The Amazing Stuff

If the Halloween season has inspired you to finally live out that fantasy of being the neighborhood’s resident creep (just me?), then you might want to check this place out. But consider yourself warned. This faux castle in Woodstock, Connecticut, actually does have a lurid past.

It’s less about murder and mayhem than it is about general weirdness and discomfort, which is probably a good thing. It’s still pretty disturbing, though.

The castle was built in 2009 by Christopher W. Mark. He’s the great-grandson of a wealthy Chicago industrialist.

He’s also living proof that inheritance can be a really, really bad thing.

Christopher Mark is a strange guy.

He describes himself as an importer of antiques, and he’s been described by others as being “colorful.” In this case, that’s not a good thing.

One of Mark’s business endeavors, for example, was a modeling agency, which posted its photos on a now-defunct website, complete with the models’ measurements. This was the description on the site itself:

“Just one look at the shapely form of beautiful women brings about physiological changes that our senses will not allow our minds to deceive.”

Um, gross.

Upon touring the house and finding several “massage” rooms — and a shower large enough for a whole party — a local politician said that the place was “just weird.”

Mark was cited by the town because his “business” was unlicensed, and he got into further spats when he wanted to make the castle larger than was actually allowed by city zoning laws.

Oh, and there was also an exotic animal refuge on the property, featuring a zebra, an emu, and an ill-fated camel. When Mark and his now ex-wife were divorcing, each blamed the other for the negligence that led to the poor creature’s death by starvation.

Inside, the house is expectedly grand.

No castle is complete without a sarcophagus, am I right?

Or a made-up coat of arms!

If that sounds appealing to you, this place is now on the market.

It’s listed as an eight-bedroom home, and it’s going for a cool $45 million.

(via Curbed)

So if you want a really sad haunted castle to call your own, this might be the one for you. It has a moat and everything. Just watch out for the ghost of that dead camel.

Angelo Mastropietro worked in business, had a high-flying (and high-stress) career, and was working hard to make money when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the age of 29. The diagnosis made him realize that he needed to rethink his life if he was going to be healthy and happy.

Carving out a cave to turn it into a house might not seem like the typical way of going about this, but that’s exactly what Mastropietro did.

The project involved moving about 70 tons of stone.

The house was eventually featured on an English TV show called Grand Designs.

Everything looks pretty natural from the outside.

The home in question is believed to date back about 800 years, and is part of one of the oldest complexes of cave homes in England, located in the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire.

The cave homes in this area, which have been more or less continually occupied, are said to be the inspiration for the Shire in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Mastropietro’s home was last occupied in the 1940s, so it was in need of a serious upgrade.

Inside, Mastropietro painted the sandstone walls white, which kept it from feeling too dark and heavy.

Mastropietro expanded the home and carved out some extra closet space. Oh, and he did it all by himself. His form of MS manifests in a series of flare-ups, which means that he’s still capable of demanding labor at other times.

Although MS can be debilitating, the condition has inspired him to reach his goals.

Not only did the home get a facelift, but it was also fitted with modern technology, including WiFi, radiant underfloor heating, and a fully-equipped kitchen.

In all, Mastropietro spent about 100,000 pounds on the project.

But to him, the chance to live a more peaceful life was worth it.

The excavation was grueling. Mastropietro spent hundreds of hours carving out sandstone.

Here, the host of Grand Designs helps out with renovations.

Watch some of the incredible labor that went into turning this cave into a home:

video-player-present

Channel 4 / Grand Designs

So the next time you think “man-cave” and envision a dark, dank, beer-soaked hovel full of sports paraphernalia, remember that some cave dwellers actually have a pretty great sense of style!

(via AOL UK, Daily Mail)