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The Vampire's Tree | Panteón de Belén, Guadalajara Mexico · The Grim: Haunted Cemeteries & Graveyard Tales

0:13
SPEAKER_00: Green morning and welcome to the Grim.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Kristen.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: On today's episode, we'll be opening the gate and entering the Pantalon de Bilin, located in Guadalajara, Mexico.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: The aroma of coffee mingles in the air.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: The gates stand open.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Step carefully.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: It's time to descend into the hauntings of history.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: It's all Halloween's Eve, dear listeners, my favorite night of the year.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: If that wasn't already obvious, as the veil thins, many soon will be turning their thoughts to Christmas or Thanksgiving once the clock strikes midnight.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: But not this host.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: For me, the night only deepens.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Crossing into the land of the dead through colonial arches lit by flames, we find ourselves this Diego de Mos Muertos in Mexico's most haunted burial ground, the Pantalon de Bilin.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: Its winding paths are perfumed by jasmine and lined with marble crypts that rest within a sacred garden of gothic neoclassical grace.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful, haunting, and everything you could ask for in a restless city of the dead.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Yet the grounds weren't originally meant for the dearly departed.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Once this place was meant to preserve life, not cradle its end, the Pantalon de Bilin began as a part of the Hospital of Bilin Complex, a vast charitable project envisioned by Fray Antonio Acade, who sought to heal a city ravaged by plague and famine.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: In the late 18th century, Guadalajara suffered under the weight of relentless epidemics and devastating food shortages.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: The existing hospitals overflowed with the sick, and by royal decree the Spanish crown ordered a creation of a new facility.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Permission was granted by King Ferdinand VI in 1751, and by 1793 the Hospital Bellin opened its doors, a sanctuary for the living in a city forever shadowed by death.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: But the boundary between the living and the dead wouldn't hold for long.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: When cholera swept through Guadalajara in 1833, the bodies outnumbered the beds.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: The city needed a burial ground beyond its crowded limits.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: The orchards behind the hospital ran transformed into sacred soil, giving rise to what became known as the Pantalon de Bilin, a name that would echo through centuries of mourning.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: Construction began in 1848 under architect Manuel Gomez Ibera, the same visionary who designed the twin towers of Guadalajara's cathedral.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: The cemetery was divided into two realms, one for the wealthy and one for the common soul.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: At the heart stood the chapel of Santa Paula, beneath which lay the remains of Jalisco's most distinguished figures.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: A subterranean panthenon of the illustrious and the forgotten alike.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: For decades this crypt served as a civic shrine until 1957, when the honored dead were transferred to the Rotunda de la Haliasensius at Rustrius nearby, originally known as the Santa Paula Cemetery of the Baton Tibellin, opened in 1848 and closed to new burials in 1896.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Its formal name faded, but its legend endured.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: Today the common section has vanished, its land claimed by the Tower of Medical Specialities belonging to the University of Guadalajara, but the upper portion remains intact.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: The marble crypts, carved angels, and the whispering trees, they endure as a museum of the macabre, a place where faith, sorrow, and superstition intertwine.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: The grounds can only be entered through a guided tour, with photography permitted only in small measure, a restriction that shrouds the place in even greater mystery.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: Visitors often find themselves wondering what truly lies within its high stone walls.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Locals ever proud of their history and hauntings encourage travelers to take the tour, and it's not hard to see why.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: When a guide begins with the words, remember that legends are untrue, but the real truth is the history.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: You know you're in for a hauntingly good time.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Visitors describe the Pantalon de Bilin as a matic, unforgettable, and one of the most historical landmarks in all of Guadalajara.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: Yet before you can worry about its ghostly residence or the infamous vampire, there's something else you might want to watch for, scorpions.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: They're a common reason many visitors opt for the daytime tour, rather than risking both the stings and spirits after dark.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: But as your tour begins, you'll first be greeted for what locals call the Gavates, the drawers, built along the outer perimeter of the cemetery.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Forming its vast columbarium, Gavate translates directly into drawer in English, and it's the perfect description.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: The walls of the colonnade are aligned with nearly 1,750 sealed niches, each one a resting place for the caskets of the 19th century.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Thousands of souls lie within these stone drawers, a practical yet haunting solution to the city's space and sorrow.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: Each niche holds a name, date, and a silence that seems to hum beneath the stone.