The Legend of 'La Casa Matusita'

"Casa Matusita" is probably one of the places with the most paranormal activity in Lima and Peru, and walking by there still gives people chills.

In Peru, there are many urban stories that tell facts that cannot be explained and that escape reasoning. The legend of "La Casa Matusita" is just one of the stories that has captivated and spread the most in the capital due, perhaps, to the antiquity of the site. Do you know the story behind this legend? Do you know how it originated? I recommend you read this in company, as I’m not responsible if you start to feel strange presences as you progress...

Next I will tell you three of the most famous legends that revolve around this popular house located in the heart of downtown Lima, exactly between the avenues "Spain" and "Inca Garcilaso de la Vega."

1. Treason in Your Own Home

The story tells that a man of possible Japanese origin lived happily married to his wife and they had two adorable children. Nothing foreshadowed the terrible end of this "model" family. One day, this gentleman arrived from work and found his wife with another subject in bed. When he saw that scene, he took a knife and savagely murdered his partner and his lover. A prisoner of anger and altered by the situation, he waited for the arrival of their children to later kill them with total cruelty. Now a prisoner of madness, the man made the decision to practice the "Harakiri" or Japanese suicide, thus ending his life.

2. Bloody Revenge

This legend points out that in this house lived a very perverse man who constantly mistreated and abused his two servants. One day, the gentleman decides to celebrate a party in his house; for which he invited several acquaintances, and it is there that the servants decided to take revenge by throwing a powerful hallucinogen in the meals and drinks of all the attendees that would cause them various mental disorders. The employees hid in the kitchen until the poison took effect and left once the screaming subsided. The scene they saw was indescribable: mutilated bodies, intestines scattered throughout the room, walls stained with blood. The employees did not support what they saw and lost their reason by ending their days in the asylum in the city's capital.

3. Curse, Sorcery, and Witchcraft

It is said that the first owner of the house was a European named Parvaneh Dervaspa, who arrived in Lima in 1753. Her neighbors accused her of practicing sorcery and witchcraft before the Holy Inquisition, because they claimed that she had the ability, through rites, to cure some diseases that plagued the viceregal capital. After being tortured and martyred by the inquisitors, she had to confess that her power came from hell, for which she was condemned to the stake. The story tells that Parvaneh, in the middle of the bonfire, launched a curse that fell on the house where later on people lived.

The strangest thing is that during the last few years, there were people who died or disappeared after entering the house. So is the legend true or false? What is the reason why strange things continue to happen in that house? And would anyone actually dare to spend a night there without disappearing or going mad?

Although these stories are deeply rooted in popular belief in Lima, many skeptics believe that these stories were created by the location of the house, because it is in front of the former US Embassy and is a point from which espionage could be done.