Country file · South America
Haunted places in Peru
What are the most haunted places in Peru? The best-known is Casa Matusita.
Ask anyone in Lima about ghosts and the answer is the Casa Matusita, a two-storey building on a busy corner of the old centre whose empty upper floor gave rise to decades of murder legends. Journalists have found no record of any of the crimes, the presenter at the heart of its most famous story later admitted it was a publicity stunt, and its owner calls it an urban legend – yet it remains the country’s best-known haunted house, and even inspired a 2014 horror film.
- 1 haunting
- 5 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Peru
The ghost lore of Peru
Lima’s colonial past, as the capital of a Spanish viceroyalty and the seat of a tribunal of the Inquisition, feeds many of its stories, as do its old cemeteries and grand casonas. Across the Andes, Quechua and Aymara communities hold living traditions about ancestors, mountains and the dead that are part of their own religious life, distinct from the urban ghost stories of the capital.
Peruvians mark the Day of the Dead on 1 and 2 November by visiting family graves, and Lima’s historic cemetery has become a place for night-time heritage tours.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Centro Histórico de Lima
The old viceregal capital, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to the Casa Matusita and to the former Inquisition building, now a museum.
- Presbítero Maestro Cemetery
Lima’s first general cemetery, opened in 1808 and now a museum, is crowded with grand tombs and offers evening tours.
- Barranco
The seaside bohemian district, with its old mansions and the Puente de los Suspiros, has its own romantic legends.
Timeline
- c. 1950The family moves out Casa Matusita
According to the owners, the family left the house after the patriarch’s death in 1947. The hardware shop that gave the house its name occupied the ground floor for about the next fifty years.
- 1960sThe TV presenter’s dare Casa Matusita
Legend says Humberto Vílchez Vera tried to stay a week in the house and fled in terror. He later wrote that the episode was a ratings ploy that never happened as told.
- 2005The shop closes Casa Matusita
The Matusita hardware business left the ground floor, which was later let to a bank.
- 2014Secreto Matusita Casa Matusita
A horror film inspired by the legend, starring Malcolm McDowell, was released and became a box-office success in Peru.
- July 2016The upper floor is taken down Casa Matusita
After the city declared the building unsafe, the owner and the bank agreed to demolish and rebuild the second floor. The owner and a parapsychologist told El Comercio the haunting was a myth.
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