Panteón de Belén

Opened in 1848 on the edge of what was then Guadalajara and closed to new burials in 1896, Panteón de Belén became the resting place of the city's elite — and, in local memory, one of Mexico's most storied haunted cemeteries. Its best-known grave belongs to a man locals nicknamed "El Vampiro de Guadalajara," a shadowy 19th-century figure said to have dabbled in the occult, whose tomb visitors still approach warily after dark, claiming the carved angel above it seems to turn its gaze toward anyone who gets too close. Guides on the cemetery's long-running night tours also point out the "capilla del diablo," where a devil's face is said to appear in the stonework, and recount whispered footsteps between the crumbling 19th-century mausoleums. Though burials ended more than a century ago, the panteón remains open for daytime visits and the popular nocturnal "recorridos de terror."