-
*Astrella.
User deleted
Winchester House, la misteriosa casa dedicata ai fantasmi - ENG
Srano, stranissimo, ma vero questa casa pian piano e' sorta ed e' cresciuta a seconda degli spiriti che la frequentavano...
Winchester House e' a San José in California, ed è un edificio molto grande dove predomina lo stile vittoriano sorto e cresciuto per molti anni dove visse Sarah Pardee Winchester, ricca vedova ereditiera dell'industria del famoso fucile.Dipinto di Sarah Winchester - 1865
Sarah Pardee nacque nel 1839 a New Haven, in Connecticut . Conosciuta come “la bella di New Haven”, Sarah era una ragazza cresciuta in una famiglia agiata, molto popolare per la sua intelligenza e vivacità, che suonava ammirevolmente il pianoforte e parlava 4 lingue. Il 30 Settembre 1862 sposò William Wirt Winchester, unico erede della compagnia che produceva le famose armi Winchester, la Winchester Repeating Arms Company. In un momento assai propizio per gli affari, dato che la Guerra Civile era in pieno corso e le vendite delle armi erano perciò al culmine.William Wirt Winchester e Sarah Winchester
Ebbero una figlia che nacque nata il 12 luglio 1866, ma poche poche settimane dopo mori' di marasma infantile. La morte della bambina provoco' a Sarah a una profonda depressione e la coppia non ebbe altri figli. Nel marzo 1881 mori' anche il marito William, colpito da tubercolosi. Sarah si ritrovò così proprietaria di circa il 50% della Winchester company, che le rendeva circa mille dollari al giorno (approssimativamente 20.000 dollari al giorno nel 2008).
Straziata dai profondi lutti, la sua salute ne fu compromessa e, pare che su consiglio di un'amica, si reco' da una medium di Boston. La medium rivelò a Sarah che sulla famiglia Winchester pesava una maledizione, e che gli spiriti di tutte le persone che erano state uccise con le armi da fuoco Winchester erano infuriate e urlavano vendetta. La medium le consigliò di trasferirsi ad Ovest e di costruire una casa che avrebbe dovuto ospitare lei ed anche gli spiriti. Le raccomandò inoltre di non interromperne mai la costruzione, pena la sua stessa vita.
Sarah si trasferi' a Santa Clara Valley, dove acquistò una casa di sei stanze ancora in costruzione, ingaggiò 22 muratori che avrebbero lavorato a turno per costruire 24 ore su 24 e diede inizio a una costruzione particolarmente inusuale, totalmente svincolata da ogni progettazione architettonica e da ogni regola edilizia.
Sarah faceva degli schizzi su un foglietto per la stanza che aveva in mente e lo passava ai costruttori, gli spiriti, spiegava, le avevano detto di costruirla in quel modo. La donna, infatti, aveva imparato a contattare gli spiriti dei defunti, tra cui quello del marito, che le indicava come dovevano essere costruite le stanze, l'arredamento, l'orientamento. Per questo ci sono colonne costruite al contrario con i capitelli a terra, finestre nel pavimento e altre stranezze. Sarah, inoltre, aggiunse ingegnosi trucchi per confondere i fantasmi malvagi, tra cui passaggi segreti attraverso cui scomparire se si sentiva inseguita, porte che si aprono su pareti, scale che finiscono contro il soffitto, lucernari costruiti l’uno sull’altro.Scala chiusa con un soffitto
Porta che si apre sul vuoto
Finestra nel pavimento
Particolare di alcune finestre
La rivista “The American Weekly”, dopo la morte di Sarah, pubblicò una descrizione delle sue escursioni notturne nella stanza delle sedute spiritiche:
“Quando Mrs. Winchester si preparava ad andare nella stanza delle sedute spiritiche, perfino il fantasma di un indiano o di un segugio sarebbe rimasto scoraggiato dal seguirla: dopo aver attraversato un interminabile labirinto di stanze e corridoi, all’improvviso schiacciava un bottone, un pannello si apriva, e lei sgusciava nella stanza accanto e, a meno che il fantasma non fosse veloce e furbo, la perdeva. Poi la donna apriva una finestra e la scavalcava, non per cadere nel vuoto ma per ritrovarsi in cima a una scala che l’avrebbe fatta scendere di un piano; lì, avrebbe preso un’altra scala che l’avrebbe riportata al piano precedente e dentro la casa. Tutto questo per disorientare gli spiriti, che sono per natura molto sospettosi delle trappole.”
