There’s nothing San Anto loves more than spooky shit.
But with a shelter in place order going into effect, we won’t be visiting the Ghost Tracks or seeking out the Donkey Lady anytime soon.
Fortunately, two creepy destinations have made it easy to conduct virtual visits during the pandemic crisis.
The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, is possibly America’s most famous haunted house. After her husband’s death, Sarah Winchester — heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. — moved to San Jose and began building a sprawling mansion, on which construction seemed unceasing from 1886 until her death in 1922. The house’s sprawling, nonsensical architecture — so convoluted that a hidden room wasn’t found until 2016 — has made it a popular destination with both ghost hunters and skeptics alike. With the historic site closed to the public for the foreseeable future, the Winchester Mystery House made a 40 minute video tour available for anyone to view. winchestermysteryhouse.com/video-tour.
Horror buffs can also take a virtual hop across the Atlantic Ocean to visit the Paris Catacombs via a new online tour. The extensive ossuary located under France’s capital city is full of mysterious tunnels and dead ends, but anyone perusing the Google Street View-esque tour needn’t fear getting lost. As virtual visitors click their way through the catacombs, they can see the bones of long-dead French citizens arranged in macabre and beautiful arrangements. catacombes.paris.fr/en/virtual-visit.
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This article appears in Mar 11-24, 2020.
