![]() By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories There are locations from around the world which are scenic, but for all their beauty and historical significance come with a turbulent past, and troubled souls that refuse to rest in peace. ![]() SALTO DEL TEQUENDAMA Approximately 18 miles southwest of Bogotá, Colombia on a precarious cliff Hotel Estación del Salto de Tequendama was built between 1923 and 1927, by architects Pablo de la Cruz, Joseph Martens and Carlos Arturo Tapias. The building faces a picturesque waterfall, which flows downward over 500 feet into the Bogotá River. President Pedro Nel Ospina (1858-1927) was in power during these years, and in 1924 a train station was built along the canyon overlooking the falls. It brought wealthy patrons to the fog-shrouded heights to enjoy lavish parties. Present day, only the platform's handrails partially buried, can be seen above the highway. ![]() By 1929, an addition was built to accommodate the guests, but this optimism was short-lived. A year later, as a consequence of the Great Depression, the patrons dwindled away. It never recaptured the status it once had during the 1920s when Colombia's elites would ride the train to enjoy its hospitality. Nonetheless it operated thus for the next 60 years as a hotel, and then a restaurant under the name of Hotel El Salto which in Spanish translates to The Jump. In 1950, plans were made to expand the structure to an 18-story hotel, but this never came to fruition. The Hotel Del Salto remained unchanged until the building became too damaged to receive guests. It closed in the 1990s due to lack of upkeep, and it was left derelict. From then until 2012, squatters and legend trippers were the only ones to visit the old structure. ![]() Fueled by its picturesque setting and remoteness, suicides romanticized the spot as a place to end their lives by jumping from a point above the falls. It is reported the Muisca Indians also hurled themselves from this spot, long before the hotel was built. It is the ghosts of these unfortunate souls, which are said to haunt the crumbling hotel and the grounds. However according to the caretaker, back in the old days bar fights would break out on the second story. Some of them would end up on the balcony, where it was easy for a drunkard to fall over the railing to their death. Employees described screams echoing around the structure, and a heavy presence at times. It became a museum after 2012, and was renovated. It opens only on the weekends. ![]() LECUMBERRI PRISON The Black Palace of Lecumberri (El Palacio Negro de Lecumberri) is located in Mexico City. It served as a penitentiary from 1900 to 1976, and now houses the National Archive. It replaced Belem Prison as the main prison in Mexico City. During its construction it earned its name as the Black Palace, since just prior to its inauguration, the area was flooded with dirty water which turned the walls black. Construction started on the building in 1888, with the intent of housing criminals and those who opposed the government. It was built using the Panopticon design, which allowed for a single guard to observe all the prisoners without them being able to tell when the guard was looking; therefore making the inmates feel they were always being watched. ![]() The prison was built to hold 800 men, 180 women and 400 children. It had 804 cells, workshops, a nursery, cooking and baking workshops. There was also an area of government, a section dedicated to medical and waiting rooms. It was inaugurated by President Porfirio Diaz at the turn of the 20th century. Pancho Villa, a general of the Mexican Revolution was the first to make an escape from the prison in 1912. In 1913, President Francisco I. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez were murdered en route to Lecumberri, during the coup d’état known as La decena trágica. The living conditions within the prison were very dangerous due to the inmates' treatment by the guards or staff. Let's not forget, criminal were housed there, some more violent than others, but no doubt there were psychopaths and sociopaths among them, who preyed on weaker prisoners. Corruption, torture and beatings were common. In 1954, it started to accept female prisoners. ![]() Even in a prison, there were some places which were worse then others. Cell 614, which was behind the boilers and made of metal heated up so much during the day that prisoners suffocated. There was an open-air cage where there was no shade or roof, and the prisoners endured the elements. It is unknown how many died there. By the 1970s it housed about 4,000 prisoners, in excess of its original plan. Homosexual prisoners were sent to the "J" section where the term "jotos" came from. Another who escaped Lecumberri Prison was Dwight Worker, an American convicted of smuggling cocaine. With the aid of his then-wife Worker escaped on December 17, 1975, disguised as a woman. In a place where torture and murder were commonplace, it is no surprise that it has developed a reputation for being haunted. Disembodied screams have been heard by employees. Sightings are so plentiful that they are referred to as "Lecumberri's ghosts." One of them is known as "Don Jacinto" and he wanders the corridors at night muttering, "Again Amelia didn't come." Jacinto is believed to have been a janitor