Designed by the Dead : Iulia Hasdue
What happens when your child calls up from beyond the grave and describes how she would like a castle built? Well, you build it! That is exactly what this father did, with rooms designed simply for spiritual contact, corridors leading to nowhere, and even restricted sections rumoured to be home to something a lot more sinister. Romania’s most haunted location?
Image Via Vizitat
Romanian Intellectual Bogdan Pétriceicu Hasdue’s daughter died at 18 in the year 1888. He was heart broken.
Iulia Hasdue’s early death would change his life forever. After she passed he chose to spend the majority of his time, wealth and brainpower into remembering his beloved daughter until he eventually found spiritualism. After years of practice, he made contact.
Iulia, his daughter, was named after his wife and born in November 1869. From birth she was special, Iulia was gifted in music and languages, by 11 she had graduated from St. Sava Gymnasium and the Music Academy of Bucharest with honours in both piano and voice.
Portrait of Iulia. Image Via True Romania
By her early teens, Iulia had already become fluent in seven languages and continued her secondary education at the Sévigné College of Paris. her peers and professors considered her to be a child genius, she excelled in all of her academic subjects as well as drawing, piano, painting and singing. A collection of her poems was published shortly following her death.
At 16, Iulia began studies in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at La Sorbonne in Paris where she was a dedicated pupil and pride of her pops life. Then a month before her 19th birthday Iulia died from a severe and sudden case of Tuberculosis. Her father grew mad, he proceeded to build a temple for her in the family vault in Bucharest. But a simple Monument was not enough…
Iulia’s Father ; Bogdan Hasdue. Image Via Wikipedia
Bogdan decided to build a grander temple to honour his daughter, which turned into a castle, located in the country town of Campina. Bogdan and his wife found the dormant land and decided it would be perfect, so they bought it immediately and began to build. Bogdan claimed that he was in direct contact with his daughter who told him the designs for every room.
She would communicate through short bursts of speech, giving him the designs for the castle. He paid particular attention to the magical numbers 3 and 7. Magical because Iulia claimed so. There are three towers, three rooms underground and each staircase consists of exactly 7 steps. The castle also holds a giant stone door entrance, hung on a diamond bearing. On either side f the door are the stone thrones, and sitting on each throne are two female sphinxes and above the door is ” the eye of the world “. The eye of the world was a symbolic representation of Bogdan’s two Iulias, his wife and daughter.
The eye of the world. Image Via Dolphin Wisdom
Of course, a castle such as this has rumours of a much darker past and purpose. It is described as the spookiest castle in the world as well as the most haunted. Is it possible than Bogdan contacted something else instead of Iulia? It could easily be that thing lurking the corridors that visitors are seeing, perhaps Iulia never even visited from above…
The Haunting of Iulia Mansion
Whatever Bogdan did in his hours of solitude in this castle appears to have worked. A lot of people have seen a young girl in a white dress wandering through the castle at all hours and it is thought to be the intelligent spirit of Iulia herself. She is mainly seen wandering through the palace gardens, wearing a white dress and holding daisies.
Many guests passing the castle at night have also reported hearing the sound of the piano coming from in the castle, even when at night it is empty. Others have even seen Iulia’s father Bogdan. He is seen frequently in corners of the building in deep conversation and talking with his daughter. It is nice to think that he was reunited with his daughter and all his plans actually worked in life.
Inside Iulia Castle, Image Via Flickr
Heart-warming as it is, there is something else happening here… many guests or passers-by have claimed to see Bogdan in the window, look dishevelled and half rotten. He is said to stand and to look out the window with a malicious intent in his face then he howls like a wolf…
people have also been hurt in the castle, some report bite marks whilst other complain of a sudden sickness and have to leave. The darker side of the castle is almost unheard of, perhaps it would affect the steady stream of tourists paying the admission fee, however, it is here.
Who knows what Bogdan tried to summon his daughter back from the dead, perhaps some kind of ritual he knew was wrong. Is there something else within Iulia Castle? Perhaps we will never know, but you can agree there is something just not sane about this castle of necromancy.
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