HGB Ep. 506 - Haunted Portugal

Moment in Oddity - Radioactive Boars

If you are a fan of truffles, you are likely aware that humans would use pigs to find the delicacy. Today, truffle hunters employ trained dogs to locate the tasty fungi. The affects of the 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster have recently been identified as the cause behind radioactive boars in Germany. Bavaria was affected by the nuclear fallout some 40 years ago. While many species of plant and animal life have shown a gradual decrease of radioactive contaminants, the wild boars cesium, or radioactive isotope levels, have maintained high levels all these years later. Scientists determined that the cause of this phenomenon are deer truffles and have even given the impact still affecting the boars a name: The wild boar paradox. Deer truffles are not a true truffle at all, but they grow similarly to their namesake. Deer truffles are a favorite food of wild boars. Because the fungi grow underground they absorb toxic chemicals from the fallout of Chernobyl as well as nuclear weapons testing. Wild boar meat was considered a delicacy in Bavaria but has had a marked decrease in consumption in recent decades. The landscapes of Bavaria are beautiful, but the thought of radioactive piggies pilfering polluted fungi, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - First Passenger Locomotive

In the month of September, on the 27th, in 1825, the Locomotion No.1 became the world's first passenger steam engine to carry passengers on a public line. (Everybody sing- "Come on Baby, Do the loco-motion with me" I'm chair dancing). The Locomotion No. 1 was built by George Stephenson and his son Robert at Robert Stephanson & Co. George Stephenson himself drove the train with the engine that was originally named 'Active'. The first trip consisted of the engine, 11 wagons of coal and 20 cars of passengers, dubbed 'Experiment' with 450 passengers and workmen. It was the first train to traverse the Stockton and Darlington Railway and traveled at a top speed of  12mph. At the time, locomotives were being updated quickly which determined the retirement of Locomotion No.1 in 1841. As of today, the original engine is on display in Shildon, Durham County at the Locomotion museum.

Haunted Portugal

Portugal sits right along the coast of Spain and while Spain overshadows it in size, the history of Portugal is vast. A mix of cultures have lived and ruled here for centuries. The country became a leader in exploration of the world and thus a principal entity for world trade. Today, the Republic of Portugal is a respected country that heralds peace and has a population of 11 million people. There are quite a few ghosts among that population and on this episode, we are going to feature several locations in the country that are reputedly haunted.

Portugal's history is a mix of Iberian tribes, Celtic people, the Roman Empire, Germanic kingdoms, Muslims and Christians. The Celts and Iberians mixed with each other in the early first millennium BC, creating a group known as the Celtiberians who spread across what would become Portugal. The Romans conquered the Iberian Peninsula around 218 BC and remained there for 200 years, establishing Lusitania and Gallaecia. The Roman-Celtic name for the country at that time was Portus Cale, which eventually morphed into Portugal. The Romans left behind bridges, baths, roads and theaters. Germanic tribes moved in through the Barbarian Invasion after Rome fell and stayed from the 5th to 8th centuries until the Islamic invasion in 711. This eventually became part of the Kingdom of Galicia, which Portugal broke away from in 1095. The son of Count Henry of Burgundy declared himself king of Portugal in 1139 with his son, Afonso Henriques, becoming the first official King of Portugal. Lisbon became the capital of Portugal in 1255, which was also when the official borders of Portugal were set and they have remained the same throughout history. This became a country of discovery with its sailors finding the Canary Islands, Madeira and Cape Verde and the country set up trading posts along the coast of Africa. 

It established the colony of Brazil, which is why Portuguese is still the official language of that country to this day. Portugal grew to a great power and then went into decline, losing Brazil and eventually the capital was destroyed by a great earthquake in 1755. During the Napoleonic Wars, it was occupied. Throughout this time, the country was ruled by a monarchy, but in 1910 it became a Republic. A military coup ended that in 1926 and a military dictatorship took over and the country suffered under a fascist rule. The Carnation Revolution in 1974 ended that rule and Portugal became a founding member of NATO and features a country with a good economy and living conditions. People refer to the country as a "garden by the sea planted." Clearly the country has a rich history and that has lead to legends and ghost stories.

Portugal has some similar superstitions as other countries and a few that are slightly different. For example, the Portuguese also believe that breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck and that walking under a ladder is bad luck. Also, if your ears burn, someone is talking about you and if it is the right ear, they are speaking badly of you. If the left ear is burning, they are saying nice things about you. You can remedy the bad talk by twisting your ear and the speaker will bite their tongue. Crossing knives is bad luck and placing a broom upside-down behind the door will make an annoying visitor leave. Having thirteen people seated at the table is bad luck and also means that the youngest at the table is going to die. Good luck is brought on by entering a building with the right foot first. If someone's feet get swept by a broom, they will never marry. And tapping or knocking on wood three times will drive away evil spirits.