who worked at Lecumberri and died in the 1940s. Some say he was a prisoner who was betrayed by Amelia. Present day, millions of records are kept in what was once prison cells. Over 60,000 secret police files, made public in 2002, are housed there. It also has 6 million photographs, and surprisingly a doll that was used in a trial for witchcraft. ![]() GRAN HOTEL DE VIENA Located in Cordoba, Argentina, the history of the Gran Hotel Viena, begins with a German named Max Pahlke in 1904, who traveled to Argentina in search of work. Max met and married an Austrian woman named Melita Fleishesberger in Uruguay about ten years later. About 1938, Melita and the children traveled to the area of the Ansenuza Sea to partake of mud baths for their health. Shortly thereafter she partnered with the owner of the small hotel where she stayed. However the partnership was short-lived, and the Pahlkes bought her out. Architects were hired to design a building in the place of the small "pension" which they had bought. The intent was to provide a 5-star hotel which would cater to European tourists. Constructed on the shores of Mar Chiquita de Laguna, the mud baths would be used to draw in those seeking natural health remedies. ![]() The hotel contained 84 rooms, a medical facility equipped with doctors, nurses and massage therapists, a library, bank, dining room sitting 200, granite floors, walls lined with Carrera marble, bronze chandeliers, wine cellar, slaughterhouse, and bakery. It was the only hotel with air conditioning and heating systems in each facility, a large pool divided into saltwater and freshwater, electricity generating plant, garages with their own fuel supply and a food warehouse. The construction which was started in 1940, was completed in December 1945. Argentina declared war on Germany 10 days before it surrendered. Because of the Allied victory, Max was asked to leave his position in the Mannesmann Company. This along with several cases of abuse associated with employees of the hotel, forced Max to move his family in March of 1946. The hotel closed in 1947. ![]() It is believed that President Juan Domingo Peron who came to power on June 4, 1946, allowed Nazis and their families to come into the country. It's believed that approximately 80,000 German and Austrians fled to Argentina. In addition there was a number of Croatians and Italians who were fascist sympathizers. Rumors are that several stayed at the Gran Hotel Viena, and Nazi money had funded the building of the hotel with its hospital wing. Officially the hotel closed in 1947, and reopened in 1962, but only partially. Between then and 1977 when it was flooded, it had been damaged by theft and vandalism. Max Jr. continued as the owner. The municipal authorities allowed families to move there after the flood. They described the sound of steps in the hallways, the sound of jingling keys as if someone was checking the doors. The sound would stop at Room 106, which became known as "el cuarto del fantasma" (the phantom's room). ![]() According to many testimonies, there are at least two ghosts. One of these ghosts is a security guard who has appeared in some tourists´ pictures with his distinctive moustache, and some people have even reported hearing the sound of his keys as well as his steps around the hotel. The other ghost is supposedly his non-official lover who disappeared in the hotel back in the 1940s. Another legend attached to the hotel dates from WWII. It is said that by the end of 1945, some residents of Miramar (Cordoba) gave witness, with great conviction, to having seen in the vicinity of the Gran Hotel Viena, walking very early in the morning, a mysterious old man, withered and trembling, someone that clearly was not from the village. He wore a long green overcoat and a beret of the same color. Lonely and brooding, the old man spoke to no one, but early Miramar risers had seen him somewhere, and after some search of their memory, identification came quickly: the old man was none other than the defeated Führer of Germany, Adolf Hitler. What was it that gave him away? Was it his unique mustache or did he inadvertently slip a salute with his right arm extended? Nobody knows. There are no photographs or evidence that irrefutably certify the presence of such a character in that remote corner of Cordoba. The only thing that there is are rumors, stories circulating by word of mouth, confirming the biggest conspiracy ever organized after World War II. What could Adolf Hitler have been up to in Miramar? What relationship did the Führer have with the Grand Hotel Viena? ![]() The main wing of the hotel was the most luxurious. According to Harry Cooper, author of Hitler in Argentina, a Spanish spy claimed to have seen Hitler dragged from the bunker. He was taken to South America, and died in 1962. Cooper claims that it was unusual that the hotel had a plastic surgery clinic that was located in a small town 400 miles away from Buenos Aires. He believes Nazis were coming there to change their appearance. The hotel when operating had a bank, post office, telephone communication center, laundry, mechanic shop, a pool, larger freezers and a bakery. Jorge Camaras, a journalist wrote a book Odessa al Sur: La Argentina Como Refugio de Nazis y Criminales de Guerra (Odessa to the South: Argentina as a Refuge for Nazis and War