The Most Beautiful Haunted Houses in the World

Word to the wise? Don’t let the beauty of these haunted houses lure you into a false sense of safety when crossing their thresholds. Their jaw-dropping exteriors are all but a cloak, shrouding their creepy histories, steeped with murder, mayhem and revenge.

First up: The Calhoun-Thornwell House or “Tryggveson” was completed in 1922 and remains one of Atlanta's most intriguing residences. Back in the 1970s, when only the carriage house was occupied, local kids would scout the grounds to see if they could catch a glimpse of a ghostly figure in the main house. Rumor has it, they often did.

When her husband and infant daughter died, Winchester Rifles heiress Sarah Winchester visited a spiritual medium. The psychic told the wealthy socialite that the premature deaths were payback from angry spirits who’d been killed by Winchester rifles — and now it was time for Sarah to build a house large enough to accommodate all of them. Sarah soon packed her bags for sunny, spacious San Jose, CA, and for the next 38 years, she embarked on a nonstop construction project that would become known as the Winchester Mystery House. Complete with 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms and 6 kitchens, the house was supposedly built to confuse evil spirits. Secret passageways, upside-down columns, staircases to nowhere and sealed-off rooms litter this bizarre and creepy mansion. Since Sarah Winchester’s death in 1922, visitors have heard footsteps in her bedroom, seen doorknobs turn themselves, been overcome with icy chills and temporarily lost their vision. Check out the incredible images from the Ghost Adventures crew's overnight lockdown investigation of this hauntingly beautiful home, below.

Larnach Castle reigns supreme as the one-and-only castle in New Zealand. The handsome palace is located in Dunedin on the Otago Peninsula and is surrounded by misty gardens for as far as the can see. The opulent castle was built in the late 1800s by a politician named William Larnach. It's rumored that Larnach witnessed the death of his daughter and two wives in the house before tragically taking his own life within its walls. Larnach’s ghost is rumored to watch over the castle and is the main suspect for several inexplicable events including, but not limited to: flashes of light, smoke billowing into the room from the fireplace and doors opening on their own.

Rose Hall is a bewitchingly beautiful Georgian plantation located near Montego Bay on the northern coast of Jamaica. The property, built in the 1770s, was owned by a man named John Palmer and included sprawling sugar cane fields maintained by hundreds of slaves. John married an English-born woman named Annie, who subsequentially poisoned him to death to take control of his plantation and fortune. Annie earned the title White Witch by Rose Hall slaves because she practiced voodoo, tortured workers, killed her second and third husband, and dabbled in evil magic. After years of torture, Annie was killed by one of the slaves after she killed their relatives out of spite. The White Witch lies encased in a stone tomb on the property, but her vengeful spirit is said to roam the grounds and terrorize guests of the restored property (and 54-hole golf course) to this day.