Con gli spiriti “buoni”, invece, Mrs. Winchester era estremamente ospitale: ad esempio si narra che, data la nota avversione dei fantasmi per gli specchi, in casa ce ne fossero appena tre.
Se gli spiriti non erano soddisfatti, un’ala della casa doveva essere demolita, una stanza appena costruita doveva essere rifatta da capo, una scala veniva sigillata. Tra le varie stranezze, il numero 13 ricorre in tutta la casa: le finestre hanno 13 pannelli, ogni scala ha 13 scalini, ci sono 13 ganci nella Blue Room, dove Sarah comunicava con gli spiriti, uno per ogni veste che indossava a seconda della seduta, candelabri a 13 bracci, 13 bagni.Sarah Winchester - 1920
La figura di Mrs. Winchester assunse contorni variopinti: si diceva che si mostrasse solo con un fitto velo nero sul viso, e che avesse licenziato servitori che l’avevano spiata senza questa protezione. Inoltre, alcuni dicevano che potesse passare attraverso i muri e le porte, probabilmente a causa dei passaggi segreti e dei meccanismi disseminati in tutta la casa per spiare il lavoro dei domestici. Sempre per sviare i fantasmi malvagi, non dormiva mai due sere di seguito nella stessa stanza e i vicini raccontavano di sentire il rintocco di una campana a mezzanotte e alle due, gli orari tradizionali dell’arrivo e della partenza degli spiriti.
Per dare un’idea della dipendenza di Sarah dal volere dei fantasmi, quando il terremoto che colpì San Francisco nel 1906 distrusse tre piani della casa, la donna rimase intrappolata per lungo tempo nella sua camera da letto. Quando i domestici riuscirono a liberarla, dichiarò che quello era un segno dell’ira degli spiriti, indignati per la troppa attenzione che, nella costruzione, era stata data alle stanze sulla facciata. La parte anteriore, quindi, non fu riparata, ma fu sigillata con assi di legno, e la costruzione riprese dedicando maggiore attenzione alle altre parti della magione.
In un altro caso, dopo avere notato l’impronta nera di una mano sul muro della cantina e averlo interpretato come un cattivo presagio, ordinò di far sigillare la stanza, piena di liquori e vini rarissimi, che non venne mai più riaperta e, tuttora, non si sa in quale punto della casa si trovi.
La casa fu costruita, demolita, ampliata, arredata per i successivi quarant’anni, e non c’era momento in cui i lavori si fermassero, tanto che Sarah fece costruire case per gli operai e per le loro famiglie all’interno della sua proprietà, che era una specie di cittadella autonoma.La camera da letto dove mori' Sarah Winchester
Sarah Winchester morì nel sonno a 83 anni, nel 1922, e fu sepolta insieme alla figlia e al marito all’Evergreen Cemetery di New Haven. Fedele alla passione per il numero 13, il suo testamento era diviso in 13 parti e firmato 13 volte e comprendeva i suoi molti nipoti, i suoi domestici preferiti, e una somma ingente perché l’Ospedale del Connecticut potesse costruire un reparto dedicato ai malati di tubercolosi.
Al momento della morte di Sarah, Llanada Villa (questo e' il nome di casa Winchester) si estendeva per oltre 6 acri e comprendeva 2.000 porte, 10.000 finestre, 47 scale e 47 caminetti, 6 cucine. La casa annovera anche alcune invenzioni che, ora, sembrano scontate, ma che ai tempi erano molto all’avanguardia. Ad esempio, alcuni storici ritengono che Sarah fu la prima a usare la lana isolante; c’era una manovella interna per aprire e chiudere gli scuri esterni delle finestre, che ora è la norma; era installato in ogni stanza un sistema di altoparlanti usato per convocare i domestici sparsi per la casa; le lampade a carburo si accendevano schiacciando un bottone, come oggi, e il gas era prodotto all’interno della casa. Gli spiriti raccomandarono anche la costruzione di un ascensore a pistoni orizzontale, l’unico negli Stati Uniti, non si sa bene per quale motivo.
