Entry No. 89 — the Colorado Springs file — filed under: haunted
Miramont Castle
A French priest named Jean-Baptiste Francolon built this 1895 mountainside mansion and apparently couldn't pick a style, so he used nine — Queen Anne, Romanesque, Tudor, Byzantine, Moorish and more — mashed into one 30-room, four-story pile. Inside there's a room of actual mummies gathered from Egypt, the Andes and the American Southwest; the land underneath once belonged to the colonel who led the Sand Creek Massacre; and after the priest fled in 1900 the place became a tuberculosis sanitarium run by the Sisters of Mercy. Staff and visitors still report a woman in a black dress, a man in a top hat, and a little girl who never left. You wander all four floors on your own.
The story
Jean-Baptiste Francolon arrived in Manitou Springs in 1892 claiming he needed the mountain air to recover after surviving an attempted chalice poisoning while serving as a priest in New Mexico. Instead of keeping a low profile, the wealthy French aristocrat bought a parcel of land previously owned by Colonel John Chivington—the man who led the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre—and began stacking local greenstone into a four-story, 14,000-square-foot pile. Incapable of choosing a single aesthetic, Francolon smashed nine distinct architectural styles into 30-plus rooms, stitching together Flemish stepped gables, Tudor half-timbering, Venetian ogee arches, Romanesque masonry, and Moorish details alongside a 16-sided room and a glass solarium.
The priest didn't stay long to enjoy his creation. By 1900, Francolon abruptly fled back to France under a haze of local rumors and unpaid debts, deeding the entire complex to the Sisters of Mercy. The nuns converted the architectural experiment into a tuberculosis sanitarium, filling the multi-level castle with patients seeking the mountain air cure until 1928. After decades as a quiet retreat house and a succession of nine private owners, the neglected structure was saved from slated demolition in 1976 when the Manitou Springs Historical Society bought it for $60,000.
What exists inside today feels less like a standard period house museum and more like an oddity warehouse. Alongside Victorian furniture, you'll encounter vintage firefighting equipment, original Vatican artwork, World War II Nuremberg trial artifacts, and a dedicated room housing authentic mummies gathered from Egypt, the Andes, and the American Southwest. Staff and visitors regularly report sightings of former occupants who never quite departed, including a woman in a black dress moving along the upper hallways, a ghost wearing a top hat, and a young girl lingering near the former sanitarium rooms.
What it's like
Pulling up Capitol Hill Avenue, the castle looks wonderfully erratic, its hand-quarried greenstone walls and mismatched roofs jutting out from the hillside. Once inside, you're handed a guide and set loose to wander all four floors on a self-guided route. You'll weave through narrow stairwells, duck into octagonal bedrooms, walk through the sunlit solarium, and stumble into the mummy exhibit. It's drafty, maze-like, and strangely quiet outside of peak hours. If you want the Queen's Parlour Tearoom experience, you'll need to reserve one of the strict 11am or 1pm seatings well in advance; otherwise, come on a weekday morning to explore the rambling corridors without a crowd.
The move: Take the self-guided wander through all 30 rooms — hunt down the mummy room and count the nine clashing architectural styles — then book the Queen's Parlour Tearoom (11am or 1pm) and do the full Victorian tea like a couple of eccentrics who just inherited a haunted castle.
📍 Before you go Self-guided, ~45–60 min through 30 rooms on four floors. Admission ~$15 (less for seniors/kids/military). Want the full Victorian treatment? Reserve the Queen's Parlour Tearoom ahead — 11am or 1pm seatings only.
- 📍 Manitou Springs
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 9 Capitol Hill Ave, Manitou Springs, CO 80829
Hours: Tue–Sun 10am–3:30pm; summer (Memorial Day–Labor Day) 7 days 9am–4:30pm. Queen's Parlour Tearoom seatings 11am & 1pm.
Pair it with
- Penny Arcade — Walk three minutes down the hill into town to cleanse your palate with pre-digital nickel pinball and vintage fortune tellers.
- Crystal Valley Cemetery — Follow Manitou's local death history less than a mile away to Emma Crawford's hillside grave.
- Iron Springs Chateau Melodrama — Keep the Victorian theatrical energy going less than a mile up Ruxton Avenue, where a melodrama theater sits directly over a capped mineral spring.
- Haunted Lantern Tour at Cave of the Winds — If the castle's resident phantoms aren't dark enough, head a mile up the canyon for a flame-lit walk through subterranean cavern passages.
Good to know
How much is admission and do I need reservations?
Self-guided castle admission is around $15 (with discounts for seniors, children, and military), and tickets can be purchased at the entrance. Reservations are only required if you plan to sit for high tea in the Queen's Parlour Tearoom.
How long does it take to tour the castle?
A self-guided walk through all 30 rooms across the four floors typically takes 45 to 60 minutes.
What are the castle's hours of operation?
The castle is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00am to 3:30pm during the off-season, and seven days a week from 9:00am to 4:30pm from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Is Miramont Castle wheelchair accessible?
Due to its historic 1895 construction across four levels, navigating the full 30-room self-guided route requires climbing multiple flights of narrow stairs.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia · denvergazette.com · Only In Your State · Reddit
last checked: 2026-06-27