Every Christmas night the church moves one cock's stride inland. On a March day in 1928 it was too slow — the chancel fell into the sea.
• ⛪ Østerlars Round Church, Bornholm Bornholm The Day of Judgement was whitewashed over at the Reformation and lay hidden for 350 years — and legend has the Templars hiding a treasure beneath the cold round room.
• ⛪ St Canute's Cathedral, Odense Fyn, Odense The monks dug secret tunnels to the nuns on Nonnebakken — and legend says none of them has found rest in the grave since.
• ⛪ Vestervig Church, Thy Nordvestjylland, Thy She was danced to death on the king's order; he was blinded and chained just close enough to touch her grave.
• ⛪ Church of Our Lady, Kalundborg Sjælland, Kalundborg "Hush, my child, tomorrow your father Finn comes" — the troll was to have Esbern Snare's eyes and heart unless he guessed the name.
• ⛪ Mortemer Abbey Normandy On full-moon nights the Empress Matilda appears in the abbey ruins — her gloves reveal whether she brings fortune or death.
• ⛪ Basilica of Saint-Denis Paris The bishop was beheaded up on Montmartre, picked up his own head and walked — and did not stop until here, six kilometres to the north.
• ⛪ Holy Trinity, Hounslow — the burned monks London The abbot and his sacristan refused Henry VIII. They were burned at the stake outside The Bell inn — and are still seen on the spot.
• ⛪ La Recolección Church Ciudad de Guatemala At midnight, chains are heard dragging through the La Recolección quarter — a procession of hooded penitents who never found peace.
• ⛪ Crypt of the Immaculate Conception Church, Fót Pest A woman walks the crypt with a rosary in her hand, praying and weeping. The count himself admitted the house was never empty.
• ⛪ The Black Church (St Mary's Chapel of Ease) Dublin Walk three times anticlockwise around the coal-black church at midnight, Dubliners say, and the devil meets you on the last circuit.
• ⛪ Miklibær in Skagafjörður Norðurland vestra Solveig of Miklibær was refused holy ground in 1778 – eight years later the priest vanished without trace, and folk said she had dragged him into her grave.
• ⛪ Myrká Norðurland eystra From this church farm, the dead deacon of Myrká rode through the winter night to fetch his sweetheart – 'Garún, Garún' – in Iceland's most famous ghost story.
• ⛪ Sansevero Chapel Naples Two skeletons stand with their entire circulatory system intact. Naples says the prince injected metal into two living servants.
• ⛪ Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo Rome Demons in the shape of crows gathered in the walnut tree on Nero's grave — so the pope felled it and built the church on the spot.
• ⛪ Bjälbo church & Ingrid Ylva Östergötland Birger Jarl's 'sorcery-wise' mother is said to have been walled in standing in a pillar — while she held her head high the dynasty would be spared.
• ⛪ The Old Convent of La Concepción Mexico City María Gil hanged herself in the peach tree for love — and the novices watched her silhouette sway above the convent garden.
• ⛪ Former Convent of Churubusco Mexico City The painter Dr. Atl lived here and called the phantom monks an everyday affair — and at dawn, cannon that fell silent in 1847 are heard.
• ⛪ Selja Abbey and St Sunniva's Cave, Stad Vestland The Irish king's daughter and her followers prayed for the mountain to fall on them rather than be taken. The mountain obeyed.
• ⛪ Utstein Abbey, Mosterøy Rogaland The White Lady has walked the abbey for two hundred years. She first appeared in Stavanger Cathedral – just as her husband was about to remarry.
• ⛪ The Skull Chapel, Czermna Dolnośląskie Legend says those whose bones line the chapel never found rest — at night, whispers and footsteps are heard among three thousand skulls.
• ⛪ Holy Trinity Basilica (Dominican Church) Kraków A girl called Eleonora appears by the crypt stairs. Above the tomb of St Hyacinth, torches have been seen floating with nobody holding them.
• ⛪ St Mary's Basilica Kraków The trumpet call breaks off mid-note where the arrow hit the watchman's throat. In the Chapel of Criminals the condemned still moan after dark.
• ⛪ Tyniec Benedictine Abbey Kraków If the monks of Tyniec start loving wealth more than prayer, Walgierz the Bold appears to them: the knight who killed out of jealousy.
