If you have watched films like ‘Annabelle’, ‘Chucky series’ and ‘Papi Gudia’, you may have witnessed how frightful dolls can be on screen. But are you aware that there exists a real place with horrifying dolls, which is a major tourist attraction.
Named as ‘Island of the Dolls’ or ‘Isla de las Munecas’, the place is located in Mexico. About 58 kilometre from Mexico City, the place with horrifying dolls is situated between canals of Xochimico. There are plenty of disturbing and scary dolls hanging on trees of the island. Many of the dolls have decapitated heads and blank eyes. People living on the island believe that these dolls are possessed by ghosts.
As scary is the place is the story behind these dolls. The story dates back to 1950’s. According to locals, late caretaker of the island Don Julian Santana Barrera once found a dead girl who drowned under mysterious circumstances. After finding the girl, he was saddened over the fact that he could not save her. He also found a doll floating near the canal, which possibly belonged to the girl. Julian hung the doll to a tree, as a mark of respect towards the girl.
Later, Julian was haunted by spirit of the girl. So he started hanging many dolls on trees around the place where the girl died, so as to please the spirit of the girl. Some believe that he was possessed by spirit of the girl. People close to Julian also claimed in the past that some unseen force completely changed his behaviour. Julian died in 2001, and he was found dead at the same place where the girl died.
For about 50 years, Julian kept on hanging dolls over the island, which made the island very popular place in Mexico. Nowadays, people believe that all the dolls present on the island are possessed by spirit of the dead girl and are ghostly in nature. Locals and visitors claim that dolls move their body parts and head, and they have even heard dolls whispering to each other.
In spite of disturbing view of horrifying hanging dolls, people call the island as charming. Other than hundreds of dolls, there is also a museum dedicated to the girl on the island. The museum contains pieces of various newspaper articles related to the island and its previous owner. There is also a small room in the museum, which contains the first doll which Julian collected. Visitors and people place offerings around this doll, to seek blessings and miracles. Below is a video related to this island.