Inizialmente acquistata con nove locali con Sarah in quarant'anni erano diventati 160.Oggi la Winchester House, per le sue particolarità, è diventata un vero e proprio museo visitabile.
Fonte: weirdposse.wordpress.comWinchester Mystery House
vince1johnson Caricato in data 06/ott/2007
Travel Channel's Creepiest Destinations:
When rifle heiress Sarah Winchester began building her Victorian-style mansion in 1884, she pledged that the construction would never end during her lifetime. The reason? She thought the continuous noise would appease the ghosts that plagued her after the deaths of her husband and daughter as well as help her attain eternal life. Only Winchester herself knows whether or not the plan worked; the Winchester House still stands, but as a museum to the oddities and mysteries that were part of this woman's life. Among the strangest, doors that open to blank walls, a chimney that rises four floors and a set of stairs that lead to the ceiling.Ghost Adventures S05E04 Winchester Mystery House
TheZeferen Pubblicato in data 07/feb/2013
EnglishThe Winchester Mystery House
The Winchester Mystery House is a well-known mansion in Northern California. It once was the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. It was continuously under construction for 38 years and is reported to be haunted. It now serves as a tourist attraction. Under Winchester's day-to-day guidance, its "from-the-ground-up" construction proceeded around the clock, without interruption, from 1884 until her death on September 5, 1922, at which time work immediately ceased.
The cost for such constant building has been estimated at about US $5.5 million (if paid in 1922; this would be equivalent to over $75 million in 2012).
The Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion is renowned for its size and utter lack of any master building plan. According to popular belief, Winchester thought the house was haunted by the ghosts of the people who fell victim to Winchester rifles, and that only continuous construction would appease them. It is located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, California.
As of 2013, the house is under private ownership by Winchester Mystery House, LLC, a limited liability company owned by partners Edna May Raney; Gerard Raney; Ray Farris II; Sandra Farris; and M. Valerie Bovone. It is not operated by the County of Santa Clara or the U.S. National Park Service.
Although this is disputed, popular belief holds that a Boston medium told Winchester that she had to leave her home in New Haven and travel West, where she must "build a home for yourself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon, too. You must never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live forever. But if you stop, then you will die."
Winchester left her New Haven home and headed for California. In 1884 she purchased an unfinished farmhouse in Santa Clara Valley, and began building her mansion. Carpenters were hired and worked on the house day and night until it became a seven story mansion.
The June 1937 issue of Modern Mechanix relates the story from then-current accounts as follows: "Winchester and the baby girl died suddenly and Mrs Winchester, stunned by the tragedy, fell into a coma so serious that physicians despaired of her life.
"Finally she recovered and, at a friend’s suggestion, visited a medium. During a séance, according to those familiar with her story, she received a communication from her dead husband in which he said: 'Sarah dear, if our house had not been finished, I would still be with you. I urge you now to build a home, but never let it be finished, for then you will live.' " (In fact, her daughter died in 1866 and her husband in 1881, neither suddenly.)
Another version of the story says that after the deaths of her daughter and later her husband, she consulted a medium who told her that she must build a house and never cease building it, otherwise the spirits that killed her family members would come after her, too. After that she began construction on the maze-like house full of twists, turns, and dead ends, so that the spirits would get lost and never be able to find her.
One version states "She believed her only chance of a normal life was to build a house, and keep building it. If the house was never finished, no ghost could settle into it. The house contains many features that were utilized to trap or confuse spirits.
There are doors that are small or lead nowhere and windows that look into other parts of the house. The mansion may be huge but there are only two mirrors in the whole place. This is because Sarah believed that ghosts were afraid of their own reflection."
Winchester inherited more than $20.5 million upon her husband's death. She also received nearly 50 percent ownership of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, giving her an income of roughly $1,000 per day, none of which was taxable until 1913. This amount is roughly equivalent to about $30,000 a day in 2012.