• ⛪ Lubiąż Cistercian Abbey Dolnośląskie In the desecrated crypt of the vast baroque abbey, princes and monks lie without rest – and legend tells of the brother who slept for a hundred years.
• ⛪ Monastery of Santa Maria de Seiça Central Portugal The Black Death took 150 monks in a matter of weeks — and in the ruined monastery the temperature drops where they once sang.
• ⛪ Chiajna Monastery București (Giulești) From the never-consecrated monastery ruin on Bucharest's edge, bells are said to toll on full-moon nights – though its bells vanished centuries ago.
• ⛪ Hietaniemi Church Norrbotten The farmhand took ten crowns in earnest money from a fine gentleman – by morning only a chip of wood lay in his hand, and at midnight on the third night the church door opened.
• ⛪ Njurunda Old Church Medelpad She was first to the Christmas dawn service and sang along with the hymn – until she looked up and saw that every soul in the pews lay buried in the churchyard outside.
• ⛪ Church of the Holy Cross, Ronneby Blekinge The axe cuts are still in the oak door. Behind it the townspeople stood and listened to the king's soldiers hacking their way in — 4 September 1564.
• ⛪ Kristianopel Blekinge In the marsh by Baneberg lies a copper kettle full of treasure. The teller's great-grandfather saw its handle break the surface — then spoke to his farmhand, and it was gone.
• ⛪ Nydala Abbey Church Jönköping The monks gave the king lodging at Candlemas. Next morning his men cut a hole in Lake Rusken and put the abbot and his brothers through the ice.
• ⛪ St Olof's friary & Petrus de Dacia Östergötland At the vanished friary of the Black Friars, Sweden's first author wrote of the devil beating a mystic's head against the wall.
• ⛪ 7 of Norway's Most Haunted Places Norway is not only a land of magnificent fjords and majestic mountains, but also home to some of the most fascinating haunted places in Scandinavia.
• ⛪ All Hallows by the Tower: The Church That Received the Beheaded England, London All Hallows by the Tower claims by its own tradition to have been founded as early as the seventh century, which would make it the oldest church in London.
• ⛪ Khor Virap Ararat Gregory spent thirteen years in the snake pit — and when the king was struck by madness, it was the prisoner at the bottom who was hauled up to cure him.
• ⛪ Santa Felicitas Church Buenos Aires The murdered beauty Felicitas Guerrero is said to weep still at the church railings of Barracas.
• ⛪ The Ghost in the Augustinian Church Vienna Boys ringing the bell met a white man with a threatening raised hand. One broke his foot fleeing; three others fell gravely ill.
• ⛪ Bisley Church Stroud, Gloucestershire The strange tale of the Bisley Boy is only one of the many legends attached to the church.
• 🕯️ Bjurholm Rectory Västerbotten A haunted gem in Västerbotten. Bjurholm Rectory in Västerbotten County is a place that carries over one hundred and fifty years of history — and perhaps some of its earlier inhabitants! Since the rectory was inaugurated in 1853, many have passed through.
• 🕯️ Borgvattnet Rectory Jämtland Sweden's most notorious haunted house. Deep in the magical forests of Jämtland lies a place that has gained near-mythical status — Borgvattnet Rectory.
• ⛪ Ekeby church & the Igelbäcken Östergötland Four runestones in the churchyard — and the church's first great bell said to lie giant-stolen in the brook nearby.
• ⛪ Malexander church Östergötland Trolls tore down the building each night until twin heifers chose the spot — by the shore of Lake Sommen.
• ⛪ Rinna church Östergötland A church-warden spirit invisibly tore down at night what was built by day — the same motif as at Malexander.
• ⛪ Chapel of the Good Shepherd: The Inmates' Church New York At the centre of the island stands the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, a stone church completed in 1889 and designed by Frederick Clarke Withers.
• ⛪ Christ Church Spitalfields: Hawksmoor's White Tower England, London Christ Church Spitalfields was built to designs by Nicholas Hawksmoor and completed in 1729, one of six churches he built in London.
• ⛪ Xikai Cathedral Tianjin Around Tianjin's great cathedral, the crying of infants is said to echo in the dark long after the doors are locked.