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: If you stand at the corner where the two sides of the colonnade meet and raise your voice, your words will echo back, resonating through the air in perfect symmetry, but it's no accident.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Manuel Gomez Iverra designed it as just so, applying the same acoustic mastery he used in the cathedral towers.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Here sound becomes spirit.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Voices travel and beat and linger, like the whispers of the living calling out to the dead.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: The cemetery's wealthiest residents were known for commissioning artists who competed to create ever more elaborate tombs.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Each crafted with exquisite detail, the spirit of rivalry and grandeur still shapes the Panthon debilin's wealthy section today.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: Its architect Manuel Gomez Ibera was buried somewhere within the grounds.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Though his grave remains unknown, he was interred without a headstone.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: To this day, efforts continue to locate his final resting place.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: The names of Guadalajara's elite may not be familiar to many, but one certainly is Jose Cuervo, yes, that Jose Cuervo, the founder of the world-famous tequila brand.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: The family has a plot within the cemetery with a founder and several relatives rest.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, most visitors aren't drawn here, though, for the Cuervo family tomb itself.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: In Truegrim fashion, the cemetery's legends, the ghosts, curses, and the tales that chill the spine are far more notorious than the tequila could ever be.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: These tales begin amid the proud markers of the city's elite, stone angels and towering crypts that whisper of power and prestige.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Yet among them lie graves without surnames, some bearing only a woman's first name, sometimes punctuated with a lonely exclamation point.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: Others, though, have no name at all.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Together they form a haunting record of those whom history has refused to acknowledge.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: In the 19th century, men of standing often took what they desired, from their wives, from their servants, from those without power to protest.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: When a servant bore a son, he might be acknowledged, perhaps even recorded as the master's child, but if the child was a girl, she was condemned before she ever even drew breath.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: Beneath the colonnade rest these daughters, young women barely 18 to 22, buried at the pleading of their mothers, who begged for mercy from the very men who had wronged them.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: Many graves remain unmarked.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: Their names erased to spare families this stain of scandal.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: They were denied even the dignity of remembrance, carrying the burden of their birth into the afterlife.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: The Senate being born a girl outside of Wedlock lingered beyond the grave.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: But not all the stories buried here belong to the forgotten.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Some here are written in stone, grand, defiant, and meant to withstand eternity.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: At the heart of the pantheon, the Ibnin stands the Egyptian chapel, a striking mausoleum crowned with a pyramid-shaped dome in the ancient style of the pharaohs.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: At each corner stands a wailing woman mourning in stone, their grave frozen yet eternal.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: Originally, this chapel was built to honor the most notable figures of Jalisco, a resting place for the city's distinguished men.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Beneath the chapel lies an underground crypt containing 64 burial niches, each one a silent testament to status and memory.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: In 1957, the remains of these dignitaries were transferred to the rotunda in downtown Guadalajara.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: The chapel, emptied of its original occupants, remains architecturally intact.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: A haunting relic of 19th-century ambition and reverence.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: Though no bodies lie within the pyramid today, the structure itself stands as a monument to grief, power, and the persistent echoes of history.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: But even among the marble and shadow, some graves whisper softer tales.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Finding two people from the British Isles in Guadalajara's most famous cemetery is rare.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: But what makes our crypts truly remarkable, however, are the offerings, coins, pictures of Jesus, and small gifts left by visitors, a practice reminiscent of the Day of the Dead.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: Here for two Scots.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: To the memory of Joseph Johnson, born January 5th, 1832, in Paisley, Scotland, died April 18, 1896, and next to him rest his wife, also from Scotland.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: No one truly knows why the Johnsons came to Guadalajara.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Joseph was a doctor, humble, devoted, known to treat the sick even when they had nothing to give in return.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: The couple lived modestly, their generosity far greater than their fortune.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, legend says that those who come to their graves and whisper a rosary at noon or at a ghostly hour of midnight may be granted blessings of health, love, or luck.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: Something that Jocsans still move unseen through the living world, tugging softly at the threads of fate, and leaving behind a single coin as proof that their aid has been given.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: But not every spirit within these walls offers kindness.