Old Christ Church

Florida's oldest standing church building, dating to 1832. It doubled as a hospital during the Civil War and has been at the center of Pensacola life ever since.

Old Christ Church, the oldest place of worship in Northwest Florida, was established by the Episcopalian congregation in 1829 with construction beginning in 1830. The Norman Gothic-style church was consecrated in 1838 and now serves as a popular wedding venue.

Back in the early 1800s, three of the church's rectors died--two from yellow fever and one from consumption--and were buried underneath the church. In 1988, the University of West Florida's archaeology department excavated the graves, confirming three sets of remains matching the rectors' descriptions. During the funeral procession for their reinterment, a student who worked on the excavation noticed something peculiar: walking in line were three men he had never seen before.

The church's grim history and tragic fates of early leaders have generated many ghost stories. Ghosts have been seen near the steeple, and voices echo long after the church closes.

In the Lear-Rocheblave House, skeletal remains from Old Christ Church stored temporarily were found rearranged by morning, though the house had been locked overnight. By night, Old Christ transforms into one of the eeriest stops on Pensacola ghost tours, where sacred silence gives way to ghostly echoes. The church sits within Historic Pensacola Village, a collection of haunted structures dating to Florida's founding as mainland America's oldest European settlement in 1559.