• ⛪ La Popa Convent Bolívar On Cartagena's highest hill a friar hurled the devil-goat off the cliff – but the mountain never quite got rid of it.
• ⛪ Convent of St Agnes Prague The murdered nun appears around the convent — bloodied and weeping, or smiling, if the person she meets is unhappily in love.
• ⛪ Emmaus Monastery (Na Slovanech) Prague The devil took a job as monastery cook and served wine instead of water — until the abbot overheard what was being planned in the kitchen.
• ⛪ Tetin Prague Candles lit themselves over Ludmila's grave and a fragrance rose from the earth — so strong that her killer's patron built a church over it.
• ⛪ St. Mary's Church Berlin By the door stands an atonement cross for the provost Berlin's mob beat to death and burned in 1325 – and inside, Death himself dances with emperors and beggars along the church wall.
• ⛪ Bonifaziuskapelle, Erfurt Reported haunted location in Germany.
• ⛪ Hubertus-Kapelle Reported haunted location in Germany.
• ⛪ Lehnin Abbey Brandenburg A noblewoman who loved a monk is said to atone for her forbidden love among the abbey ruins – every minute of joy costing years of wandering.
• ⛪ Kloster Wessobrunn Reported haunted location in Germany.
• ⛪ Esrum Abbey Köpenhamn The devil took service in the abbey kitchen as Brother Rus – he slew the cook and lured the monks to their ruin.
• ⛪ Saint Peter's Church Köpenhamn Struensee – the queen's lover who ruled Denmark and lost his head in 1772 – is said to haunt the old church of the Germans.
• ⛪ Ribe Cathedral Sydjylland, Ribe A giant on Mandø raged at the building of the cathedral and hurled a stone at it. He missed — the stone lay in the Ribe river until 1970.
• ⛪ St Clement's Church, Rømø Sønderjylland, Rømø On the Kirkebjerge north of the church a skipper met a figure carrying its own head under its arm — that same hour his boyhood friend was beheaded in New Orleans.
• ⛪ The Sand-Buried Church, Skagen Nordjylland, Skagen The congregation shovelled its way to the church door every Sunday as the sand rose — today only the tower shows, and the whole church lies buried underfoot.
• ⛪ Dolm Church A place of faith, tragedies and mysteries. Dolm Church, located on Dolmøya in Hitra municipality, is one of the oldest buildings along the Trøndelag coast and carries a history full of drama, faith and supernatural tales.
• ⛪ San Diego Convent Pichincha The figure of Christ in the convent is said to have addressed the carousing Father Almeida: 'How much longer, Father?'
• ⛪ Monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès Barcelona In the middle of midnight mass in 1350 the abbot was cut down at the altar – the iron rooster on the roof crowed three times, the bells rang as far as Montserrat, and no grass grows on the killers' escape path.
• ⛪ Sagrat Cor de Jesús (Sant Martí de Provençals) Barcelona When the parish graveyard was levelled, many of the dead were left in the ground – and by neighbourhood legend the orphaned dead still crawl beneath the grass, lamenting.
• ⛪ Sant Pere de les Puel·les Barcelona When Almanzor's armies stormed Barcelona in 985 the convent's nuns were slain or sold as slaves – but Abbess Madruí returned from captivity and became a saint.
• ⛪ Sanctuary of La Balma Valencia Spain's "possessed" were brought to this cave church in the cliff face for exorcism – until the Church banned the rites in the 1930s.
• ⛪ Église Saint-Merri Paris A horned, two-sexed demon sits above the church door surveying the quarter — and nobody has ever quite wanted to explain why.
• ⛪ Biscornet's Doors, Notre-Dame de Paris Paris The smith fell asleep in despair over an impossible commission and woke to finished ironwork — then the doors refused to open.
• ⛪ Saint-Cloud and the Spectre of Clodoald Paris The king's grandson who chose the cloister over the crown walks the walls at night — sometimes with his grandmother Clotilde beside him.
• ⛪ Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Paris The devil blows out the saint's candle with a bellows, the angel relights it — the same struggle, night after night, on Geneviève's hill.
• 🕯️ Frammegården in Skillingmark Värmland One of Sweden's most haunted houses? Deep inside the Värmland forests, near the Norwegian border, lies Frammegården — a place that carries rumours of ghosts, witches and tragic fates.
