Haunted or not, the histories of these properties, including the Castallo dal Pozzo in Italy, above, is enough to give you chills. Photo / Airbnb
Haunted or not, the histories of these properties, including the Castallo dal Pozzo in Italy, above, is enough to give you chills. Photo / Airbnb
There are tens of thousands of Airbnb listings around the world but few have backstories like these ones.
These properties, which are available to rent on Airbnb, are places were visitors have reported ghostly presences and have heard things go bump in the night.
And the fascinating history of theproperties could help explain why they're considered so spooky today, reports news.com.au.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there's no denying these Airbnb listings have some of the most compelling backstories out there.
PARKS-BOWMAN MANSION New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
The girl is said to pace the mansion's grounds at night, walking with a slight limp and humming lullabies. She is also said to have a fondness for hiding pairs of glasses.
Host Adrienne Parks moved into the 130-year-old Parks-Bowman Mansion in 2005 and was aware of the stories her home was haunted.
"I had a friend stay once, and he stayed in the haunted bedroom," Ms Parks said.
"One time he had a terrible nightmare, and he experienced someone giving him mouth-to-mouth. She revived him."
According to Ms Parks, the first people to live in the house were a wealthy family that included seven daughters and two sons.
She thinks the ghost was the family's youngest daughter, who, like the ghost, walked with a limp. The girl died young and was buried beside her father at the property. But no one knows why she still haunts the house.
"[New Orleans] is a place where the membranes between the seen and unseen worlds seem to be very thin," Ms Parks said.
"Certain synchronicities, and wonderful coincidences happen here - it all coexists very fruitfully."
HISTORIC CIVIL WAR FARMHOUSE Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States
Inside Gettysburg's Historic Civil War Farmhouse, which was a makeshift hospice for Confederate soldiers. Photo / Airbnb
Just over 150 years ago, this stately farmhouse was the scene of unimaginable anguish due to the Civil War. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a major battleground.
The farmhouse's host Stephani Maitland said after the war ended, tens of thousands of dead or gravely wounded Confederate soldiers were carried through down the town's main road.
"The column of cannons, horses, bodies, and all the injured soldiers was dragged down that road. It was a horrible mess," she said.
Every home along the route was converted into a makeshift field hospital to attend to the injured and bury the dead, including the grounds of the farmhouse.
These days, visitors report hearing the tortured screams of injured and dying soldiers, and also report sightings, footsteps and unexplained sensations. Some have reported seeing men dressed in blue boots, pants and jackets: the uniforms of the Confederate soldiers.
"When my kids were young, one of my sons would wake up on the floor wrapped in a blanket, saying that people had been standing over him," Ms Maitland said.
THE HAUNTED CHAMBER APARTMENT York, England, United Kingdom
The apartment is in York, said to be one of the most haunted towns in the world. Photo / Airbnb
The apartment, which is more than 600 years old and cryptically dubbed "The Chamber", is a place where visitors have picked up on an otherworldly atmosphere and unexplained bumps in the night.
The violent history of York, a former Roman fortress town in northeast England, is an all-round hair-raising place to stay a night.
The bathroom of "The Chamber". Photo / Airbnb
The town is filled with stories of murder and hauntings. One of them is the story of a man called George Pimm, a wicked principal who, according to the tales, rounded up orphans and put them in an institute he ran called the Ragged School, where they were subjected to miserable conditions, according to the BBC.
Many of the children died under his watch, so to avoid people finding out, Pimm buried them on the school grounds. But he became overcome with paranoia - he could hear the dead children wailing and tapping. Eventually, he was driven to guilt and madness, confessed to the townspeople and wound up in a lunatic asylum.
CASTELLO DAL POZZO Piedmont, Italy
A young woman named Barbara is said to haunt the castle tower. Photo / Airbnb
This family castle in Northern Italy is said to be haunted by a heartbroken young woman who was locked away by her cruel father more than 500 years ago, according to local legend.
According to the story, the beautiful young woman, Barbara, had a lover named Matteo, who was dispatched to the castle in 1467 to help the Duke of Milan defend the region in battle.
But the duke, who was Barbara's father, had promised her to a neighbour as part of an alliance deal.
Barbara and Matteo tried to keep their romance alive in the halls of the castle but eventually, Barbara's father found out and locked her in the castle's tower. Matteo was sent away and eventually married someone else in France.
The castle is located on a sprawling property in northern Italy. Photo / Airbnb
Barbara, though, waited in vain for him to return - for months and month. She never left the castle and wasted away until her death.
These days, it's said her ghost remains in the castle tower, waiting for Matteo to come back.
"Some say that they have seen a shadow looking out from the window, as though someone was watching the lake," the castle's host Aimone dal Pozzo said.
"Popular belief maintains that it is the ghost of the beautiful Barbara, which stills wanders restlessly around the Castle Tower searching for her lost love."