All of this gave her a tremendous amount of wealth to fund the ongoing construction.
The house today
Before the 1906 earthquake, the house had been seven stories high, but today it is only four stories. The house is predominantly made of redwood, as Mrs. Winchester preferred the wood; however, she disliked the look of it.
She therefore demanded that a faux grain and stain be applied. This is why almost all the wood in the home is covered. Approximately 20,500 gallons (76,000 liters) of paint were required to paint the house. The home itself is built using a floating foundation that is believed to have saved it from total collapse in the 1906 earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
This type of construction allows the home to shift freely, as it is not completely attached to its brick base. There are roughly 160 rooms, including 40 bedrooms, 2 ballrooms (one completed and one unfinished) as well as 47 fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys (with evidence of two others), two basements and three elevators.
Winchester's property was about 162 acres (864,000 m²) at one time, but the estate is now just 4.5 acres (24,000 m²) – the minimum necessary to contain the house and nearby outbuildings. It has gold and silver chandeliers and hand-inlaid parquet floors and trim. There are doors and stairways that lead nowhere and a vast array of colors and materials.
Due to Mrs Winchester's debilitating arthritis, special "easy riser" stairways were installed as a replacement for her original steep construction. This allowed her to move about her home freely as she was only able to raise her feet a few inches high.
The home's conveniences were rare at the time of its construction. These included steam and forced-air heating, modern indoor toilets and plumbing, push-button gas lights, Mrs Winchester's personal (and only) hot shower from indoor plumbing.
There are also three elevators, one of which was powered by a rare horizontal hydraulic elevator piston. Most elevator pistons are vertical, as this takes up less space, but to improve its function, she discarded the norm and included this model for its function over fashion.
Though the home was built with the strangest of intentions, Mrs. Winchester never skimped on the many bizarre adornments that she believed contributed to its architectural beauty. Many of the stained glass windows were created by the Tiffany company. Some were designed specifically for her, and others by her, including the renowned "spider web" window. This piece features her favorite shape, the spider's web, and features repetition of the number 13, which was one of her preoccupations. This window is not installed, but rather featured in the so-called "$25,000 storage room".
The room is so named because its contents were originally appraised at a value of $25,000. Their value today is inestimable, but thought to be at least ten times that. A second famed window was designed by Tiffany himself for Mrs Winchester.
This window was carefully designed so that when the light hits the crystals just so, the room will be filled with thousands of rainbow prisms. However, due to the poor placement of the piece, this will never be seen. It is located in a room with no direct light, as well as being built facing a wall.
When Winchester died, all of her possessions (apart from the house) were bequeathed to her niece and personal secretary. Her niece then took everything she wanted and sold the rest in a private auction. It took six trucks working eight hours a day for six weeks, to remove all of the furniture from the home.
Mrs Winchester made no mention of the mansion in her will, and appraisers considered the house worthless due to the damage caused by the earthquake, the unfinished design and the impractical nature of its construction. It was sold at auction to a local investor for $135,000, and in February 1923, five months after Winchester's death, it was opened to the public.
Harry Houdini toured the mansion in 1924, and the newspaper account of his visit, displayed in the rifle museum on the estate, called it the Mystery House.
Today the home is owned by Winchester Investments LLC and it retains unique touches that reflect Mrs Winchester's beliefs and her reported preoccupation with warding off malevolent spirits.
These spirits are said to have directly inspired her as to the way the house should be built. The number thirteen and spider web motifs, which carried spiritual significance for her, occur throughout the house.
For example, an expensive imported chandelier that originally had 12 candle-holders was altered to accommodate 13 candles, wall clothes hooks are in multiples of 13, and a spider web-patterned stained glass window contains 13 colored stones. The sink's drain covers also have 13 holes.
In tribute, the house's current groundskeepers have created a topiary tree shaped like the numeral 13. Also, every Friday the 13th the large bell on the property is rung 13 times at 1 o'clock p.m. (13:00) in tribute to Winchester.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House
Edited by *Astrella - 9/4/2014, 16:23.