Gavião Cemetery

Maranhão · Brazil · Cemetery

On Friday nights Ana Jansen's glowing carriage rolls out of the cemetery, drawn by headless horses – accept her candle and you are marked for death.

From the Cemitério do Gavião in São Luís departs Maranhão's most feared legend. Ana Jansen was a fabulously wealthy and ruthless nineteenth-century matriarch, infamous for her cruelty toward the enslaved people on her estates. As punishment, folk belief condemned her to ride for eternity through the old town's streets in a glowing phantom carriage, drawn by headless horses and driven by a bloodied enslaved coachman – and on Friday nights the carriage leaves the cemetery. It may halt at any street corner, where Ana Jansen asks the way to the Gavião and offers a lit candle in thanks. Whoever accepts it wakes at dawn holding a human bone – and is marked for death.

FAQ

Where is Gavião Cemetery located?

Gavião Cemetery is in Maranhão, Brazil.

More haunted places in Maranhão

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.