• ⛪ The Old Masthugg Church — The White Lady and the Black Priest Västra Götaland By the church ruins haunts a woman in a white dress, jilted at the altar. In the new church, a black-clad priest figure.
• ⛪ All Saints, Isleworth — the boy by the porch London A woman passing the churchyard late one evening in 1972 saw a small boy by the gate. He was gone when she looked back.
• ⛪ Croydon Minster — the archbishop who finds no rest London A grey figure walks the churchyard in visible torment. Those who have seen it say it is Archbishop Gilbert Sheldon.
• ⛪ St Mary's, Harrow-on-the-Hill — the nun among the gravestones London A nun in white drifts between the graves on the hill — and the rational explanation is nearly as unsettling as the ghost.
• ⛪ Haga Church — Cemetery of Plague and Cholera Västra Götaland Ground saturated with tragedy from the cholera epidemics — stillness and historical weight after dark.
• ⛪ Hardemo kyrka Örebro It always starts the same way, locals say: a faint knocking from one of the old gravestones.
• ⛪ Holy Trinity Church, Weston Weston, Hertfordshire Two stones twelve feet apart mark the reputed grave of the legendary giant Jack O'Legs.
• ⛪ Lokrum Island Dalmatien When the Benedictines were driven from Lokrum in 1798, they circled the island one last time with their candles turned upside down – cursing anyone who would claim it as their own.
• ⛪ Matthias Church Budapest The Madonna lay walled up for 145 years. When the wall collapsed in 1686 she stood before the praying men — and the defenders fled. The defenders fled the church.
• ⛪ St Audoen's Church Dublin The Lucky Stone in the porch glowed in the dark, took human shape, and screamed when workmen tried to break it with a sledgehammer.
• ⛪ Glendalough Wicklow Kathleen followed Kevin all the way up to the cliff cave. She lies under the Upper Lake and walks among the ruins as a lady in red.
• ⛪ Basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine Maggiore Naples The crucifix ducked its head as the cannonball came. The ball is still in the crypt, and Christ has never straightened his neck.
• ⛪ Church of the Wooden Nun, Incurabili Complex Naples A nun tried to flee the enclosure and stiffened into wood mid-step on the threshold. The church still carries her name today.
• ⛪ Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco Naples A crowned skull in a bridal veil receives prayers from women who want to marry. Everyone in the quarter calls her Lucia.
• ⛪ Santa Luciella ai Librai Naples The skull down in the crypt has ears. That is why Neapolitans whisper their prayers here — it hears, and passes them on.
• ⛪ Santa Maria del Parto a Mergellina Naples The devil in the altarpiece has the face of a beautiful woman. Naples knows who she was — and what love potion she had brewed.
• ⛪ Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth) Rome Put your hand in the marble mouth and lie, and the jaws snap shut. One unfaithful wife tricked it — and the stone has not forgotten.
• ⛪ Pantheon Rome The hole in the dome was torn open by demons fleeing the consecration — and at dawn King Umberto I is seen at his own tomb.
• ⛪ Basilica of St John Lateran Rome On the eve of St John's Day, Herodias and Salome fly over the Lateran — and the witches gather beneath the walnut tree.
• ⛪ San Nicolò al Lido Venice A pitch-black galley full of screaming demons was steering straight for the city. An old fisherman rowed three strangers at it.
• 🕯️ Järvsö Vicarage Gävleborg A haunted vicarage where the shadows linger. In the heart of Hälsingland lies Järvsö Vicarage, a place full of history — and perhaps something more. Here, in the old vicarage that has stood untouched since the 1870s, many generations have passed.
• ⛪ Akama Shrine Yamaguchi At the shrine guarding the Heike clan's graves, the blind monk Hōichi played for a court of the dead — and lost his ears.
• ⛪ Kifune Shrine Kyoto In the shrine's ancient cedar grove, straw effigies are still nailed to the trees in the cursing rite of the hour of the ox.
• ⛪ Rokudō Chinnō-ji Temple Kyoto Through the temple well, the courtier Ono no Takamura is said to have climbed down to hell each night to serve Enma, judge of the dead.