Criminals). He agrees with Cooper that at the end of WWII, South America became a haven and then home for hundreds of Germans, Austrians and Croatians escaping from Europe. Argentina was one of the countries where they exiled themselves to, especially in the cities of Bariloche, Cordoba and Buenos Aires. There was another hotel in Miramar run by Antonio Elez, named Hotel las Vegas who was said to be a Nazi sympathizer. Argentinian journalist Abel Basti who wrote Tras Los Pasos de Hitler (Following Hitler's Trail) is another that agrees with Cooper that Hitler didn't commit suicide, and came to Argentina in 1945 after crossing the Atlantic in a ship. According to Basti, the Palkhes invested close to what today would be $25 million in the hotel's construction in a far place, which coincidentally the Eichhorn family, owners of the Hotel El Eden, who were one of Hitler's financiers held property at. He postulates the funds came from the Third Reich. The security chief at the hotel was a German named Martin Kruegger; of the 70 employees, all spoke German or were German. He wrote that the hotel was closed in March, 1946, and the only one left behind was Kruegger, and he was found dead a few months later in one of the rooms. There were rumors of a possible poisoning. ![]() In 2010, Ghost Hunters International visited the hotel and conducted an investigation. Legend trippers and ghost hunters previously had recorded footsteps, sighs, and pounding against the walls. The show interviewed the mayor of the town of Miramar, who said that in the 1940s hotel management hired the staff from Buenos Aires instead of the local populace, in order to keep them in the dark about what was going on there. Room 61 is where Hitler was supposed to stay. The caretaker's family had seen a light floating up the stairs at the wing which was a hospital; also the noise of boots on the floor. Room 106 was where a woman saw man sitting in a bathtub. He looked like a real man not a ghost. Rom 110, had the sound of a radio with static coming from inside a closet. Present day, guides to the hotel tell visitors there have been sightings of children or men with moustaches. Max Pahlke grandson of the original owner is presently disputing the ownership of the hotel, which was taken over by the municipality. He claims to have paperwork where it was lent to the municipal authorities for a temporary time, whereas the authorities claim they were forced to take it over due to the structure being abandoned. Despite the claims there is no definitive proof that Hitler survived, and if he did that he came to the hotel. "The hotel area was always forbidden for Miramar inhabitants", said Patricia Zapata, a member of the Civil Association of Friends of the Gran Hotel Viena. "No one came very close to the building. This was 'the German area'. We were very afraid, especially when we were kids". Whoever it is that haunts the ruins of this hotel no doubt are still reliving the skulduggery and conspiracy that circulated among the guests, and those that worked at El Gran Hotel Viena in the aftermath of WWII. ![]() EL CASTILLO DEL GRINGO LOCO The legend that surround El Castillo del Gringo Loco (The Crazy Gringo's Castle) located in Sangolqui, Ecuador is as mysterious as ever, including a series of caves that snakes underneath the structure. The building belonged to the Hacienda Santa Clara, which was owned by a Frenchman, who got the moniker of "El Gringo Loco". Why he was called a gringo if he was French is unknown. He was about sixty years old, and he was frequently seen taking solitary walks in the surrounding area. There was also rumors that he had built a secret labyrinth of caves nearby. When he died, the structure was left abandoned. Walls that surround the building date back to the beginning of the 20th century. In one version, he was a German or French soldier who fled to Ecuador to escape the horrors of WWII in Europe. He brought his wife and daughters with him. It appeared he was mentally disturbed and one day ran after them throughout the property, eventually catching and killing them. He then disappeared and the construction stopped on the structure. In another version, the owner and his wife, lose a daughter and they slowly go mad wandering around the structure and caves. It's said you can hear the child crying in the dead of night. Throughout the years it gained a reputation as a place where some would gather to perform dark rituals. Fausto Navarrete has a house nearby, and he tells the story that one day he had some friends over. They started to drink and decided to explore the caves. He described where everything on the property was overgrown, lichen covered the stones, and the place looked like a mausoleum. While exploring they came across the bloody head of a ram that seemed to have been used in some type of occult ceremony. They also found discarded women's underwear. Another story is about a group of teenagers who in 1991, participated in rituals there and wrote their names on the wall of the Castillo del Gringo Loco. Within a short amount of time they each died under tragic circumstances.
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Stranger Than Fiction StoriesM.P. PellicerAuthor, Narrator and Producer StrangerThanFiction.NewsArchives
February 2025
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