It is one of the most bizarre houses in the world. The owner was convinced that if shestopped adding rooms to the house, she would die. Her mansion contains 160 rooms and is located near San Jose. What is its name?

This sprawling Victorian mansion, located in San Jose, California, is a testament to the strange obsession of its owner, Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearms magnate William Wirt Winchester. Legend holds that after the deaths of her husband and infant daughter, a spiritualist medium told Sarah that she was being haunted by the spirits of everyone killed by Winchester rifles. To appease these spirits and avoid her own death, she was instructed to continuously build a house for them. This construction project began in 1884 and continued 24 hours a day for 38 years until her death in 1922.

The result of this relentless construction is a bizarre and labyrinthine structure with 160 rooms. The house is famous for its architectural oddities, which some believe were designed to confuse the spirits. Visitors can find staircases that lead directly into the ceiling, doors that open onto blank walls, and windows that look into other rooms. Other strange features include a fascination with the number 13, with many windows having 13 panes and stairways having 13 steps.

While the stories of hauntings and a lifelong penance for the lives lost to her family's firearms are the most popular explanations for the mansion's eccentric design, some historians offer alternative theories. They suggest that Sarah Winchester was an eccentric but innovative architect who used her vast inheritance to experiment with design and keep a crew of carpenters employed. Regardless of her true motivations, the Winchester Mystery House remains a popular tourist attraction and a monument to one woman's bizarre and enduring vision.