The legend of the House of the “7 Hanged Ones” is remembered in Costa Rica during these dates, called “Días de Los Muertos”, and where you can see the nocturnal excursions to visit the house, today in poor condition, which causes an even more mysterious environment.
Throughout the year, there are many people, especially young people, who travel to the house to have fun, and others to work with paranormal characteristics and elements, but it is between October 31st and November 2nd where the visits increase, as explained to EFE a police officer of the nearby El Carmen police station, in San José.
The legend says that in 1920, Otto Knöhr, owner of the house that his father built him, and head of a family of 5 children, from 3 to 8 years old, went out to make some arrangements to San José.
On the way back, he entertained himself in a tavern, while his wife worried about the delay. After giving dinner to the children and going to bed worried, she heard several noises that alarmed her although, in principle, she thought it was her husband. After verifying that she did not answer to his requirements, she became frightened and remained paralyzed in her room.
A short time later he heard his little son scream, so, alarmed, he went out to take care of him, when he was hit hard on the head.
After waking up, she watched in horror that her 5 children were hanging dead and that she was being hanged too. At one point, and in spite of her stupor, she saw that the person who was trying to kill her was her husband who, once he had managed to hang his wife, also hanged himself in repentance of what he had just committed.
The reality is that there is no document to support this crime. The owners of the house, descendants of the Knöhr family, in principle, denied the story, sometimes with bad manners due to the stress.
Its abandonment was apparently due to disagreements in the inheritance of the house and, currently, it is pending to be torn down to build a parking lot, after the relevant permit from the Heritage Center of the Ministry of Culture, which would have given the OK to the Municipality of San José to authorize the demolition of the building more than 5 years ago. However, this situation was denied by the center.
The house, which combines Victorian and Neoclassical elements, is not declared as the heritage to be protected. However, after the publication of the News agency, in the Heritage Center of the Ministry of Culture and Youth, they clarified that the Knör House does have the declaration of historical-architectural heritage.
This is indicated by Decree N° 38714-C, published in La Gaceta on December 9th, 2014, “therefore, this program of the Ministry of Culture and Youth has never given any permission for its demolition, as indicated in the text”.
Quite the contrary thinks the owner of the house, Victoria Knöhr, elderly, who lives next door and who is “fed up” with the legend and said: “It is not true and make it very clear”.
According to the lady told Acan-EFE, “the house is going to rehabilitate and see if we end up with all this”.