Panteón de Belén — the vampire tree and the cursed graves of Guadalajara

The Panteón de Belén (Belén Cemetery) in the centre of Guadalajara, Jalisco, was opened in 1848 and operated for nearly a century before being converted to a museum. The cemetery is considered one of the most haunted locations in Guadalajara, with legends that range from the conventional to the bizarre. The most famous is the tale of the vampire tree — a massive tree in the cemetery's centre that is said to have grown from the stake driven through the heart of a vampire buried beneath it. According to legend, if the tree ever dies, the vampire will rise again. Other legends include the ghost of a man who was buried alive and can be heard scratching at the inside of his crypt, phantom funeral processions that pass through the cemetery at midnight, and the spirit of a woman who appears at the gates asking visitors to help her find her child's grave. The cemetery's Baroque architecture, its elaborate 19th-century monuments, and the play of light through its mature trees create a dramatic setting. Guadalajara's tradition of ghost stories is particularly rich, fed by the city's colonial past, its role in the Mexican Revolution, and the Jalisco state's deep Catholic traditions.