Almourol Castle

The Castle of Almoural is a medieval castle located at the Tagus River about an hour north of Lisbon with connections to the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar have a mixed history with some believing they were a religious order that were helpful and protected the Holy Land while developing early forms of banking, while others believe this was a secret society that developed into the more modern day societies that run a secret evil cabal. The historical facts are, that they were founded in 1119 and were endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church. They wore white mantles with a red cross emblazoned upon them and they were headquartered at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. They also fell out of favor with the church and the Pope and in October of 1307, on Friday the 13th, Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and several other French Templars were ordered arrested by King Philip IV. The men were all tortured. The Pope disbanded the rest of the Templars in 1312 after they were accused of various heresies. Today, the Catholic Church has absolved the Templars and said they did nothing inherently wrong. It would seem the King was just very in debt to the group. Rumors of them building a treasure that they eventually hid have fueled treasure hunters for years like the Lagina Brothers of Travel Channel's The Curse of Oak Island.

No one is quite sure when the castle was completed. It was conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC and remodeled by various cultures that moved through it in subsequent years like the Visigoths, Andalusian Berbers and Alans. The Knights Templar moved into the castle in 1129 AD when their Portuguese Master, Gualdim Pais, had the castle placed in his trust. The castle is beautiful and said to be the best representation of the influence of the Templars in Portugal. They called it Almorolan. Eventually, the castle was abandoned and fell into ruin. In the 1940s, it was recreated as a headquarters for the Portuguese Republic. The castle was restored and bartizans, which are wall-mounted turrets that project out, and crenellations or battlements were added. Electricity was added in 1955. Major repairs were finished on the keep and the interior pavement by 1996. The castle became a National Monument and tourists can visit the castle.

There are a couple spirits haunting the place, one of whom is a princess who was the daughter of an emir named Almorolon who ruled the castle in the 10th century. She fell in love with a Knights Templar and she would sneak him into the castle at night through secret passages. This Knight had only been using the woman to gain that knowledge of the secret pathways and one night, he and a group of knights snuck into the castle. The emir and his daughter jumped to their deaths and the betrayed woman is said to haunt the castle for that reason. haunting here is connected to a legend about a princess who lost her love. 

Dom Ramiro was the last commander of the castle. He could be a violent man and he once killed a Moorish woman and her daughter over a cup of water. The woman's son became a page at the castle with revenge on his mind. In the course of time, he fell in love with Dom Ramiro's daughter Beatriz and she with him. But he was still set on revenge, so he poisoned Ramiro's wife. Ramiro left shortly after that to fight a war and while he was gone, the Moorish man and his daughter eloped. Ramiro wasn't happy to find this out when he returned home with a knight he wanted his daughter to marry. Shortly thereafter, the man and Beatriz disappeared and no one knows if they were killed or just ran away. Now the spirits of Beatriz, the page and Dom Ramiro are all seen as full-bodied apparitions and it usually appears that Ramiro is kneeling in front of Beatrice and the young man as though begging for forgiveness.

Valongo Sanatorium

Construction started on the Valongo Sanatorium in 1932, but it wouldn't open until 1958. Building was halted for a while when a dispute with the local coal company started. They didn't want a sanatorium nearby. The sanatorium sits on top of Mont'Alto in the Monte de Santa Justa and provided treatment for people who had tuberculosis. There were several buildings that were part of the property with a main hospital, a chapel, a laundry and a school for children of the patients. The sanatorium was only meant to care for 50 patients, but there were usually around 350 people at any given time. Conditions were deplorable. The building closed in 1975 and has stood abandoned since then, suffering vandalism, theft and fires. Hundreds of people died from tuberculosis at the hospital and now people claim it is haunted. Paintballers love to use the space and many of them report hearing doors opening and closing on their own. Hollow cries of pain are heard, shadow figures have been seen and cold spots have been felt.

Castle of São João in Estoril

Estoril Castle is named for the coastal town in which it sits and is unique in that it is a fairly small castle. Perhaps one of the smallest castles we have ever seen. The town of Estoril is close to Lisbon and is a fishing port with a beach named Tamariz Beach. Overlooking this beach is the castle. The castle was built in 1917 by Jorge O'Neil. The castle passed through many hands after him with most people not staying long because of scary things they had experienced or misfortune that had befallen them. In 1942, the castle was bought by Mantero Belard who turned the property into a museum called Verdades Faria Museum and opened it for artists and musical art. Later, the castle was donated to the Board of Cascais and the museum became a regional history museum. In 1983, José Castelo Branco, who was a reality star in Portugal, had put forward an offer for the castle, but he retracted it after he claimed to see a little girl wandering on the cliff. Then the mother of actress Lili Caneças was going to buy the house, but when she heard that a little ghost was wandering the property, she changed her mind. A doctor and his family were living in the castle in 2015. They restored the property and claimed that they experienced nothing paranormal.

