Costa Rica is also home to many haunted locations, including the Sanatorio Durán, the Montezuma area, the San Lucas Prison, the ruins of the Cartago Parish, and the San Juan de Dios Hospital.
These sites have many legends, including sightings of ghosts, strange shadows, and disembodied voices. Costa Rica’s traditional and modern celebrations offer an exciting and spine-tingling experience for visitors.
Duran Sanatorium in the Central Valley
Near the Irazú Volcano in the Central Valley region of Costa Rica are the ruins of this former tuberculosis hospital. It was also used as a prison, asylum, and orphanage but due to a volcano eruption, it was abandoned and has not been used again.
It is the most haunted place in Costa Rica.
They say a nun can be seen walking through the halls and also a girl sitting on the steps. According to legend, this girl could be the daughter of the same Doctor Durán who contracted tuberculosis and died in this hospital.
Objects thrown from rooms and strange shadows have also been seen. The graffiti of children’s hands (without an apparition or anything) is already quite scary in itself.
The television shows Ghost Hunters International and the YouTuber AmysCrypt visited him to record one of their episodes.
Montezuma
In the Montezuma area, it is common to hear stories of ghost sightings. In Playa Grande de Montezuma there was an old cemetery and the island of Cabuya has an area that was used for burials. It is said that there are spirits wandering around these two areas at night.
Do you fancy a walk there?
Prison of San Lucas on the Island of San Lucas
Between 1883 and 1989 it was the home of the most dangerous criminals in the country. It is said that they were tortured and lived in extreme conditions. People say that they hear voices, and screams and see ghosts in the abandoned buildings around the prison.
The drawings on the cell walls make your hair stand on end.
The Ghost Hunters International television show visited him and featured him in one of their episodes. They confirmed the legend of the ghost of a nurse murdered by a prisoner who walks the halls disfigured by the beating.
It seems that you can meet this nurse in one of the cells where there are drawings of women made with her blood. Do you dare to take a look?
Today the Island of San Lucas is a National Park but you can also hire tours to hunt ghosts.
An ex-convict, José León Sánchez wrote the book “The Island of Lonely Men” in which he tells how he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit and describes how he lived there.
Ruins of the parish of Cartago
These 16th-century ruins are in the center of Cartago and the ghost of a headless priest appears there. The legend says that this priest had a loving encounter with the wife of his brother who was also the mayor of Cartago.
And when the mayor found out, he killed him. The church was destroyed in an earthquake and attempts have been made to rebuild it several times, but each time another earthquake destroys it again.
It seems that the priest does not like the idea and prevents it from being built again, so they have given up and left it in ruins.
Today it is a public space with a park, benches, and full of people during the day.
San Juan de Dios Hospital, San Jose
It is the oldest hospital in the country and is still in operation today.
The old legend of “La Monja del Vaso” says that an unmarried girl was forced to become a nun and that she had very little interest in helping the sick in the hospital. One day a sick person asked her for water and she did not give it to him.
The patient died shortly after and the nun was sentenced to wander around the hospital handing out water.
If you visit the hospital and find her, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to accept the glass to see if she pays off the debt once and for all…
Ghosts in the National Children’s Museum, San José
This museum in downtown San José was an army fort and jail. Museum security guards say that at night they hear noises and see prisoners wandering around.
The ghosts of Barrio Aranjuez and Barrio Amón, San José
Legend has it that in one of the houses in this neighborhood, there were seven suicides by hanging and that these ghosts roam the area. In reality, there are no records of these deaths.
