Château de Brissac, France

The Château de Brissac has a long and often violent history. It was built sometime in the 10th century by the Dukes of Anjou. Over the centuries, it was captured and ransacked time and again. Eventually, the Dukes of Brissac gained ownership over the castle in the 19th century; the family still owns it today.

The château is open for visits by the public, and it serves as a bed and breakfast - if you can put up with the Green Lady.

The Green Lady (La Dame Verte, in French) is said to be the daughter of King Charles VII and his mistress, Agnès Sorel. This made the Lady, Charlotte de Brézé, the half-sister of King Louis XI. However, being illegitimate, she was not "true" royalty. She married nobleman Jacques de Brézé - not of her own choosing. The marriage was made for political reasons, and the two had virtually nothing in common.

It wasn't long, of course, before Charlotte began to look elsewhere for companionship. This was made easier by the fact that Charlotte and Jacques didn't share a bedroom, let alone a bed. Charlotte started up an affair with a man named Pierre de Lavergne. Jacques was, at first, unaware, but the servants definitely knew.

On May 31, 1477, Jacques returned from one of his many hunting trips and, after dining with Charlotte, retired for the night. He was awakened by a servant, who informed him of the affair between Charlotte and Pierre. Enraged, Jacques hurried to Charlotte's room and murdered the two lovers.

It wasn't long before the ghosts made their appearance known by frequent moaning. Jacques was driven out of the castle by the noise.

Now, it appears that only Charlotte haunts the castle. Sounds of moaning are heard in the castle very early in the morning. She has also frequently been seen in the chapel, wearing a green dress (which is the source of her name). Worse, she appears with holes in her face where her eyes and nose should be.

NOTE: The link above leads to Booking.com. As of this writing, the website isn't taking bookings for the château. However, since this appears to be the only way to book, I've used the link for the time when it goes live again.

Hotel Chelsea, New York City, New York, USA

The Hotel Chelsea is virtually a Who's Who of artists. Past guests include Allan Ginsberg, Brendan Behan, William S. Burroughs, Mark Twain, Dennis Hopper, Stanley Kubrick, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Tennessee Williams, and Andy Warhol.

Two infamous guests were Sid Vicious, of Sex Pistols fame, and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Their violent relationship culminated in murder, when Sid allegedly stabbed Nancy to death. She was all of 20 years old when she died. (There are theories that Nancy was killed by a drug dealer while Sid was zonked out on drugs.) Vicious is believed to haunt the Chelsea; evidently, Sid (who died of a drug overdose in 1979, just a few months after Nancy) makes his presence known in the elevator, as well as in Room 100, where Nancy died. Oddly enough, for someone who in life was so self-destructive, Sid is very helpful in the elevator, pushing buttons and opening and closing the doors. Room 100 is a different story; guests have reported sounds of a couple arguing in there.

On November 4, 1953, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas walked into the Chelsea and announced, "I've had 18 straight whiskies. I think that's the record!" Five days later, he was dead of bronchial disease. His presence is particularly eerie; he is said to haunt Room 206, where he stayed before his fatal illness, and his disembodied head has been seen at the ends of guests' beds.

Eugene O'Neill has appeared at the Chelsea, as has Thomas Wolfe. Both of them have been seen in the hallways.

A less-famous ghost is that of a woman named Mary, who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Her husband was among those who went down with the ship. Overwhelmed with grief over her loss, Mary hanged herself in her fifth-floor room at the Chelsea. She is seen gazing at her reflection in the mirror.

The Farnsworth House Inn, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

This inn, located in a building dating from 1810, should be haunted simply due to its location. Gettysburg is the site of one of the most famous battles of the U.S. Civil War; the fighting raged for three days in July, 1863. The Farnsworth House was occupied by Confederate sharpshooters during this time, and one of these men may have been responsible for the shooting death of Mary Virginia Wade (known as "Jennie"), the sole civilian to die during the battle. They took aim at Union soldiers from an attic window, but occasionally, one of the Confederates took a bullet from the Union side. His body was then unceremoniously dumped into a corner of the attic.

Gettysburg itself is said to be badly haunted - the battlefield itself, of course, as well as many buildings that were turned into makeshift hospitals. The Farnsworth House was one such hospital. Mary, a nurse who treated the wounded there, is still on duty, it seems. She is the blue-clad ghost seen occasionally on the lower level of the house. Other ghosts include some of the above-mentioned Confederate sharpshooters. (The inn's walls still bear marks left by Civil War bullets.)

The Sara Black room is supposed to be one of the most haunted rooms; the adjoining bathroom was once a bedroom, when a young boy named Jeremy died after a carriage hit him outside the house. The ghost of Jeremy's father is alleged to hammer fruitlessly on the door of the bathroom, anxious to hear whether his son will live or die. Pictures of the room on the house's website show a dressmaker's dummy wearing a white dress - certainly enough to freak out most guests who wake in the middle of the night.


Speaking of freaking out in the middle of the night, the Inn has an interesting condition noted on the website. It reads: "If guests wish to stay in different Bed & Breakfast rooms while they visit with us,  guests are subject to a $50 room switching fee, per day, per room."

Maybe the hauntings have been a bit much for some guests.