This is thought to be one of the most haunted properties in Portugal and the legend behind the little girl ghost is that she was a blind girl who lived in a house next to the castle and she accidentally fell from a cliff to her death. People claim to see the little girl holding a doll and walking around the property. 

Quinta das Conchas e dos Lilases

The word quinta basically means country estate and there were two of them on this property that has now been turned into a park in northern Lisbon. Both homes remain on the property and were built in the 16th century by prosperous Portuguese families that traded in coffee. The city of Lisbon has manged the quintas since the 1960s, but only just recently opened them and the park to the public in 2005. The legend here is that one of the wealthy businessmen had a slave woman that he tortured and eventually killed. Now her wailing is heard by people who visit.  

Lethes Theater

The theater is located in the city of Faro and dates back to 1605 when the building was originally built and used as a Jesuit college. This was founded by the Bishop of the Algarve, Fernando Martins Mascarenhas. The Jesuits used it for nearly 150 years, but had to leave when the Jesuits were banished from the country in 1759. The college was turned into the Royal Treasury at that time. When France invaded Portugal in 1807, French soldiers used the building as a barracks and the property was desecrated. The skeleton of a Napoleonic soldier would later be found buried in one of the walls. The Order of Carmelites later moved in and stayed until 1834. An Italian doctor bought the property at auction in 1843 and converted it into the theater it is today. Teatro Lethes opened on April 4, 1845. The name Lethe comes from one of the five rivers of the underworld of Hades. The theater fell out of popularity during the early 20th century, but today has been reinvigorated. There is a story that a young ballerina became severely depressed over unrequited love and hanged herself on the stage. This has resulted in stories of a ghost being at the theater. Staff at the theater claim to hear disembodied footsteps on the empty stage and a shadow figure is seen moving on the stage sometime. People believe this is the ballerina still performing in the afterlife.

Termas de Água Radium

We've talked about the Radium Girls on the podcast before. These were young women who worked painting radium on watches in the the 1920s. They ended up with radiation poisoning that eventually killed them. That was bad enough, but imagine a spa with radium water! Hotel Serra de Pena was originally known as Termas de Aqua Radium or Radium Water Hotel. The hotel was built from granite and resembles a castle. It stands in ruins today, but was once a popular resort, boasting about its healing waters. A Spanish count named Don Rodrigo came to the region of Guarda in the early 20th century and found that the waters cured his daughter of a serious skin disorder. He decided to build a hotel, so that others could come as well. At the time, Radium was being sold as a cure all throughout Europe. As World War II raged, people started realizing that radioactivity was dangerous, so people stopped coming to the hotel and the hotel fell into ruins. Locals claim that the abandoned property harbors the souls of those who died from radium poisoning. These are mostly seen in the form of shadow figures.

Pousada Serra da Estrela

The Pousada Serra da Estrela features 90 rooms and has a spa with a sauna, Turkish bath and indoor swimming pool. The hotel caters to bicyclists and refers to itself as a bike hotel with a bike station for parking and washing bikes. There are plenty of trails nearby to ride and the hotel gives breathtaking views of the mountains. This location offers crisp, clean air and that was attractive at the beginning of the 20th century when tuberculosis was raging in Portugal. This site was originally home to a sanatorium for those suffering from TB. Legend claims that many railway workers died from TB at the sanitorium and they now haunt the hotel that was built in the footprint of the hospital. 

Casa Amarela

Casa Amarela translates to Yellow House and is an abandoned house in the town of Ovar. The legend behind the house claims that a father became angry with his daughter and he threw her into the house's well where she was imprisoned until she died. Out of remorse, he hanged himself. People claim that their ghosts haunt the property. There was an attempt to demolish the house, but the equipment stopped working. Then the house was put up for sale at a low price and someone bought it, but they left soon after. And that happened repeatedly. No one stayed long in the house. Disembodied screams are heard in the house although the house has been bricked up.