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Some are bound by darker hungers.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Guadalajara's most infamous legend begins with a vampire, a story that draws many curious souls through the gates of its cemetery.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: The legend begins long before dawn in the 19th century, when a shadow seemed to settle over Guadalajara.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: It starts innocently enough, dead animals appearing near Baranguita's, the neighborhood of El Calizal.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: First people dismissed it as misfortune, but when the bodies were examined, the truth was far more sinister.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: Each one was completely dry, not a single drop of blood remaining.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Then the horror deepened, children began to vanish, especially the youngest, the newborns.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Fear then spread like wildfire.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: The city's famed night revelers locked their doors, whispering prayers into the dark, hoping the creature outside would pass them by, it became clear, something unnatural stalked the streets, a vampire hunted in Guadalajara.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: As the days passed, a band of desperate citizens decided they wouldn't wait any longer for divine justice.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Beneath the cover of night they hunted the beast, cornering it, trapping it in a net, and driving a stake through its heart.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: At last the city could breathe again.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: The body was carried to the Panthenon de Belin, and buried beneath a heavy slab of concrete, sealed away so it might never rise again.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: But beast in Guadalajara is never without a price.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Months later the slab cracked.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: From the wound in the earth, a tree began to grow, its roots thick and dark, intertwined with the grave below, its branches clawing toward the sky.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: The tree still stands today, ringed by a wrought iron fence, a fragile barrier meant to contain whatever may stir beneath the soil.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Locals say its bark sometimes bleeds dark sap, a reminder of the vampire it shelters.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: They fear that harming it could awaken the restless creature buried below.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: And when the tree finally collapses, destroying the tomb entirely, the creature will rise once more, haunting those who dare to stay awake after nightfall.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Yet the legend of a vampire isn't the only tale whispered through the stones of Guadalajara.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: There's another, one that blurs the line between sleep and death, between family and betrayal, and the terrible hunger of greed.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: The tale begins with a woman named Victoriana Hortaro, who inherited her family's vast fortune.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Her husband, freed from the burden of work, gave himself fully to indulgence, fine drink, fine company, and the ruinous kind of pleasure.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Within two years, those accesses carried him to his grave, leaving Victoriana alone with her wealth and her children, who watched her like hawks circling a dying thing.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: The trouble was they saw not their mother but a vault, and she was standing in the way.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Since Charlotte, Victoriana had suffered from catalepsy, a strange condition that could still her breath and slow her heart to a whisper.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Twice her body had gone cold, twice she had been mistaken for dead, and twice she had awoken hours later, gasping, trembling, alive, to the horror of those who narrowly buried her.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: However, not to her sons, who were frozen between shock and disappointment.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: But when August afternoon in 1894 it happened again, her pulse faded, her chest screwed still, and this time her sons didn't wait.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Before the sun had set, they declared her dead, carried her body to the cemetery, and buried her, eager to finally claim what she left behind.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: That night Victoriana fought for her life beneath the earth.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: The watchman later swore he had heard it, a muffled cry, a sound a living soul should ever make.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: When he reached her tomb, he froze.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: There bursting through the soil was her hand, bloodied, trembling, reaching for life.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: By morning, the villagers gathered in horror round her grave, where that same hand had hardened, turned to stone, her fingers forever reaching.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Later the truth came to light.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Her children would never see a single coin.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Victoriana, perhaps sensing their greed all along, had left every single penny to charity.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Some say she died of fright, her heart surrendering in those final frantic moments underground.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Others whisper that her spirit, betrayed and unavenged, turned her own flesh to marble, a warning to those who would profit from death.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: But the cemetery holds other secrets, some buried in gold rather than sorrow.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: In the 19th century, a man could carve out a fortune as a privateer, and one such man did, pillaging ships across the Pacific, rumored to have a lover in every port.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: With each raid his treasure grew, hidden away, a secret only known to him.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: He revealed it to no one, not even his crew, not even his own son.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: In his later years, weary of the sea, he settled in Guadalajara, but the stillness of the land did not suit him.