Nightmarks in Mexico City
18 nightmarks documented
Panteón de San Isidro — the children's cemetery of Azcapotzalco, Mexico City
Ghost children laugh, sing, and slip their small hands into visitors' palms at Mexico City's children-only cemetery — in death as in life, they just want to play.
La Llorona of Xochimilco — Wailing Among the Floating Gardens of Mexico City
In Xochimilco's dark canals, near an island hung with hundreds of decaying dolls, La Llorona's wail drifts across the ancient waterways.
Casa de la Tía Toña — the phantom children of Chapultepec Forest, Mexico City
Aunt Toña took in orphans and threw them into the ravine — their ghostly laughter fills Mexico City's largest park, and the old woman still beckons from the ruins.
Bamer Building — the haunted hotel tower of Mexico City's historic centre
A woman in a 1950s cocktail dress waits in the lobby and a phantom big band plays in the ballroom — this Mexico City tower still hosts the glamorous post-war dead.
Mexico City Metro — phantom passengers and the Aztec dead beneath the capital
Aztec warriors stand on platforms, a phantom girl boards the train, and Nahuatl chanting fills the tunnels — Mexico City's metro was built atop the dead of Tenochtitlan.
Instituto Cultural La Moira — the haunted mansion of San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico City
A phantom family sits to dinner, then screaming begins and they vanish — this Mexico City mansion replays a colonial-era murder on an endless, terrible loop.
Hospital Juárez — the oldest operating hospital in Mexico City and its war ghosts
Operating since 1847, Mexico City's oldest hospital accumulates ghosts with every war, earthquake, and epidemic — a dead patient still watches surgeries from the gallery above.
Palace of the Inquisition — torture echoes in Mexico City's tribunal of faith
The Inquisition's screams still echo from the torture chambers beneath Mexico City's baroque façade — hooded figures walk the corridors and visitors feel phantom pain in the cells.
Plaza de Tlatelolco — three cultures of ghosts in Mexico City's bloodiest square
Aztec warriors fell here in 1521. Students were massacred here in 1968. Three cultures built this plaza, and three eras of ghosts share its bloodied ground.
XEW-AM — the ghosts of Mexico's golden age of radio haunt this Coyoacán station
Pedro Infante's ghost sings with a phantom orchestra at Mexico's most famous radio station — the golden age of Latin American broadcasting never stopped transmitting from Coyoacán.
Isla de las Muñecas — the Island of the Dolls in Mexico City's canals
A hermit hung hundreds of dolls to appease a drowned girl's ghost — then drowned in the same spot. The dolls' eyes follow visitors, and they whisper at night.
Mexico City International Airport — the phantom child and the ghostly travellers
A phantom girl in white walks through crowds of passengers who can't see her — Mexico City's airport was built atop the Aztec lake of the dead, and the dead still travel.
Casa de las Brujas — the haunted Art Nouveau apartment building of Colonia Roma
This witch's-hat-shaped Art Nouveau building survived the 1985 earthquake that killed 10,000 — phantom protection or dark pact? The Witches' House isn't telling.
Posada del Sol — Mexico City's cursed hotel that never opened
A grand hotel was never finished — phantom parties fill its ruined ballroom and the ghost of the owner invites visitors to stay at a celebration that never ends.
Casa Negra — the Black House of Mexico City where a widow kept her dead husband
A widow kept her husband's embalmed body at the dinner table for years — now both their ghosts inhabit the mansion she painted entirely black in eternal mourning.
Palacio de Lecumberri — the haunted Black Palace where Mexico imprisoned its dissidents
Dissidents, artists, and murderers were locked in this panopticon prison — now archivists hear the inmates pacing and writing on walls. Lecumberri's prisoners never got their pardon.
Callejón del Aguacate — Mexico City's alley of dark rituals in Coyoacán
Hooded figures conduct rituals in a dark Mexico City alley — in Coyoacán, where Frida Kahlo and Trotsky lived, the occult and the artistic have always intertwined.
Casa de los Condes — the intelligent haunting of a colonial Mexico City palace
Colonial aristocrats still receive guests and manage their household — the ghosts in this Mexico City palace nod at visitors and respond to questions before dissolving.