Bussaco Palace Hotel

The Bussaco Palace Hotel is located in the Bussaco National Forest and was commissioned to be built in 1888 by King Charles I of Portugal as a royal retreat. This was in the center of 250 acres of woodland that had been planted by Carmelite monks that had a convent here that they established in 1628. Italian architect Luigi Manini designed this as a Romantic Neo-Manueline palace and parts of the convent with Baroque altarpieces are still a part of the palace. Several other architects contributed to the design and construction that took twenty years to build. The Palace’s interior reflects the history of the building and the area and features antiques and fine paintings. The hotel has been upgraded with modern conveniences and features 60 rooms and 4 suites decorated in different early 20th century styles. Guests and staff claim that the hotel is haunted by the ghost of a headless friar who was murdered there in the 19th century. The haunting features strange noises and the feeling of a cold presence in the hotel's hallways.

Phantom Ship

The Bay of Angra is near the Portuguese island of Terceira and was an important port-of-call for merchant ships coming from the East Indies and Brazil. The ships were usually loaded with gold, silver, spices, rare woods and porcelain. Occasionally storms would bring in bad winds and a few ships made the bay their final resting place. One of these ships is now said to be the Phantom Ship of Baía de Angra. This ship was full of treasures and sank in the bay with its full crew. Now that ship and its ghostly crew is occasionally seen sailing through the bay late at night. 

Quinta da Pauliceia

The Quinta da Pauliceia is a nondescript looking building that is surrounded by barbed wire in the town of Águeda, which is said to be one of the most colorful towns in Portugal. The home was built by the Águedense family who were from Brazil. When the 1918 Influenza Pandemic raged across the world, many people in Portugal died. This included the entire family save for one member, Neca Carneiro. No one knows how he came to his end, but when he died, the house was left abandoned. Neighbors claim to hear shotgun blasts from the empty property and sometimes the neighing of unseen horses. People passing by claim to hear cries from the house. A gardener who came to work on the property one day, experienced a headache so bad that he had to leave and he never returned.

Bela Vista Hotel & Spa

The Bela Vista Hotel is one of the city of Algarve’s most beautiful five-star hotels. This is located near Portimão’s Praia da Rocha and the property was once a 38-room mansion. This mansion was built by the Magalhães Barros family in the early 1900s. The last family member to live here was their eldest daughter who died in the mansion. The property then went to a cousin named Henry Bivar de Vasconcelos and he converted it into the hotel it is today in the 1930s. The daughter who died in the mansion is said to be the ghost that is experienced here by guests. Her disembodied footsteps are heard in the hallways as well as her cries.

Quinta da Juncosa

The Quinta da Juncosa is located near Porto and is said to be one of the most haunted locations in the country. This was a farmhouse that belonged to the Baron of Lages and his wife Maria Julia. He was a jealous man and he began to believe that his wife was cheating on him. He decided to tie her to the back of a horse and dragged her until she was dead. The Baron later discovered that he had been wrong and out of remorse he killed himself, but not before he killed all of their children as well. The truth behind this story is quite different. The Baron died in 1933 and his wife died twenty years later in 1953. Whatever the truth is, urban explorers who visit the crumbling property claim to hear weird sounds, cries and have seen shadow figures.

The Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon 

The Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon sits on the site of a former convent named the Monastery of Saint Francis of Chiado. That monastery was founded in 1217 and remained open until 1834. The Fine Arts Academy opened there in 1836. The fine arts campus provides space for residences lasting from two weeks to two months. Staff and students all have reported strange happenings. The elevators are said to run on their own, especially at night when no one is in them. Mysterious writing has been found on the floor, doors slam shut on their own and strange shadows are seen. There were rumors that human bones were found in the college, which could possibly have been burials that have now been disturbed.

Chalet Biester

Sintra is a charming little town an hour from Lisbon on the hills of Serra de Sintra. This is a place where a mysterious fog envelopes the hill on occasion. It is here where one finds the Chalet Biester, which has the nickname "Witch House" because of its dark conic roof and neo-gothic windows. This is a manor which was built for merchant and playwright Ernesto Biester in 1880 and designed by architect Jose Luiz Monteiro in the neoclassical style. Gardens surround the palace and were designed by French landscaper Francois Nogre. The interior is breathtaking with carved woodwork on the walls and ceilings, colorful frescoes and amazing stuccos. A unique feature at the time was the inclusion of an elevator made of wood and created by Raul Mesnier de Ponsard. The manor became a National Monument in 1910 and was opened to the public in 2022 after a major renovation. The mansion served as a set for Roman Polanski’s thriller ‘Ninth Gate’ starring Johnny Depp. Urban legends claim that a secret society had once gathered in the underground floors, where a book written by the devil himself was said to be hidden. The house is full of Knights Templar motifs and there is reputedly a real Masonic Initiation Chamber in the basement.

The architecture in Portugal alone demands a visit. So many wonderful and historic properties. Several of them have inspired legends and seem to harbor spirits. Are these location in Portugal haunted? That is for you to decide!