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Within months his heart failed and he died, taking the secret of his buried treasure to the grave.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Yet the story doesn't end there.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Locals whisper that if you light a candle and cite the rosary, every word, every bead, with a true devotion near midnight at his tomb, the pirate may appear, and if your heart is pure, he will reveal the secret location of his hidden treasure.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: But beware, not every soul who's tried has returned unchanged.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: The treasure remains buried, its fate intertwined with the restless spirit that guards it still.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Within the quiet walls of the Pantlan de Bilín rests another one of Mexico's beloved and unsettling legends.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: The story of Nachito, originally known as Ignateo Torres Altamarano, but nicknamed Nachito, he was a young boy with an unbearable fear of the dark and enclosed spaces.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Nachito's fear of the dark was so great he couldn't sleep unless the windows were open, and a warm light filled the room.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: Even the approachment of nightfall made his heart race.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: Then around 1882, tragedy struck.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: Nachito passed away in his sleep.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: His grieving parents laid him to rest in the soft earth of the cemetery, hoping at last he had finally found peace.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: But peace, it seemed, was not what followed.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: The very next morning, the caretaker found something impossible.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Natito's coffin had been lifted from the ground and set beside his grave.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Believing it was an act of vandalism, they reburied it.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Yet the next day the same thing happened, and again the day after.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: For ten nights in a row, Natito's coffin rose from the earth, as though the boy himself was trying to escape the darkness from below.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: At last his parents couldn't bear it any longer.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: They believed their son's spirit was still afraid, afraid of being trapped in the eternal night.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: So they built him a special tomb, a stone structure supported by pillars, keeping his coffin above the ground where sunlight could always reach him.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: To this day, Nyacito's resting place remains one of the most visited in Guadalajara.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Visitors bring toys, candies, and small gifts, offering them to comfort the child who could never rest in the dark.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Some say if you linger here after sunset, you might hear the faint sound of laughter, or see a shadow flint between the pillars, small and playful as a child at play.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: In 2015, a team of investigative ghost hunters ventured in the Panton de Bilin, armed with cameras and an EVP recorder, a device designed to capture the elusive sounds of spirits and other non-corporal beings.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: But that night the recorder was placed near the grave of Natito, the young boy whose restless spirit is said to roam the cemetery.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: Alongside the cameras, it was left running throughout the night, capturing every Greek whisper and rustle.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: When the recordings were later analyzed, the researchers discovered something astonishing.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Once all the ambient sounds were filtered out, a small, unmistakable voice emerged.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you found my grave.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Now give me a little piece of chocolate.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Whether it was little Nachito reaching out from the grave beyond, or mainly a trick of the night, no one can say for certain.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: The recording, like the boy's legend, continues to send shivers through those who hear it.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: Many of us in our youth have wandered graveyards on a dare, testing the fragile veil between the living and the dead.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: But for those brave or perhaps foolish enough to do so in Guadalajara, the Battle of Libilin is not a place for the faint of heart.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: One night long ago, a young man boasted to his friends that he didn't fear ghosts at all.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: To prove it, he made a wager.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: He would enter the cemetery alone at eight o'clock.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: The hour of all souls, when it said the dead rise briefly from their graves to walk among the living.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Not only would he walk the length of the shadowed arcade, he said, he would hammer a nail in one of the stones at the far end, a mark to prove his courage.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: And so when the bell of the temple of Bethlehem told at eight, he stepped inside.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Lantern in one hand, hammer and nail in the other, he moved steadily through the narrow path between the tombs.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: As the air grew cooler, a shadow seemed to breathe.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Still he pressed on.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: At last he reached the end of the arcade and drove a nail deep into the stone, but as he turned to leave, something stopped him.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't move.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: A chill ran through his spine, and an unmistakable sensation of fingers, cold and firm, pressed down on his shoulders.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: He ran to cry out, but no sound escaped him.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: The world went black.