Barbados
Christ Church

A crypt here is world-famous for the coffins that supposedly kept "moving."

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Location: On a hill overlooking Oistins, a fishing village, reached by Hwy. 7.

By now you should realize I have a fondness for ghost stories and legends. The happenings at Christ Church in the 1800s are more than an eerie tale. Rather, they are one of those true historical oddities yet to be fully explained.

This is where the famous moving coffins of Barbados kept shifting around in the sealed Chase Vault. (But first a note about the church: as this is written, the one standing is the 5th parish church. All the others were destroyed by hurricane, flood and fire; not a tranquil place.)

The well-documented unsolved mystery is as follows: in 1812 the vault was opened for burial of Col. Thomas Chase.

To everyone's amazement, the heavy lead coffins were found scattered about the vault. The same situation was observed twice in 1816 and once in 1817.

At the next opening, in 1819, the Governor of Barbados was present when the vault was reopened. Once again the scattered coffins were put back in their proper place and the governor placed his royal seal in the vault as it was cemented closed.

In 1820, the coffins were found again to be strewn about the vault. Practical joke? A true but unexplainable phenomenon?

The matter was resolved when all the coffins were removed and buried separately in the churchyard, where they have happily stayed to this day.

Obviously, the family that lives together doesn't always want to spend eternity together.

Teens are the same everywhere. The Chase vault is a popular Halloween hangout.

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