
It seems no coincidence or at least it is striking: almost all the paranormal places in Madrid that make up this list (all but one, in fact) are emblematic and iconic buildings and their history is tinged with crimes, terrible murders. That is, the gruesome history seems to be a crucial component for that building to be a mysterious space. As an omen (bad, of course).
This is a tour of some of the most critical points of Madrid, as far as terror is concerned. At this point, and given that the veracity of many of the stories is doubtful, a question arises : what came first, the chicken or the egg? In other words, the crime or the legend?
1. The House of the Seven Chimneys
The current headquarters of the Ministry of Culture hides a story of love, death and ghosts. It was the sixteenth century, King Philip II had a mistress (or a bastard daughter, that depends on who tells the story) and as a token of all the love he professed, the monarch decided to put a house on the outskirts of Madrid. The outskirts of Madrid, by the way, which today would be in the heart of Chueca. The house would be the building we know today as La Casa de las Siete Chimeneas.
Elena, as the mistress (or daughter) was called, finally married Captain Zapata, who died in Flanders. Elena, absolutely grief-stricken, ended up committing suicide, but the whereabouts of her body was unknown. Until well into the 19th century, when certain reforms were carried out: it was then that the skeleton of a woman was discovered. A woman who years before (according to the testimonies of the time) appeared in white tunic, torch in hand and walking on the roof of the building. Drawing chimneys and creating fears among the inhabitants of Madrid.
📍 Plaza del Rey, 1 (center)
2. Linares Palace
The history of what we know today as Casa América has echoes of Greek tragedy; an oedipal component (from a narrative point of view, not because of its Freudian implications). José Murga y Reolid, Marquis of Linares and henceforth José, would be something like the equivalent of Yocasta: he learned of his incest after the death of his father.
José had asked his father if he could marry Raimunda de Ossorio y Ortega. The father, contrary to what José would have expected, was against the marriage and asked his son to go to London to study. At some point during this time, the father died and the son found out (rummaging through his correspondence) that Raimunda was his sister.
Far from deterring his love for Raimunda, the siblings married and petitioned the Vatican for a papal bull allowing them to live in chastity. The bull was issued, but the brothers skipped the deal: they had a daughter, Raimundita. Terribly frightened and fearing that a scandal would be created around them, they murdered the daughter, who began to wander the corridors of the Palace of Linares.
📍 Plaza Cibeles, s/n (downtown)
3. No. 3 of Antonio Grilo
The case of No. 3 of Antonio Grilo is one of those inexhaustible subjects. One of those topics to which one can return for any reason: an anniversary or a mention in an entertainment program are enough reasons to remember what happened here. Which was no more and no less than eight murders and one suicide at three different times over 19 years.
The first crime was on May 8, 1945. Felipe de la Braña Marcos, a shirtmaker, was found dead somewhere in the block. To the delight of the legend, the only clue the police forces of the time had was a lock of hair in his hand. The technology of the time did not allow the authorship of the murder to be revealed. And so it remains to this day.
On May 2, 1962, the worst crime of all occurred. The details of the story are usually lurid and unnecessary and almost the only thing you need to know is the headline that ABC used to refer the news: “A tailor kills his wife and five children before committing suicide”.
Pilar Agustín, a young single mother, murdered her newborn son, hid the corpse in a closet drawer and closed the triangle of murders at nº3 Antonio Grilo. It happened in April 1964.
The story inspired the horror movie Malasaña 32 (2020), although it is set in the 1970s.
📍 Malasaña
4. Reina Sofia Museum
Before being what we all know, before being even what many of us knew before being what we know (a hospital during the Civil War), the Reina Sofia Museum was a center for the confinement of the insane and abandoned children. And these questions, well thought out, lead to a unique thought: few places in Madrid have been the scene of so many deaths.
Proof of this are the corpses (of three nuns) that appeared thirty years ago in the old chapel of the hospital. And proof of the black legend that drags this place is that different workers who worked in the creation of what is now the museum reported the appearance of three nuns in the gardens of the place. Proof of all this, too, is that there are people who say that the ghost of Picasso wanders through the museum or that the elevators go up and down based on their own criteria or that the spirit of a priest tortured during the Civil War also wanders around the place.
📍 Calle de Santa Isabel, 52 (Lavapiés)
5. Tirso de Molina Subway
In the literary tradition of the cities, the Metro is always a hostile place: a place where tragedies occur. Its basis, besides the metaphorical (the relationship between the subway and everything bad), is that of reality. And the story of the Tirso de Molina Metro stop reinforces this idea.
The Tirso de Molina station, by the way, was not always called that way: when it was inaugurated in 1921 it was called Progreso. And its construction took place under the rubble of the old Convento de la Merced (closed in 1834).
It is known (or maybe not) that the friars, when they died, were buried in a cemetery inside the convent (the subway, again). And that is what the workers of the time found: the corpses of the friars who had died more than a hundred years before. Puzzled and not knowing what to do, they asked the authorities of the time: “Put them in the walls, then lay the tiles and then we’ll see”. The problem? The problem was that the people of Madrid began to hear the laments of the monks and friars who were buried here.
6. Church of San Ginés
If the printing press had been invented earlier or if these events had occurred later, perhaps we could find in the newspapers of the time the following headlines: “A group of savages enters a church to rob it and beheads a neighbor who stood in front of it”.
The church in question was that of San Ginés, one of the oldest temples in Madrid, and the event took place in 1353. The accuracy of the date leads us to think that the first part of the story may be true. The first part of the story is as follows: the thieves entered the temple to loot it, encountered an old man who confronted them and decided to behead him to get him out of the way.
The credibility of the second part of the story would be somewhat more doubtful: in the following days a headless shadow appeared before the neighbors, revealed the identity of his murderers and they were condemned to death. A vigilante ghost? Yes, it could be, except that legend has it that the ghost of the old man still appears today.
📍 Calle del Arenal, 13 (downtown)
7. The ghost station of Chamberí
The ghost station of Chamberí is a place full of mystery in Madrid. Opened in 1919 and closed in the 1960s, this station is part of the Andén 0 museum and is shrouded in urban legends and paranormal happenings. It is said to have been used as a bomb shelter during the Civil War, and some visitors have reported strange noises and apparitions. In addition, the station retains original ceramic advertisements, so a visit is also a trip back in time. During Halloween, guided tours are organized to relive these terrifying stories, making Chamberí a fascinating destination for mystery lovers.
📍Plaza de Chamberí s/n