• ⛪ Wolvendaal Church Western Province The vergers tell of whispering voices and shadows between the pews — five Dutch governors lie beneath the floor.
• ⛪ Veta church — the leper's squint Östergötland A hole in the chancel wall let criminals and the contagious follow Mass from outside — those not allowed in among the living.
• ⛪ Erdene Zuu Monastery Övörchangaj In Mongolia's oldest monastery, ravaged in the 1937 purges, ghostly monks are said to still wander among the 108 stupas.
• ⛪ Chapel of El Carmen Sonora Veiled nuns are said to glide along Serdán street at night — and from the locked chapel comes the cry of an infant.
• ⛪ Durango Cathedral Durango Night after night, the nun Beatriz appears in the cathedral tower, still watching for the soldier who never returned.
• ⛪ Cloister of Sor Juana (Former Convent of San Jerónimo) Mexico City Students say Sor Juana's statue shifts in the dark — and that the cold in the cloister walk arrives before the creaking does.
• ⛪ Cuilápam Monastery Oaxaca The basilica was never finished — whatever rose by day, the Devil is said to have torn down by night.
• ⛪ Former Convent of Desierto de los Leones Ciudad de México In the Carmelites' mountain monastery the monks' prayers can still be heard - and so can the tunnels where disobedient brothers were locked in darkness.
• ⛪ Grip Stave Church, Kristiansund Møre og Romsdal In 1796 the storm blew almost every house on the island into the sea. The church held – with St Margaret on its altarpiece, the saint who guards against storms.
• ⛪ Heddal Stave Church, Notodden Telemark The stranger would build the church in three days. The price was the sun, the moon – or his name. On the third day Raud heard singing inside the hill.
• ⛪ Rein Abbey, Indre Fosen Trøndelag Duke Skule founded the nunnery to escape death. His daughter, a widowed queen, moved in – and the walls still stand, grown into a working farm.
• 🕯️ Sande Old Parsonage Vestfold "The Brown Man" has walked the parsonage for nearly two hundred years – a restless priest who never found peace in his own house.
• ⛪ Old Veøy Church, Molde Møre og Romsdal A whole medieval town stood on the holy island. Today only a stone church remains, ringed by graveyards nobody can count any more.
• ⛪ Heda church Östergötland A giant built the church for the farmer's blood — saved only when the giant's name ('Påvel'/'Finn') was cried. The Madonna has seen 'eight hundred Christmas nights'.
• ⛪ The Ghosts of Oviken Church and a Dark Event from the 19th Century Jämtland Oviken's old church is a historic site with deep roots in Jämtland's spiritual and cultural history. But among the old walls and graves, more than just the church's documented history lives on...
• ⛪ Metropolitan Cathedral of Santa María la Antigua Ciudad de Panamá In the alleys outside the cathedral, night walkers meet a woman in old-fashioned dress — a lover who died of grief and never left.
• ⛪ Węgrów Basilica – Twardowski's Mirror Masovien The sacristy at Węgrów keeps the sorcerer Twardowski's mirror – in which he is said to have conjured the ghost of dead Queen Barbara.
• ⛪ Church of St Joseph of the Bernardine Sisters Kraków Night after night Katarzyna Jaworska scrubs the stone floor of the sisters' church. The brush is heard, but nobody sees the water move.
• ⛪ The Church on the Rock (Skalka) Kraków Bishop Stanislaus was cut to pieces here. Eagles guarded the parts, a fish swallowed one finger, and the body grew together without a scar.
• ⛪ The Penitents' Bridge, Wrocław Dolnośląskie High between the towers of St Mary Magdalene's, the souls of sinful maidens are said to sweep the bridge for eternity – night walkers hear the rasp of brooms.
• ⛪ Mafra Palace-Convent Lisbon In the corridors of this colossal palace-convent, the spirits of workers who died building it are said to wander – and darker things are whispered of the tunnels.
• ⛪ St. Johannes Cemetery — Stockholm's Most Haunted Burial Ground Stockholm At the top of Brunkebergsåsen in Stockholm rises St. Johannes Church, an imposing red-brick building that overlooks Norrmalm. But it is not the church's splendid façade that gave the place its reputation. It is what happens in the cemetery when darkness falls.