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Hours passed.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: His friends waiting outside grew restless.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: When he didn't return, they entered the cemetery, calling his name, their voices trembling.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: They found him at the far end of the arcade, sitting motionless against the wall.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: The nail had pinned the edge of his cape to the stone.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: He had trapped himself.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: But when they shook him awake, he was not the same.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: His eyes were wide, his mouth trembling, lost to reason.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: He had seen something in the dark of that night, or believed he had, or whatever it was, it left him mad.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Now even locals say that if you listen closely near the arcade's end, you still might hear the faint clang of a hammer striking stone, and the echo of a dare that went too far.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: In the world of dares, the love is perhaps the most dangerous of them all, a bold declaration against the odds, against reason, and sometimes against the living.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: For Jose Maria Castanos and Andrea Retiz, that dare meant to end in marriage.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: They were young, in love, and certain that fate would bend to their devotion.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: But fate, as it so often does, has other plans, and this time its cruel hand were the face of Jose's own mother.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: She despised Andrea's family for their lack of wealth, their humble standings.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: No sign of her, she said, would marry beneath his station, and so she tore their love like a vulture to flesh, separating, humiliating, forbidding.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: But love is stubborn, and the two continued to meet in secret, clinging to each other beneath the weight of despair.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: At last, when the pain of being apart grew unbearable, they made a terrible pact.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: In a final act of devotion, they would take their own lives, believing death would unite them where life couldn't.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Their bodies were found the next morning in a nearby garden, side by side, peaceful at last.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Jose's wealthy family buried them together in the Pantalon de Belin, beneath two interwoven crosses carved into stone, a symbol of the union denied to them in life, and fulfilled only in death.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: But Jose's mother found no peace.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Guilt gnawed at her, hollowing her days and haunting her nights.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: In a desperate plea for forgiveness, she returned to the grave one morning, carrying a garland, a wedding cord woven from fresh flowers.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: She laid it upon the tomb, her tears falling onto the petals as she prayed, and then silence.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: The birds stopped singing, the wind stilled, and before her eyes the flowers began to harden, their soft colors fading into cold grey stone.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment she understood.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: The lovers had forgiven her, but whether God had, that she would never know.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Graveyards are meant to hold the dead.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: But in the Pantzant de Bilin, legend says they may guard gold as well.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: It sold that a wealthy landowner once buried several coffins, each filled with unimaginable riches.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Later he faked his own death and that of his wife, quietly leaving the town to settle elsewhere.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: But during the revolution, a soldier recognized the supposedly dead man and captured him, hoping to learn the treasure's location.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: With a cruel persistence, he tortured the man until the secret was revealed.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: The soldier and his troop hurried to the cemetery only to find confusion.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Dozens of graves fit the description, yet no gold was ever recovered.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Since the story has grown darker and more impossible, the treasure it said cannot be claimed by force.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: To find it, one must enter the cemetery at eight o'clock, the hour of all souls, and the spirits are said to rise from their graves.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: The seeker must pray three are fathers and three Ave Maria's, and answer correctly a questioned whisper by the ghosts themselves.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Few have dared, fewer have returned.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: And those who do speak only of screams that echo long after the graveyard gates have closed, the treasure still remains, hidden and untouched, waiting for the one bold enough to meet the dead on their terms.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Many neighbors of the graveyard swear that on certain nights the faint sound of a horse-drawn carriage echoes through the streets, stopping at the entrance of the cemetery, but when they peer through their windows, nothing is there.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: At the far end of the graveyard lies three graves, perfectly aligned near a solitary cactus.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Locals warn that stepping on these graves, whether by accident or even in jest, will invite the spirits to visit your home, and in the dead of the night they say that these restless goats tug at the feet of the wrongdoers, reminding all that the graves are not to be disturbed.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Walkers also claim that the cemetery gate is found half open, though the graveyard has strict hours.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: At night the iron gate is always locked tight, yet some swear they've glimpsed it swaying slowly in the moonlight.