Spooksteeg Alley

This is the story of Amsterdam's most famous ghost Helena.

In the 18th century there was a tannery "Het verdollde Schaap" on the Zeedijk. The family that owned the company lived there and had lots of visitors as they had two beautiful daughters Diana and Helena. The two sisters were very different. Diana was friendly and calm, while Helena was ardent and jealous.

A handsome young sailor had fallen madly in love with Diana and Helena was very angry and jealous over this. Helena tried many things to seduce Wouter, even intercepting his letters to Diana, but nothing worked.

When Diana discovered that Helena had been hiding the letters she because enraged and confronted Helena. For days they argued and eventually arguments grew to physical disputes. During this physical fight Helen furiously grabbed her sister Diana and threw her into a deep cellar with tannins. Diana fell unconscious and Helena locked the cellar door. No one saw the crime.

Two days later Helena snuck in the cellar and upon examining Diana’s body saw that she was still breathing. On this discovered Helena beat her with a with a piece of wood until she was certain she was dead. She then framed the scene to appears as if Diana had fallen on accident hitting her head on the way down. The death was ruled an accident.

When Wouter returned from the sea, he learned the news that Diana was dead and from Helena’s convincing married her instead.

She managed to keep the crime a secret until her deathbed on which she confessed. In response her husband turned away from her in disgust and cursed her soul to roam in misery for eternity. Helena died lonely and alone on July 24, 1753.

That night, there was an unusual cold front and the other residents in the Zeedijk were reported hearing dreadful moaning and screeching howls as they lay in their beds.

Exactly 100 years later, local residents again reported hearing these same dreadful moaning and screeching howls at the place where the tannery had stood.

Helena had never found peace.

On July 24th, 1953 a large crowd gathered, expected to hear her cries again. Reporters, television crews and thousands of curious people. However Helena did not make her appearance.

However many people still do claim to feel a chill and hear soft moans when they walk on the Zeedijk near the haunted alley.

So where is the house? Well although this story is very well known there is no trace of the existence of a tanner around 1730, but the name of the family Schaap, does show up in an address book of 1853, matching the family name in the story, and the name of the street has been called Spooksteeg since 1855.