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House of Deaths

Salamanca

Audioguide of the House of Deaths

What to see in the House of Deaths

If you like scary stories, you will surely want to know what is behind this impressive Renaissance mansion, built around the year 1500 and called the House of Deaths.

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If you like scary stories, you will surely want to know what is behind this impressive Renaissance mansion, built around the year 1500 and called the House of Deaths.

There are several explanations about the reason for its gloomy name, and the most obvious one is in sight: the four stone skulls that adorn the façade along with medallions and pilasters. But other gruesome versions speak of terrible events in this place; events halfway between history and legend, which would have left here an alarming amount of dead bodies. The best known of this stories is set at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and it begins with a gentleman named Diego falling deeply in love with a young girl who had just come out of the convent.

The couple got married not long after but shortly after Diego had to go to war and leave the young Mencía alone. And she, who apparently felt very lonely, decided to take not only one lover, or two…but up to three were the young men who regularly paraded around her house, while the husband was away, busy with his war battles.

But Diego returned, and rumours reached his ears, which he didn’t like at all. So, pretending he was going hunting, he hid and watched, seeing with his own eyes how the trio of young men took turns to amuse his wife. He then took hold of his broadsword, and with it, he killed the first, the second and the third lover, but in the last fight, he was mortally wounded.

Bleeding and dying, he still had time to approach his unfaithful wife, grab her by the neck, and with his last strength, he made sure he took her with him to the other world.

However, things didn’t end with the corpses of Don Diego and Doña Mencía, because a few years later the body of another murdered girl appeared in the courtyard of the house. Such bad luck seemed to surround the place, that nobody wanted to live in it, and they decided to remove the skulls from the façade to see if the horrible aura of the mansion faded away.

Finally, the gloomy ornaments were put back in place in 1963, and are still there, frightening the passers-by.


House of Deaths

Calle Bordadores, 6
37002 Salamanca

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Tags: Renaissance

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