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: A chilling legend of a child is also tied to Pantan de Belin and the hospital that once stood next door.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: A young boy named Santiago suffered from a terminal stomach illness.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Some stories say it was a particularly aggressive form of cancer.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: One day his mother brought him a small statue of his favorite saint, hoping it would bring him comfort as he struggled through his pain, as she placed it gently in his hands while he slept.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: When Santiago awoke, something in him snapped.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: He threw the statue against the wall, cursing God for the cruel illness that plagued him.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: He cried out, his voice echoing through the room, that God himself should suffer the same fate, and ended with a chilling remark.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: That night his suffering intensified.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Somehow he wandered from the hospital into the darkness of the cemetery.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: By morning his body was discovered hanging from a tree, hospital sheets twisted into a makeshift noose.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: To this day, locals whisper that on quiet nights, the restless spirit of young Santiago can be seen hanging from a tree.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Within the Patron de Bylin, the tale is often told to children as a warning, a dark story meant to keep faith alive, even in the face of unimaginable suffering.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Very often a local gentleman would stroll past the gates of the Patron de Bylin at night, and every time he claimed to see the same figure, a well-dressed man walking through the arcades, absorbed in a book, seemingly oblivious to the world around him.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: One morning the gentleman arrived at the cemetery, eager to compliment the administrator.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: What a fine night watchman you have, he said, and monitoring the uniform he had seen.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: The administrator froze.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: We don't have a night watchman, she replied.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: There are no funds for such a service.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Confused the gentleman described the figure in detail, the clothes, posture, even the way he carried the book.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: The administrator paused and then remembered something.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: A photograph on one of the graves, at the very beginning of the courtyard to the left.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: It matched perfectly.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Together they walked to the grave.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: There it was, the likeness of the man the visitor had seen night after night.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Terrified, the gentleman left the cemetery and never returned.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: The pantalon de Belain only may be entered on a paid tour with a guide, whether by day or by night.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Photography is allowed during the day for a small fee, but at night the cemetery's most notorious hours.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: No pictures are permitted.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps this is to protect its restless souls or the spirits themselves.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: Some even whisper that it keeps the vampire from rising once more.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Today the cemetery also houses a museum, which tours are offered, and it's recognized as a heritage site, preserving both its history and its many haunting legends.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Few graveyards in Mexico carry the reputation of Panton de Bilín, known for its legends, restless spirits, and eerie tales.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: It's considered by many to be very haunted, a place where the veil between life and death feels impossibly thin.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: This feeling only grows stronger during Deutomos Huertos.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: In the last week of October, the cemetery transforms into a living celebration of memory and tradition.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Flickering candlelight dances across the gravestones, illuminating the offerings left to honor the souls who have passed, guiding them back from the realm of the dead to the world of the living.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Among the most impressive is the monumental altar, built by local students adorned by nearly 1,500 candles, intricately crafted paper coffins and other symbols honoring the dead.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: Guiding tours and storytelling bring the cemetery's legends to life, highlighting the stories of the spirits like Nachito, the Johnsons, and others said to be especially active during this sacred time.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: At night the cemetery takes on an almost otherworldly glow.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: The mix of incense, flickering lights, and the distant sound of music creates a space where the living and the dead seem to meet.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Visitors whisper their wishes, share memories, and sometimes claim to feel the presence of those long gone.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: The Pantalante Bilin de Todos Mosuertos is more than a celebration.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: It's a reminder that history, legend, and memory are intertwined, and that the stories of the dead continue to move through the living, keeping their spirits alive in both beautiful and haunting ways.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: For now the stories of the Pantalante Bilin slip back into stone, and the dead return to their uneasy rest, yet they're never silent for long.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for walking with us through the veil into the Patalante Bilin, descending once more into the hauntings of history.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: The gate is sealed, the veil drawn, yet death gives no calendar, and so we shall return, as we always do, on the grim.
30:01
unknown: Time.