Have you ever come across cursed properties, ghostly witches or demonic influences? An increasing number of people are claiming to be doing exactly that, with a spate of stories suggesting new life is being breathed into some antique concepts and disturbing phenomena such as possession, against a backdrop of a new wave of interest in witchcraft and demonology reflected in a headline in the Metro newspaper: “Hocus Pocus: There’s a rise in witchcraft bubbling up across the globe” (7 July 2022).
The chance to see “inside a creepy abandoned monastery” reputedly “haunted by a cursed ghost of a vengeful monk” and “demons” at Sicignano monastery in Salerno, southern Italy, proved irresistible to Roman Roebeck, a Dutch photographer and ‘urban explorer’ who engages in expeditions to uncanny places in the fashion of the late Sir Simon Marsden (see and his books and for examples of his photos). This monastery was once home to Capuchin friars, part of the Franciscan order. Later it became a school and a college, but was eventually abandoned in 1973, falling into dereliction. Since then the ruins have acquired a legend involving a wicked monk who became infatuated with a local girl and seduced her. Apprehended, the girl was burned as a punishment and the wrathful monk – who was excused – cursed his brethren on his deathbed and now walks as a ghost. Legends like this flourished after the dissolution of the monasteries in Great Britain, supplying a foundation for many a ghost story. Nonetheless, most spectral monks in the UK manifest as quiet, solitary figures in the landscape, save for the spurious ‘Black Monk of Pontefract’ (, , ) and a few miscellaneous nuisances. In contrast,).
