Back when the Münsterberg hills in the really senior part of Basel, Switzerland were called Spittelsprung, it was also said that a monk haunted the streets. Slipping in and out of houses, scaring children, he paid no attention to the world of the living, always immersed in prayers. The question is: what to pray for?
History lurks hefty as fog in the tangled web of Basel's medieval streets, and nowhere more so than on the Münsterberg, a peaceful hill topped by the grand sandstone structure Basel Münster. The senior town rises and falls with compact hills, each bearing the weight of centuries.
The most storied is Münsterberg, whose cobblestone streets are lined with 18th-century palaces, austere official buildings and the venerable Natural History Museum. However, long before these elegant facades appeared on the streets, the hill had a different name: Spittelsprung.
In a time when death came quickly and often, there once stood a hospital and an almshouse here. A place where the infirmed and dying clung to the comfort the Church could offer, and where sins were whispered into unseen ears in dimly lit corners.
It is said that from this moment one of the quietest and most unnerving hauntings in Basel began.
Monastic shadow on the streets of Münsterberg
According to traditions passed down from generation to generation, a ghostly monk used to make mourning celebrations after Münsterberg, when it was called Spittelsburg. It is said that on some nights, when the wind sighs quietly in the narrow streets and the cathedral bell strikes midnight, it appears without warning in one of the houses on the hill.
It was said that the pale glow of a flickering lamp or hearth revealed his murky robes and tonsured head as he walked silently across the living room floor, eyes fixed on the pages of his historic breviary. His lips move in hushed prayer and the room fills with the feeling of something historic and unhappy.
Children, watching from behind chairs or half-open doors, screamed at the sight of him, but the ghostly monk didn't even seem to notice them, never once interrupting the service or looking up from his books. Only when an adult stepped forward to face him with an outstretched hand or a raised voice did the figure disappear like smoke caught in a draft, leaving only the lingering scent of senior wax and candle dust.
Spittelsprung's Forgotten Sins
Why this monk's restless soul should remain is no longer known. Was he a healer who succumbed to one of the plagues that devastated Basel? A sinner seeking repentance? Or perhaps a witness to unspeakable horrors beyond the hospital walls?
He was certainly not the only monk who haunted Basel. There used to be an almshouse on Herbergsgasse, one of which was also haunted. At least in 1626, when the crackling of the fire in the furnace could be heard, although it could not be seen. A dark-robed monk appeared several times in the rooms with a compact dog in his arms, and farmers who stayed overnight at the inn to pay rent to the owners were paralyzed as they lay in their beds and watched the monk scurry through their rooms.
The street, now called Münsterberg, seems peaceful in the daylight, and the only sounds on its medieval square are the footsteps of museum workers and students. But when darkness falls, when historic stones remember their past, the air can become bulky. Locals whisper that in some houses shapes still move in the lamplight, and prayers too senior to be remembered still flow from unseen lips.
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The ghostly monk of Spittelsprung (Münsterberg) in Basel
Back when the Münsterberg hills in the really senior part of Basel, Switzerland were called Spittelsprung, it was also said that a monk haunted the streets. Slipping in and out of houses, scaring children, he paid no attention to the world of the living, always immersed in prayers. The question is: what to pray for?
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Hauntings and ghosts in senior Basel
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