6 scariest ghost stories from Switzerland

It’s time to get into the Halloween spirit, and what better way to do that than to fill your head with ghost stories from Switzerland? Tales of mysterious apparitions and supernatural phenomena are a living and breathing part of the oral heritage of the Swiss. Whispering them among friends and family is the perfect way to shift into the spooky season.

Swiss ghost stories

Light some candles in the dark, get a cosy blanket, and prepare to be haunted by scary stories of eerie spirits, elusive monsters and deserted buildings in Switzerland! Here are six of our favourite Swiss ghost stories.

1. The Sanatorium of the Gotthard

One of the creepiest places in Switzerland has to be the Sanatorium of the Gotthard and the beings that are said to haunt its corridors. This abandoned five-storey building near Piotta was previously used as a hospital to treat soldiers who were wounded in the First World War, and later tuberculosis patients. With its own morgue and rumours that a doctor carried out experiments on patients inside, it’s no wonder that the Gotthard Sanatorium is considered one of the scariest places in Switzerland. 

After it lay unused for more than 60 years, people who nowadays dare to enter the crumbling property claim to hear strange noises and have unnerving experiences. One such hair-raising encounter occurred when a man experienced his car being pushed back on the road while trying to approach the sanatorium.

2. The Ice Ghosts

While the Swiss mountains may be beautiful to look at, you might be shocked to find out that, hiding underneath the snow and ice, there are insidious secrets waiting to be revealed. With deep snow and glaciers melting due to global warming, more and more lost souls - people who fell into deep unreachable crevasses or went missing in glacial rivers of ice decades ago - are being revealed. But what about those who are left undiscovered? Do they haunt the very mountains and glaciers in which they are hidden?

One ghost story set in the ski resort of Zermatt tells the tale of a man called Keller, who had a macabre fascination with finding unfound fallen mountain climbers. Keller was out exploring the Swiss mountains one day when he thought he saw a group of mountain climbers fall. In a panic, he made his way closer to assist them, but to his confusion, there was no one to be seen. Following a thumping noise, he then discovered a fragment of material that he believed to be a piece of clothing belonging to an unrecovered climber from one of the earliest climbing accidents on the Matterhorn. 

Keller later told an acquaintance staying at the same hotel that he was desperate to return to the site to reveal the rest of the body. The next evening, Keller’s acquaintance thought they heard Keller return to his nearby room accompanied by the footsteps of several people. The following day, police questioned the man about his conversation with Keller. They were especially curious about his description of hearing other people enter the room - and the reason is spine-chilling.

Keller was found in his hotel room, mangled and looking as though he had been dropped from an immense height. The door to the room was also locked from the inside, creating more of a mystery. It is uncertain if this eerie narrative is a work of fiction or a real-life experience – it's up to you to decide!

3. Le Loyon

Many sightings of mysterious creatures that fuel scary stories occurred hundreds of years ago, but there is one particular entity that has been seen more recently. In the late 1990s, a creepy figure appeared in the Swiss village of Maules. People reported seeing a tall human-like figure dressed in a boiler suit, cloak and gas mask. This ghostly creature would roam the forest mostly on Sundays and was once even seen picking flowers. 

Named Le Loyon, or the Ghost of Maules, the figure never acted dangerously and never caused harm, but witnesses were often frightened and worried about Le Loyon scaring their children. 

Theories about the figure's identity suggested it was a ghost or an extraterrestrial, while others claimed Le Loyon was a mentally ill woman or a person suffering from a skin condition. 

The first-ever photograph of this so-called Swiss ghost went public in 2013 and made international headlines, drawing attention to the urban legend. Later that year, hikers in the Maules forest found Le Loyon’s mask and cloak on the ground, along with a letter titled “The Death Certificate and Testament of the Ghost of Maules”. 

In this letter, the writer said that the viral photograph and the unwanted attention it had caused had led them to abandon their Sunday walks and ultimately disappear. Le Loyon has not been spotted since, leaving the mystery of who or what was under the frightening garb unsolved.

4. The Alps Monster

There are various scary stories about monsters being seen in the mountains and valleys of Switzerland, but there is one especially chilling story of a monster sighting in the Alps back in the 1700s by a man called Hans Fuch. He was walking in the mountains when he was startled by a frightening creature. Fuch then ran home to tell his family of what he had seen, before dying from a heart attack. 

He described a monster known as a Stollenwurm or Tatzelwurm, which is a reptile-like creature with two front legs, a long scaly tail and the face of a cat. Some even say that this Alps Monster has poisonous breath and blood.

Over the past two centuries, there have been several reports about this strange creature that lives in caves and burrows in the Alps. While there haven't been many sightings of the elusive Tatzelwurm, some people suspect this Alps monster of attacking livestock on farms in remote villages. 

5. Haunted hotels

Of the many Swiss hotels that are described as haunted, the most well-known is a hotel near Scuol, called Hotel Val Sinestra, which was originally built as a spa and resort to treat health conditions like tuberculosis. A ghost of a previous patient from Belgium is said to haunt the halls of the hotel, and employees see and hear the spirit they call “Hermann” so regularly that they have become used to him.

Hermann has been known to operate the hotel’s lift and open windows. In the 2010s, a psychic medium called Andreas Meile visited the hotel, interacted with the apparition, and said that the Belgian had fallen in love with a staff member while he was a patient. Meile believes Hermann’s beloved complained about being mistreated by the hotel managers. This is why Hermann’s spirit now roams the hotel, ensuring management treats the staff well.

6. Other spooky places in Switzerland

Haunted hotels aren't the only places that set the scene for ghastly tales! The Joller House in Stans is the site of one horror story that is particularly hair-raising. In the late 1800s, Melchior Joller, a distinguished National Councillor, lived in a house he inherited from his parents with his wife, seven children and several housemaids. While living in the house, multiple house members experienced chilling phenomena. 

At first, they would hear numerous rapping noises throughout the house which they thought could be animals living in the walls. Over two months, the frightening episodes escalated. Banging noises increased in frequency, along with the slamming of windows and doors. Objects and furniture were thrown around rooms and ghostly figures were seen. After the repeated disturbances, the family fled the haunted house, never to return. The Haunted House of Stans was demolished in 2010 to build a shopping centre on the property. 

Lenzburg Castle in Aargau is also a place that will give you goosebumps. Many ghostly tales centre around the bell tower of this 12th-century Swiss castle, which is said to occasionally ring out at a full moon, even if there is no one there. 

The mysterious alleyways in the Old Town of Bern are the perfect spots to enjoy spine-tingling stories about ghosts and enigmas. An abandoned house located at Junkerngasse 54 is thought to be haunted by a spirit – a woman dressed in black who can sometimes be seen in the window of the house.

Don’t let these scary stories frighten you! 

Have these terrifying stories from Switzerland got you looking over your shoulder and feeling a cold touch on your arm? You can now keep the living oral heritage alive and inspire some Halloween spirit by whispering these Swiss ghost stories in the dark! Do you tell scary stories at Halloween? Tell us your favourites in the comments below.