Isabella Mueller Baroness of Stainton le Vale
Promenadeplatz is located in the heart of Munich’s city center. This small city park is home to five monuments to famous Munich personalities. One of these is the Orlando di Lasso statue, which became a place of pilgrimage for fans after the death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, in 2009. Near the park is the house at Promenadeplatz 7. Until the 19th century, this was a haunted house. It belonged to a wealthy man who traded in grain and is the subject of an ancient Munich legend. Once, when a great famine prevailed in the Bavarian capital, this grain merchant unscrupulously enriched himself at the expense of the suffering people. He had large storehouses full of grain, which he sold to his fellow citizens at exorbitant prices. That is why he was considered a cold-hearted man, in whose rear wing a day laborer’s family with seven children lived. Despite working hard every day, they could no longer pay the rent for their apartment, so the grain profiteer unceremoniously threw them out onto the street without a twinge of conscience, as he could now use the apartment as a grain store. The day laborer’s wife then cursed him, saying that all his grain would be destroyed by mice. The ruthless grain merchant just laughed at this. But when he checked on his grain shortly afterwards, the storehouse was swarming with mice, gnawing happily on the grain. To get rid of the mice, he bought a cat. But for every mouse killed, ten new cats miraculously appeared. As a result, he lost not only all his possessions, but also his mind. He then hanged himself in the attic of his auctioned house. But even after his death, he found no peace and haunted the house as a black cat, tirelessly hunting mice with unbearably loud meows. For this reason, the new owners hired a necromancer to rid them of the evil spirit. The necromancer wanted to lock the spirit in a container sealed with wax and bury it in the Erdinger Moos. But before the necromancer could do his work, the black cat jumped on him, pushed him down the stairs, and threw him out the door. After that, no one dared to banish the spirit, which, despite the demolition of the old house, is said to still haunt the attic of the new house at night. At least, eerie poltergeist noises can still be heard today. Such is the legend of the cursed black cat.