• ⛪ The Protective Circle at Gammelstad Church Norrbotten The devil scorched a pregnant woman — and only inside a ring of the Lord's Prayer in Gammelstad Church could she be saved.
• ⛪ The Priest of Särestad Freed from Satan, Flakeberg Västergötland A priest in Särestad wrestled with Satan himself – and an old legend recalls his deliverance.
• ⛪ The Boy Who Laughed in Kräklingbo Church Gotland Every Sunday a devout boy burst out laughing mid-service – for only he could see the black figure painting the sleepers across the eyes.
• ⛪ The Boy Who Wrote His Name on the Stone at Lommeland Bohuslän Satan promised a herd-boy he would become a priest for his soul, written on a stone – but a new baptism erased the name for good.
• ⛪ Asp the Thief and the Art at the Church Door, Rumskulla Småland The notorious Asp offered to teach his arts — but first you had to circle the church three times and soak a blade of grass in your own blood.
• ⛪ The Man Re-baptised Away from the Fiend at Otterstad Västergötland On his way to meet the Fiend he heard the priest promise help – a new baptism struck his name from the Devil's book for good.
• ⛪ The Cobbler and the Note in the Church Door, Kristinehamn Värmland In dire straits, the cobbler wrote in his own blood that he pledged body and soul to the Evil One — and slid the note into the church door's keyhole.
• ⛪ The Boy in the Chalk Circle, Sillerud Värmland A woman promised her unborn child to the Evil One. Fifteen years later the boy was saved inside a chalk circle in the church choir.
• ⛪ The Devil and the Cobbler at Old Regna Church Östergötland At old Regna church, the Devil raced a cobbler to stitch shoes — and his thread stretched all the way down to the churchyard slope.
• ⛪ When the Church Cracked in Västra Stenby Östergötland In the midst of the sermon at the old man's funeral, the ground shook — pots leapt on the hearths and Västra Stenby church split open.
• ⛪ The Serpent Braids at the Dingle Church Door Bohuslän A girl wept at the church door for forgetting her hair braids — a stranger gave her new ones, but they turned out to be two serpents.
• ⛪ The Man at the Altar Rail of Surteby Västergötland Inside the altar rail, shielded by the Lord's Prayer written on the floor, a man waited out the devil's tricks.
• ⛪ St. Brita Who Saw the Devil in Church Holy Brita saw the Evil One slip into church and write down all who slept through the sermon — on a goatskin he bit until he cracked his head on a pillar.
• ⛪ The Five Fingers on St. Mary's Church Wall, Visby When a wicked, rich old woman was laid to rest in the choir, the Evil One came by night and bore her out a window — her handprints still mark the wall.
• ⛪ The Letter in the Church Door at Främmestad Västergötland A man slipped a writing into the church-door keyhole to arrange a meeting with the devil — then signed the contract with his own blood.
• ⛪ The Priest Svartengren and the Cloven Hoof at Viggen Värmland At communion the devil stood behind a witch-woman — but the priest Svartengren cast them both out, and the fiend went whistling through the window.
• ⛪ The Priest Rørdam and the Sand Rope at Odda, Hardanger Hordaland The servant read the devil loose – and the priest's sand rope, made by the servant's hand, is said to lie in the fjord still.
• ⛪ The Priest Who Preached the Devil Loose, Odda Hordaland A learned black-book priest happened to preach the very text that frees the devil – who came rushing into the church.
• ⛪ Werlauf and the Ropemaker on Skjoldsanden, Salten Nordland Mid-sermon the priest sensed the devil was loose – and his daughter had set him to twist rope from sand.
• ⛪ The Priest and the Candle That Couldn't Be Blown Out, Sauda Rogaland The servant boy read the devil loose – but the priest's third candle he couldn't put out, and the power was broken.
• ⛪ The Card Game in the Fishermen's Church, Velfjord Nordland Fishermen playing cards in a church saw the old one in the doorway – until a hymn drove him out.
• ⛪ Petter Dass's Ride to Copenhagen Hordaland Petter Dass forced the devil to carry him to Copenhagen on a Christmas night — and saved the sleeping in church with a sermon that kept them awake.
