Tim and I first met when we were both living in Las Vegas in the early 2000s. I’m not sure I had even ever been to a Halloween haunted house before moving there for college, but each Halloween it became Tim and my tradition to visit as many of the haunted houses that temporarily popped up across the valley as possible. I’d anxiously clutch his hand as we made our way through the dark houses, ghouls popping out at us and making my heart race. I’m not sure why, but we didn’t continue our tradition when we moved to Phoenix and Halloween just isn’t celebrated in Italy. So when we heard about a Halloween haunted house at the nearly abandoned Burg Frankenstein, we just had to go and have a good fright!
Burg Frankenstein is first mentioned in 948, when Arbogast von Frankenstein, a knight, won a contest on the grounds and built the first castle there. In the 1700’s , the castle had served as a military hospital and jail, and a female sergeant who commanded the prison was overtaken by greed and sold everything that she could, leaving the castle in ruins and abandonment. But it was in 1604 that the castle got its link to Mary Shelley’s famous novel when an alchemist named Johann Conrad Dippel dug up bodies and performed medical experiments on them at the castle. A local cleric warned the village that Dippel had created a monster sewn together of various body parts and that he came to life after being struck by a bolt of lightning.
The story and history of the castle alone is enough to leave you anxious, but the real heart pounding began as we boarded a bus to take us up to the castle high on top of a hill above Darmstadt. In the pitch black, we all peered out the windows into the darkness. The bus dropped us off and in small groups we made our way along a wooded, barely lit path to the castle. I kept watch, waiting for ghouls to leap out at us from the woods.
I had heard that the ghouls, vampires, and monsters can kidnap you and toss you into coffins and cages. And now after having been through the castle’s grounds of terror, I can confirm that ghouls, goblins, and the like do in fact kidnap unsuspecting guests to lock them away! I watched laughing (and praying not me!) while a Freddy Krueger-like character tossed one screaming girl over his shoulder, marched over to a trunk, placed her inside, and secured the trunk with all his weight while he sat on top.
Through graveyards ghouls stalked me, all in good fun, one particularly interested in my hair. And on a more lighthearted note, the ghouls perform various short plays and musical acts throughout the night on the center stage. We laughed as a motley crew sang and danced Michael Jackson’s Thriller while a ghoul made his way through the crowd, creeping up to guests enthralled in the show and giving them a good fright with a rev of his chainsaw.
Know Before You Go
- Advanced tickets are required and can be purchased online or at various box offices around the area.
- The Halloween festival runs from late October through the first weekend in November. Check the website for exact dates.
- VIP tickets also include a buffet dinner and welcome drink
- Burg Frankenstein is open for visits throughout the rest of the year and has an onsite restaurant with views overlooking the Rhine River and village of Frankenstein below
Erika Blake says
Haha – sounds like fun!
Laurel says
This sounds like fun, but soooo scary, especially with the history and the kidnapping, even if you know it’s coming.
Jennifer Dombrowski says
It’s definitely a lot more fun watching others get kidnapped and stalked. Your heart races when they’re after you, even though you know they are actors. I definitely recommend it though!
Habib Mehmoodi says
Haunted themes tours are a great way to experience thrill first hand.
Kenin Bassart says
sounds like good time until they try to lock you up. I would pitch a fit at that point.
Devlin @ Marginal Boundaries says
Haha, locking people up in trunks! I love haunted houses that REALLY get into it.
Jennifer Dombrowski says
It was a lot of fun to go to this one. Italy doesn’t do the whole Halloween thing and it is something we miss at this time of the year.
Cheryl Howard says
Looks like loads of fun! Love doing these kind of things around Halloween. Nothing more festive! 😀
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Haha! Me too. Even though I would know it’s all in good fun, I’d be screaming bloody murder if they grabbed me to be locked up.
Patti says
The last Haunted House I went through was years (and years) ago. I bumped into something and got a bloody nose as a result. Everyone stared with wide eyes when I came out of the house with blood on my face!
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Oh no! I bet you really freaked out those going in. They were probably wondering what on earth happens in that haunted house. Or they thought you had a really good costume!
Ellen Christian says
I love this! I bet my teen some would enjoy it too!
Cathy Sweeney says
You couldn’t pick a more perfect place for a haunted house! Looks very scary (and I know that’s the point), but I don’t handle those places too well – I’m the screamer who can’t wait to get out. I definitely wouldn’t go through this one knowing there’s a chance I’ll get thrown in a coffin. But to those who like haunted houses this sounds like a winner.
Derek says
Sounds like a ghoulishly good time 😉
T.W. Anderson @ Marginal Boundaries says
A fiendishly fun festival, from the looks of it 🙂
Anonymous says
Actually, the village below is called Nieder Beerbach. It's a rural suburb of Darmstadt. I know, because I lived in it for three years back in the early 1980s, while I was the Public Affairs Officer for the Military Community (MILCOM) in Darmstadt. My daughter, wife and I used to hike up to Burg Frankenstein quite often. Interestingly, an American couple living and working in Darmstadt with the U.S. Military Community started the haunt, back around 1977. The name and background surrounding the ancient castle was a no-brainer and one look at the falling down and sinister-looking ruins sealed the deal. The couple who launched the event worked for an organization called KONTAKT. KONTAKT was a U.S. military-sponsored organization run out of my office there in Darmstadt. I tried to staff it with both young Germans as well as an active duty military member. It was designed to bring young German and mostly active duty Americans together in a social setting and thereby improve US-German relations. Two of my KONTAKT representatives (one German, the other American -they later got married) thought it would be neat to host a Halloween fund-raiser at the near-by Burg Frankenstein, with the thought it would be attractive mostly to the several thousand Americans — miitary and civilian — who lived and worked in the area. It was a HUGE success. The surprise was that even the Germans, who had probably never even heard of Halloween, loved it as well. The couple who started it eventually rotated back to the U.S. Still, every late October they would return to Darmstadt solely to run the Halloween Haunt. The Darmstadt MILCOM is now long closed, but it appears the annual fest lives on. Well at least that appears to be the ghoul . . .
Linda Crane says
That is a neat story. Very cool and can’t wait to go!