Today, there are many abandoned places across the world that welcome tourists or visitors. On the other hand, there are properties that have barbed wires around them. An average individual would find it hard to understand how can anyone abandon an elegant mansion. If it costs millions of dollars and includes many acres of land, how can one simply pack and leave?
One also considers the difficulties that an individual has to go through in recent times to own a home. However, there are people throughout recorded history who have abandoned such properties. Some were abandoned because of tales associated with ghosts and mysterious sightings. Others had no one to pass the property to after the owner’s death.
As a result, there are many eerie abandoned homes in different parts of the world. Over the years, these properties have become quite mysterious and are often seen as haunted houses. Here, we’ve presented some of the abandoned properties from different parts of the world.
1. Wyndclyffe Castle
Wyndclyffe Castle is an abandoned mansion located in Rhinebeck, New York. It was once a vacation home owned by a socialite named Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones. She was the aunt of Edith Wharton, a novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner. Wharton had written classics, such as Ethan Frome. Jones had the home constructed in the mid-19th century.
The home had a total area of 7,500 square feet and had five bathrooms, nine bedrooms, and four fireplaces. The overall area of the estate was more than 80 acres. After the death of Jones, the house had various owners at different points in time. Later, it was abandoned. If you visit the property today, you’ll see the mansion in a state of complete disrepair.
Entire sections of the home have collapsed inwards. The mansion now faces an uncertain future. In 2016, it was sold at an auction for $120,000. Since then, no one has heard anything on its renovation or redevelopment from its present owners.
2. Villa De Vecchi
This mansion was once the summer home of the head of the Italian National Guard, Count Felix de Vecchi. It is located in the Cortenova commune of Italy. The mansion is close to Lake Como, which has been a resort destination for long. There are numerous homes costing millions of euros in this area. Villa De Vecchi is popular in Italy as the most haunted house.
This is the reason why it has been in an abandoned state for over 80 years. It appears as quite a unique home featuring Classical Eastern and Baroque styles. Modern conveniences such as a huge fountain and indoor heating pipes have also been provided. Tragedy struck just a few years after its completion. Count Felix came home only to see a brutal sight.
His wife was murdered and his daughter was nowhere to be seen. He searched hard for his daughter and committed suicide a few months later when she was not found. The house went to new owners, but was later abandoned.
There have been reports about music coming from the damaged piano in the mansion. The locals have also heard rumors of murders, suicides, and sacrifices at the site. An avalanche wiped out several homes nearby, but it mysteriously avoided this mansion.
3. Lennox Castle
This castle is located in Lennoxtown, Scotland. It was purchased by Glasgow Corporation in the 19th century. The buyers had planned to convert this castle into a large psychiatric hospital. After the inauguration of the new medical facility, the buyers were happy to witness the fulfillment of their dream.
It ran for nearly 40 years without much problems. Later on, troubles began to surface when it became increasingly difficult to staff over a thousand patients. The medical director of the hospital thought that he had landed in a pit. He was sick about the pains of the poor people that came there.
A significant number of patients who arrived were malnourished and underweight. They were forced to go through some harsh punishments. The patients hat to eat only bread and milk and had to run barefoot while they beat them using baseball bats. The hospital continued to function until 2002, when it finally closed.
A demolition happened two years later. What remained was the original building, but even that suffered damage from a fire that occurred in 2008. Since that incident, this castle has continued to deteriorate. It now lies abandoned, with crumbling brick and overgrown greens on it.
4. The Pineheath House
According to the Daily Mirror, this 40-room mansion was once a vacation home of Sir Dhunjibhoy and Lady Bomanji. It is located in Harrogate, England. Sir Dhunjibhoy was a shipping magnate. Nearly half a century after the death of her husband, Lady Bomanji died in the year 1986. Nevertheless, the Pineheath House had been sitting right there, untouched.
This mansion is not like many of the other abandoned homes. It has not been subject to vandalism or graffiti. Instead, the beds are still made here, keys are kept in a drawer, and bathrooms have soap in them. In 2013, Jason Shaw purchased the Pineheath House. He had plans of restoring this mansion.
The businessman had even submitted his planning application to convert the property into 16 luxury apartments. After the denial of his planning application, he had plans to sell the Pineheath House. There has been no update on this so far.
5. Liu Family Mansion
There have been several theories around the abandonment of this colossal brick mansion. In the mid-20th century, the wealthy Liu family simply left their home, never to return. People say that this mansion located in New Taipei City, Taiwan, is infested by ghosts.
According to one of the popular myths, the family patriarch had an affair with the maid. She was later unable to cope with the shame that it brought her and committed suicide. They say, her spirit never left the Liu household. After many nights of sightings of her ghost in the house, the Liu family left their three-story mansion.
The Taipei Times had reports of other ghostly myths. One of them said that a Japanese soldier had committed suicide there. Today, the mansion lies in a dilapidated state with vines and tree roots on it.
