Haunted castles
7 châteaux listed
7 castles where the legend is told on site, with their opening season and admission price.
A haunted castle is first of all a castle with a story: a murdered wife, a lord who never leaves the staircase, a White Lady who returns to a bedroom. None of these stories can be proved, but they can be visited: several castles have built a tour, a night’s stay or a Halloween festival around them.
This page only includes places whose legend is told by the castle itself, on its website or during the visit, or by a published text, such as Chateaubriand’s memoirs for Combourg. Rumours without a source are left out.
Each place comes with what links it to the theme, the adult admission price where we know it, its opening season and its position on the map. At the end of October several of them hold Halloween evenings, listed in our castle events calendar.
The places, one by one
From the best known to the most discreet. Prices are for one adult; the season comes from the opening periods each place publishes.
Château de Fougeret (Fougeret Castle)
Queaux, Vienne
Its owners present it as the most haunted castle in France and offer tours and overnight stays. Built at the end of the 15th century, it was remodelled in Gothic Revival style in the late 19th.
Season not published
Château de Brissac (Brissac Castle)
Brissac Loire Aubance, Maine-et-Loire
Jacques de Brézé killed his wife Charlotte here, the daughter of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel, after finding her with one of his friends. The castle itself mentions her ghost, a lost soul said to wander at night.
Adult admission: €13.50Open all year
Château de Puymartin (Puymartin Castle)
Marquay, Dordogne
The legend of the White Lady belongs to the castle: it is told during the visit, a room bears her name and an evening, the White Ladies’ Ball, is devoted to her.
Adult admission: €11Open April to January
Château de Trécesson (Trécesson Castle)
Campénéac, Morbihan
On the edge of the forest of Brocéliande, the castle owes its reputation as the haunted castle of Brittany to the legend of the White Lady.
Open July to August
Hours to be confirmed
Château de Combourg (Combourg Castle)
Combourg, Ille-et-Vilaine
Chateaubriand, who spent part of his youth here, recalls the belief in a wooden-legged count of Combourg, dead for three centuries, met on the great staircase of the turret, his leg sometimes walking alone with a black cat.
Adult admission: €13.70Season not published
Wolfsegg Castle
Wolfsegg, Bayern
The Weiße Frau, the White Lady of Wolfsegg: a lady of the castle said to have been killed by her jealous husband at the end of the 15th century. Visitors claim to have seen her, and the castle devotes a whole section to her.
Adult admission: €4Open May to October
Hours to be confirmed
Frankenstein Castle
Mühltal, Hessen
American soldiers started a Halloween party here in the 1970s that has become, according to the castle, the largest Halloween festival in Germany.
Season not published
The map
The 7 places on this page. Tap a point to open its page.
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Open this weekend
On the weekend of Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25, 3 places on this page welcome visitors. Opening hours come from the château’s own website, or from Google when the site publishes none; a season announced without a timetable is best confirmed by phone.
- Wolfsegg CastleWolfsegg
- Saturday
- : 10:00 to 16:00
- Sunday
- : 10:00 to 16:00
Adult €4 - Château de Brissac (Brissac Castle)Brissac Loire Aubance
- Announced season
- : du 21 mars à fin juin et du 1er septembre au 8 novembre
Adult €13.50 - Announced season
- : du 1er octobre au 11 novembre
Adult €11
Admission prices
The full adult price and the child price, as each château publishes them, from the most searched-for to the least known, for the 4 places on this page that publish theirs.
| Château | Adult | Child |
|---|---|---|
| Château de Brissac (Brissac Castle) · Brissac Loire Aubance | €13.50 | €5 |
| Château de Puymartin (Puymartin Castle) · Marquay | €11 | €6 |
| Château de Combourg (Combourg Castle) · Combourg | €13.70 | €5.70 |
| Wolfsegg Castle · Wolfsegg | €4 | €2 |
With children
The places whose own website describes them as suited to children, from the most searched-for to the least known, with the child price where it is published.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the most haunted castle in France?
- The Château de Fougeret, at Queaux in the Vienne, presents itself as the most haunted castle in France and offers tours and overnight stays. There is no measure that ranks haunted castles: it is the reputation each place claims.
- Can you stay overnight in a haunted castle?
- Yes, at Fougeret, which offers overnight stays. At the other castles on this page, the legend is part of the visit or of the evenings held around Halloween.
- What is a White Lady?
- A figure of castle legends: the ghost of a woman, often a lady of the castle who died a violent death, said to reappear dressed in white. Puymartin, Trécesson and Wolfsegg each have their own.
- Haunted castles: which ones are open all year?
- Only one is listed as open all year: Château de Brissac. The others open in season, and winter hours are often shorter.
- Haunted castles: how much is admission?
- Across the 4 places whose prices we know, adult admission ranges from €4 to €13.70.