The Highgate Vampire

La chapelle de Bethléem

A small 15th-century chapel in the south-west of France boasts, as gargoyles, Ridley Scott’s Alien, Gizmo and a Gremlins gremlin.

If Ridley Scott’s Xenomorph was going to be the consequence of not going to church, we’re pretty sure a few more people would be gracing the pews.

The Chapelle de Bathléem is a small 15th-century Gothic chapel in the south-west of France. Like most sacred architecture of that era, it’s decorated by stone grotesqueries, a physical representation of the evils that may be awaiting the sinful — or of what we have inside.

Between 1993 and 1995, the building was set to restoration, with stonemason Jean-Louis Boistel restoring the pinnacles and gargoyles. But he added a few cultural icons into the mix.

According to his website, Boistel believed that he needed to “re-create a medieval bestiary in this 20th century to the dawn of the 21st century… Chimeras are par excellence, our inner demons, the fruit of our fantasies, duality between good and evil. Angels or demons, animals allegorical or real, the chimera is not evil, it is an invitation to let our inner demons out to enter the chapel of purification”.

Gizmo and the Gremlin symbolise the unconscious; Gizmo is “The good monster that everyone has in him, not nasty, sweet but ugly, it calls for compassion and pity. But there are things that a man should not do with it, risks that generates a good monster evil demon control”. The gremlin is “The evil demon created by the good demon. The gremlin plagiarises all through man and exalt. He has no fear and limits, not really cruel, it is no less destructive, dangerous attitudes, reckless.”

And the Alien, Leviathan: “This is the dragon of the Apocalypse 21-3, which embodies the strength of God, the power of evil, is that some features of chaotic snake. Nothingness, absolute, where everything is possible in horror, he is the rival of God, having the power of life and death, capable of swallowing the sun, and also the symbol of the divine, that God can overcome by his word and his faith transmitted by men.”

http://www.cnet.com.au/15th-century-chapel-guarded-by-alien-and-gremlins-339343111.htm

Archbishop of Cologne (1238 - 1261), von Hochstaden wielded great influence in imperial affairs but was a controversial and contentious figure. Ultimately, to generate funds for continuing work on the cathedral, he initiated a tax on hops (thus raising the price of beer), a move that may have influenced the grotesque ornamentation added by stone carvers at the base of his statue

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The Waverly Hills Sanatorium (or Sanitarium) is a closed sanatorium located in southwestern Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky. It opened in 1910 as a two-story hospital to accommodate 40 to 50 tuberculosis patients. In the early 1900s, Jefferson County was ravaged by an outbreak of tuberculosis (the “White Plague”) which prompted the construction of a new hospital. The hospital closed in 1962, due to the antibiotic drug streptomycin that lowered the need for such a hospital.
Waverly Hills has been popularized on paranormal television as being one of the “most haunted” hospitals in the eastern United States. The sanatorium was featured on ABC/FOX Family Channel’s Scariest Places On Earth, VH1’s Celebrity Paranormal Project, Syfy’s Ghost Hunters, Zone Reality’s Creepy, the British show Most Haunted, Paranormal Challenge, and Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel.

La cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Troyes, France

Palácio Nacional da Pena

High above the rooftop by St Peter’s Church, Cornhill, are the three angry devils who pour scorn on anyone entering the said church. The story behind them is thus, during the building of the office block next door to the church, the builders stole a foot of the church ground. This act was noted by the rector, the building plans were put back and the architect was made to re-plan his works. So bitter was the architect that he engrossed the rectors face upon one of the devils and set three devils upon the roof to add curses to anyone whom entered the church.

Kiev