Can a stadium really be cursed? And did a single changing room at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium cost football and rugby teams their biggest matches?
That’s exactly what some believed at the turn of the century. More than ten football teams in a row – along with a few unlucky rugby teams – lost major finals after using the south changing room.
The odds of this happening naturally? Slim. So slim, in fact, that bookies put them at more than 8,000/1. When loss after loss kept piling up, people started whispering about a curse. And in a bid to break the spell, stadium bosses took an unexpected route: they called in the world’s richest painter.
Not an exorcist. Not a priest. A painter.
Armed with a brush instead of a Bible, he set to work. But did it actually lift the curse? Or was it all just coincidence?
Find out on Episode 24 of Ghosts & Folklore of Wales with Mark Rees: The Cursed Room at Wales’ National Stadium
Welsh anthem music in the Cursed Room episode
Huge thanks to Cantorion / Ian Cantor for the piano version of Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 licence. More details on the website.
Did you miss last week’s episode?
Catch up now: EP23 – Guy Fawkes Night: The Folklore, Traditions, and Ghost Stories Behind Bonfire Night (Noson Guto Ffowc).
For a full list of episodes, from the Mari Lwyd to the Mabinogion, visit the Ghosts of Wales podcast page.
Like this podcast? Explore more Welsh folklore in The A-Z of Curious Wales
The A-Z of Curious Wales by Mark Rees
Available in bookshops and online.
Published by The History Press, it uncovers Wales’ strangest traditions and most mysterious legends. Discover:
- Why revellers carried a horse’s skull on a pole from door to door at Christmas
- How an eccentric inventor hoped to defeat Hitler with a futuristic ray gun
- Why a cursed wall is protected by a global corporation, just in case it brings disaster to an entire town
From the origins of the red dragon to the evolution of Sosban Fach, this collection of weird and wonderful Welsh folklore will surprise even the most knowledgeable locals.