Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Haunted Helgenhüsli, The Spirit of Nasenegg
Category: Ghost
The Myth
The old Helgenhüsli, a small wayside chapel that once stood along the path from Erlenmoos to Schwandegg, near Bärfalle, was reputed to be haunted. Although the building was demolished about a century ago, stories of its supernatural disturbances survived. One night, Ammann Uhr was returning from Einsiedeln and attempted to pass the little chapel, but a mysterious spirit led him astray. He wandered through the surrounding moorland for three hours, unable to recognize the landscape or find his way. Only as dawn approached did the misleading presence finally depart, allowing him to escape the bewildering ordeal.
The chapel was also said to repel those who tried to enter it. A man from Holzhäusern once went there at night to wait for a friend. As he attempted to enter the building, an invisible hand gave him a powerful shove, preventing him from going inside. The same strange occurrence had reportedly happened to the friend he was expecting, suggesting that an unseen spirit guarded the little chapel and refused entry to visitors.
Another eerie place lay along the road from Zug to Walchwil, below Lothenbach, at a spot known as Nasenegg. This location was associated with an apparition witnessed by a sober local man, who claimed to have seen a ghost there years earlier. The figure was particularly strange because it possessed neither a head nor any other limbs. These accounts established several locations around Zug as places where invisible forces, disorienting spirits, and bizarre apparitions disturbed those who encountered them.
Sources
“Die Gespensterorte.” SAGEN.at – Traditionelle Sagen aus der Schweiz (Zug). Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/zug/gespensterorte.html