A abandoned house filled with hundreds of hand-painted figurines has been found frozen in time.
Urban explorer Yannick, 21, said it felt like the terracotta Santon dolls, similar to those made for nativity scenes, were “grinning slyly” at him from every room.
The word “Santon” comes from “santoun” or “little saint”.
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The figurines became popular during the French Revolution, when churches were closed and larger, traditional nativity scenes were prohibited.
But it is rare to find so many in one place – let alone in an abandoned home.
“It was haunting and oppressive, almost as if the house itself were watching me,” Yannick, who is from Germany, told What’s The Jam.
“Each room was filled with Santon dolls, peering from every corner.
“Their small, cold eyes followed me as I moved, and their smiles felt unsettlingly unnatural.”
Yannick said he made the “haunting” discovery at a property in rural France.
He recorded footage of himself wandering through the property and after uploading the video to TikTok, it quickly went viral, gathering 91,000 views and 6,000 likes so far.
He said the dolls were scattered in every room – on shelves, tables, and even the floor.
He said: “Some seemed peaceful, but with others, I could almost swear they were grinning slyly at me.
“In one of the rooms, I found an old sewing machine, suggesting that someone once had a passion for sewing – maybe even crafting clothes for the dolls themselves.
“These details gave the house a unique, almost haunted feel that I’d never experienced before.
“A dusty bar stood in the living room, as though someone had once celebrated here.
“Though the rooms were silent, eerie, it felt as if a dark presence lingered in the air.”
Yannik is an urban explorer who tours the world’s most bizarre and unique abandoned properties.
The business and economics student has travelled to France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia and Egypt, investigating buildings left uninhabited to rot.
He says he visited the French house on a “misty winter morning” when the countryside was “wrapped in an eerie silence”.
He said: “The house lay deep in rural France, far from any main roads, surrounded by twisted trees and wild overgrown bushes.
“I found it after a friend mentioned a ‘house in the middle of nowhere’ that he stumbled upon while driving.
“It was more of a passing comment, but sometimes those vague hints lead to the most intriguing finds.
“I could find almost no information about the house itself – which only added to its mystery.”
Yannick eventually found the site on Google maps before visiting himself.
He said: “To my surprise, the front door was half-open, as if the house itself were inviting me in.
“The creaking door made me hesitate for a moment before I cautiously stepped inside.
“It felt like the house had been waiting for someone brave enough to cross its threshold and uncover its hidden secrets.”
Unfortunately, he couldn’t uncover any details about the family that once lived there or why the house was abandoned.
He said: “But the items inside, especially the Santon dolls, told an unsettling story.
“It could have once been a place full of cherished memories – or maybe it was a sanctuary for someone with an eerie obsession with dolls, now scattered in every room, dusty and staring into the void.”
Yannick’s video begins by showing the mansion’s exterior in a dark setting, surrounded by brambles and bushes.
Inside, clips show the home in almost perfect condition, with its dusty furniture in place, rugs laid out on the floors and lights hanging from the ceiling.
Clips then show a variety of dolls, as well as old photographs.
The bedroom, the dining room and an office are also covered in shelves full of dolls.
There are teddy bears, blankets and duvets in other rooms.
Social media users have been left stunned by Yannick’s video.
Mary said: “The dolls are too much.”
Seena added: “Haunting.”
Aati commented: “Omg, I’m scared of dolls.”
Sam wrote: “Scary.”
Vicky added: “What a beautiful house, what a waste.”
Kristal said: “That’s gorgeous, I would buy that place in a heart beat.”
Outside the home, Yannick claims an old car sat covered in moss and ivy, like a silent witness to the years that had come and gone.
He said: “It was as though someone left the house one day and never looked back.
“There’s definitely something haunting about this place.
“It’s easy to imagine that, after dark, it might whisper secrets and hold onto mysteries better left undisturbed.”
