Five allegedly haunted places in Utrecht

Halloween is becoming more and more popular in the Netherlands, but some people enjoy feeling the chills more often. If that's you, you're in luck, for Utrecht is full of tales of haunted places and accounts of paranormal activity. Here are five places said to be haunted by ghosts in the city. Whether you believe it or not, that's a whole nother story.

Paushuize. Photo: Wikicommons, illustration DUB

Kromme Nieuwegracht, Paushuize (House built for Pope Adrianus VI)

The house was built in 1517 for the Dutch Pope Adrianus VI, who unfortunately never got to live there as he died in Rome in 1523. The place later became a hotel where Queen Hortense Eugénie Cécile de Beauharnais, Napoleon's wife, slept once. The story goes that she loved the place so much that she even said she wanted her soul to rest there after her death. Today, the building is used for conferences and events. According to ESN and In De Buurt, a paranormal team investigated the location and claimed to have detected evidence of past tragic events.

Photo: Wikicommons, illustration DUB

Wharf cellars in the city centre

In the summer of 2020, the municipality of Utrecht discovered several wharf cellars whose existence had been forgotten. Restoration works in the wharves included the use of a ground radar, which allowed the municipality to map the underground area. It is estimated that about 200 of these underground cellars are beneath the historic city centre. It is not known what these "ghost cellars" were used for exactly, so it didn't take long for stories to emerge about these hidden spaces being used for secret, illegal, and bloody activities in the past.

Photo: Wikicommons, illustration DUB

Stadium Galgenwaard

The area where the stadium is now located was used as a place to display executed bodies until 1600. Criminals' bodies would be placed in the area, sometimes with heads or other body parts on poles, to warn citizens about what could happen to them if they didn't behave according to the rules. The remains were left outdoors until animals completely devoured them. This morbid past is reflected in the stadium's name: Galgenwaard means "gallows meadow."

Photo: screenshot Googlemaps, illustration DUB

Nieuwegracht 193

This building near the university campus in the city centre is said to be haunted by paranormal activity aficionados. The story goes that an exorcism was performed in the building and the man who later bought the property had a sudden heart attack in the attic. The man's daughter then moved to the building and remained there for the rest of her life, seldom leaving the house. After her death, someone attempted to restore the property but abandoned it after hearing eerie sounds. Though the tale can't be verified, some people claim to see ghostly figures, especially of a distraught woman, in the windows.

Photo: Pexels, illustration DUB

De Haar castle

Though the first accounts of a castle in this area date back to the 13th century, the castle you can visit today is actually from the 19th century, when baron Étienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt van de Haar (a mouthful, we know) inherited a property that had been dilapidated by storms and wars. He decided to restore the place to its former glory with the help of architect Pierre Cuypers, best known for designing the Rijksmuseum and Amsterdam Central Station. Fun fact: the place later became a hot spot for the rich and famous, with celebrities like Brigitte Bardot, Roger Moore, Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent among the many illustrious guests.

De Haar is also popular among paranormal enthusiasts, who say that a knight who lived in the castle in the 15th century drowned in the moat and was then buried in between the castle's walls. Even though the place has been completely renovated, his ghost allegedly makes an appearance every now and then.