• ⛪ Petter Dass and the Ride over the Sea from Alstadhaug Nordland Summoned to preach in Copenhagen the very next day, Petter Dass rode there on the devil's back — faster than a thought, and home before his curate had left church.
• ⛪ Peder Dass and the Souls in Church, Hemsedal Buskerud As payment for the ride to Copenhagen, Peder Dass promised the devil all who fell asleep in church — but preached so that no one nodded off.
• ⛪ The Priest Bangsbill and the Night Ride to Borgund Møre og Romsdal A priest versed in black arts forced the devil to carry him across the sea by night – at a grim price.
• ⛪ Petter Dass's Three Knocks, Rendalen Hedmark Merchant and priest in one – he summoned three drivers and flew to Copenhagen before dawn.
• ⛪ Petter Dass and the Witch on the Broom, Vågan Nordland The priest turned the devil into a horse and rode to Copenhagen – with a witch trailing behind on her broom.
• ⛪ The Herder Boy's Shoes to Sideby Church Österbotten A weeping herder boy was sent dry-shod to church by an old man - but one laugh gave everything away.
• ⛪ The Night Journey to Pernå Church Nyland To find a stolen horse the sorcerer measured the church backwards - and the door sprang open of itself.
• ⛪ The False Judge's Skin in Lappfjärd Church Österbotten A man held the skin on his stake and forced the Devil to fetch back every wrongfully taken coin.
• ⛪ The Shoemaker at the Altar in Vörå Österbotten A gentleman promised a cow if the shoemaker sewed in the church - but the skin on his pincers made him rich another way.
• ⛪ The Three Riddles at the Altar in Nagu Egentliga Finland Mother's milk, a mother's embrace and her heart - three answers that defeated the evil one.
• ⛪ The Devil's Book in Uppsala Cathedral Nyland The count was to sign the dark one's book, but wrote of Christ's blood instead and trapped the book at the altar.
• ⛪ St Bridget's Chapel — David Carnegie's Scottish Legacy Västra Götaland An isolated chapel with Scottish influences — at dusk often experienced as mysterious and charged.
• ⛪ Backen Church Västerbotten The giants Skacken and Skeven built the church for the promise of sun and moon – until the priest overheard their names whispered in the forest.
• ⛪ Borgsjö Church Medelpad Two dead parson's children walked the road in broad daylight – to whisper where they had hidden the parson's wife's wedding gifts before they died.
• ⛪ Bokenäs Old Church Bohuslän The church was placed deliberately on top of the heathen cult site — and the cup marks, hollows cut for offerings, are still there just outside the wall.
• ⛪ Dragsmark Abbey Ruin Bohuslän The ballad of fair Valborg was sung across Bohuslän: when she could not have her knight Axel she went in behind these cloister walls and never came out.
• ⛪ Edsleskog and St Nils's Spring Dalsland The priest Nils was attacked and killed carrying the sacrament to a sick man. Where he fell a spring broke out – and a church so vast that Skara diocese lived off it.
• ⛪ Old Man Rosenbom at the Admiralty Church Blekinge "If you want thanks from Rosenbom, lift his hat yourself." On New Year's night 1717 the beggar froze to death outside the church door – and stands there still.
• ⛪ Källa Abandoned Church Öland In the northwest corner of the churchyard lies the pre-Christian sacrificial spring that gave the parish its name — it has taken offerings and prayers for a thousand years.
• ⛪ Site of All Saints' church Östergötland The erased church: Gustav Vasa demolished it in 1552 and carted the brick to Vadstena Castle. The dead remain under the grass.
• ⛪ St Ingrid's convent ruin Östergötland A pilgrimage site around a saint never canonised — one sister said to have levitated in prayer, another to have bled from Christ's wounds.
• ⛪ Church of Our Lady (the 'Garp' church) Östergötland You walk a floor of grave slabs over the German merchants — a church built on church upon church.
• ⛪ Snarum Church Snarum Church, located in the idyllic Modum municipality in Norway, has a history reaching back to the Middle Ages. But beyond its beautiful architecture and long traditions, the church has also become known for something else — tales of the supernatural.
• ⛪ St Botolph's Aldgate: The Church by the Plague Pit England, London St Botolph's Aldgate has stood here since at least the twelfth century, in its present form since the 1740s.
• ⛪ St Giles' Cathedral and the Heart of Midlothian Edinburgh, Scotland Set in the cobbles outside St Giles' Cathedral is a heart of mosaic, the Heart of Midlothian.
• ⛪ St. Louis Cathedral & Père Antoine's Garden Louisiana The oldest continuously operating Catholic cathedral in the United States, and the garden where Père Antoine is said to still walk at sunrise.
• ⛪ St. Paul's Chapel: the oldest room and its graves New York Manhattan's oldest surviving church, where George Washington prayed — and which came through 11 September without a broken pane.
• ⛪ St Peter's Church, Tewin Tewin, Hertfordshire The grave of Lady Anne Grimston, from which seven trees have grown to fulfil a prophecy.
• ⛪ St Senara's Church Zennor, Cornwall A time worn bench end carved with a mermaid, and behind it a moving legend.
• ⛪ Sweden's Most Haunted Churches — Here the Dead Never Rest in Peace Churches are meant to be peaceful places for prayer and reflection, but some carry more than just history. Over the years, several Swedish churches have become known for strange figures, unexplained sounds and stories of spirits that refuse to leave.
• ⛪ Mae Nak Shrine (Wat Mahabut) Bangkok By the Phra Khanong canal, Thailand's most beloved ghost Mae Nak still waits for her husband.
• ⛪ Wat Prasat (Nonthaburi) Nonthaburi A headless apparition is said to wander the Ayutthaya-era temple of Wat Prasat — while the tree spirit Nang Takian dwells in its ancient tree.
• ⛪ Wat Samian Nari Bangkok Two sisters in black flag down late-night taxis at Wat Samian Nari — then dissolve from the back seat.
• ⛪ Wat Suwannaram Bangkok On the old execution grounds of Wat Suwannaram, the spirits of Burmese prisoners of war are said to still drift among the stupas.
• ⛪ The Monastery of Aya Yorgi, Büyükada Istanbul A shepherd dug where a bell rang in his dream — and to this day thousands climb the Road of Torment barefoot and in silence.
• ⛪ Hagia Sophia Istanbul The priest stepped through the door with the chalice in his hands — and the door became wall. He is in there still, mid-sermon.
• ⛪ The Sacred Spring of Balıklı Istanbul The monk refused to believe the city had fallen — so the half-fried fish leapt from the pan into the spring, and swim there still.
• ⛪ Trinity Church: where New York's oldest dead lie New York Where New York's oldest dead finally have names, stones and preserved records. Alexander Hamilton rests here.
• ⛪ St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery – Stuyvesant's Wooden Leg New York Beneath the church floor lies Peter Stuyvesant, last governor of New Amsterdam – but since the 1600s his wooden leg has been heard stamping down the aisles, and the bells ring with no hand on the rope.
• 🕯️ Vang Vicarage Vang Vicarage Ridarbu — A Historic Home with Supernatural Traces. This old vicarage is not only a place of cultural and historical value, but has also become the subject of rumours of supernatural events that draw both skeptics and seekers of the mystical.
• ⛪ Winchcombe Church Winchcombe, Gloucestershire A grim tale of a murderous stepmother, dramatically punished, lies behind the legend.
• ⛪ Ateshgah Fire Temple Baku The eternal flame went out in 1969 — but the spirits the fire worshippers invoked among the temple cells are said never to have left the altar.
• ⛪ Dom Bosco Hermitage Distrito Federal By Niemeyer's little chapel on Lake Paranoá, a figure in a black cassock is seen – the saint who foretold Brasília's birth more than a century in advance.
• ⛪ Rapperswil Parish Church St. Gallen Since the blood-soaked year of 1388, the funeral bells of Rapperswil are said to ring at times without any human hand.
• ⛪ Prague Loreto Prague The widow had paid for a peal for every child the plague took. When she died with no coin left, the bells began to ring by themselves.

FAQ

How many haunted churches are there?

Haunted Places lists 1594 haunted churches worldwide, each with its story and GPS coordinates.

What are the most famous haunted churches?

Among the most notable: Borley Rectory, Church of St Benedict and Alvastra abbey ruin.

Where can you find haunted churches?

You'll find haunted churches in Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, Poland (+30 more).

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