Haunted places guide · Iowa City, Iowa
The Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery, Iowa City: The Legend and the Real Story
An eight-foot bronze angel with dark, ragged wings stands over a family plot in Iowa City. Generations of students have been told that one kiss can kill you. The true story is about a mother who lost her only son.
Oakland Cemetery, on the north side of Iowa City a short walk from the University of Iowa, is a quiet, park-like cemetery with graves going back to the 1840s. Most of its monuments are what you would expect. One is not: a tall angel in dark bronze, wings half spread and head bowed, standing over the Feldevert family plot.
Known as the Black Angel, it is Iowa’s most famous cemetery legend, and every October people come to see it, photograph it and dare each other to touch it. This guide separates what is known about the statue and the woman who paid for it from the curses that grew up around it, and explains how to visit.
The Black Angel at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Location Oakland Cemetery, 1000 Brown St, Iowa City, IA 52245
- Installed 1913 (some sources say 1912)
- Sculptor Mario Korbel, a Czech-American artist working in Chicago
- Who it honors Eddie Dolezal (died 1891) and Nicholas Feldevert (died 1911); Teresa Feldevert’s ashes were later placed there
- The legends Kissing or touching it brings death; it darkened because of sin or a curse
- Visiting A public city cemetery, free to visit in daylight
History of the Black Angel
Teresa Karásková was born in the mid-1830s in Strmilov, in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic. She married a doctor named František Doležal, trained as a midwife in Vienna and delivered nearly 100 babies in Strmilov. When her son Eduard, known as Eddie, was about four, she left her husband and her village and brought the boy to America. They settled among the Czech families of Iowa City’s Goose Town neighborhood, where she worked as a midwife.
Eddie worked part-time at a pharmacy and hoped to become a doctor. In January 1891, at 17, he died of meningitis, and he was buried in Oakland Cemetery under a stone carved like a tree stump, a common symbol of a life cut short. Teresa later moved to Eugene, Oregon, and married Nicholas Feldevert, a German-born rancher. When he died in 1911 with no heirs, she inherited his estate.
She returned to Iowa City with his ashes and commissioned a memorial for her husband and son. She hired Mario Korbel, a young Czech sculptor in Chicago, and paid around $5,000 for an 8.5-foot bronze angel that was installed in 1913. Teresa was reportedly unhappy with the result: it was not the design she had in mind, and the two argued over payment. Nicholas’s ashes were placed beneath the angel, and Eddie’s remains and his tree-stump marker were moved beside it. The base reads Rodina Feldevertova, the Feldevert family.
In her last years Teresa sent much of her money home to Strmilov for scholarships and help for the poor. She died in Iowa City in November 1924, and her ashes joined her husband’s beneath the angel. Her birth year is carved on the monument but her death year never was, because there was no family left to add it.
The legends of the Black Angel
Why did the angel turn black?
Within about ten years of its installation, while Teresa was still alive, the bronze darkened to a near-black, greenish patina. That is what bronze does outdoors over time, and conservators point to the metal’s alloy and its setting. But a black angel in a cemetery was too good a story to leave alone, and the legends began.
Sin, witchcraft and lightning
One version says Teresa was a witch and her sins turned the angel black. Another says a husband or wife was unfaithful, and the statue darkened as a judgment. Another claims lightning struck the angel the night after a burial. Darker still is a tale of a murdered boy buried beneath it. None of these has any basis in the records of the family.
The kiss of death
The most famous legend is a warning. Touch the angel, or kiss it, and you will die, unless you are a virgin, in which case the kiss will turn the angel white again. Some versions set a deadline: touch it at midnight on Halloween and you will die within seven years. Another says a pregnant woman who walks beneath its wings will lose her baby, and one story claims a couple who kissed its foot fell ill with a rare disease.
What is real
The statue is real, the darkened bronze is real, and so is the damage: vandals have broken off several of the angel’s fingers over the years. Local historians who lead walks through Oakland Cemetery tell visitors the real story is one of love, a mother who wanted something beautiful to watch over her son. The groundskeepers do not believe in the curse, and nor, on the evidence, should you.
Where to look
- The Feldevert plot: the angel itself, with the family name carved in Czech on the base.
- Eddie's tree-stump marker: beside the angel, the original 1891 memorial to Teresa’s son.
- The older sections of Oakland Cemetery: graves from the 1840s and the resting places of Iowa governors Robert Lucas and Samuel Kirkwood.
Visiting the Black Angel
Oakland Cemetery is a public cemetery owned by the City of Iowa City, at 1000 Brown Street on the north side of town, and it is free to visit. Come in daylight, park on the cemetery roads and look for the dark wings above the surrounding stones; the angel is easy to spot once you are inside. Expect company in October, when students and visitors come to see it and local historians sometimes lead cemetery walks.
Please do not climb on, kiss or touch the statue. It is a family grave, and it has already been damaged. For a haunted night out from Iowa City, Edinburgh Manor near Monticello, where Haunted Rooms runs ghost hunts, is about an hour north.
- Visiting A public city cemetery, free to walk in daylight
- Ghost hunting No organized ghost hunts; please respect the graves
Tips for your visit
- Visit in daylight, and respect people visiting their own family graves.
- Look closely at the hands to see the missing fingers.
- Read Teresa’s story before you go; it changes how the angel looks.
- October is busiest; a weekday morning is quietest.
Go ghost hunting with Haunted Rooms
Visiting a haunted place by day is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through a historic building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and vigils, and gives you time to explore on your own. These are the nearest ones we run.
- Edinburgh Manor ghost hunt: our overnight ghost hunt and sleepover at the former Jones County Home, about an hour north.
- Ringling House Ghost Hunt and Sleepover, Baraboo, Wisconsin: a history tour and ghost hunt in the 1901 Ringling mansion in Baraboo, with the option to stay the night.
- Ashmore Estates Ghost Hunt, Ashmore, Illinois: six hours after dark, 8 PM to 2 AM, inside a former county almshouse and psychiatric hospital in east central Illinois.
More haunted places nearby
- Edinburgh Manor: a former county home near Monticello, about an hour north
- The Mason House Inn: a haunted 1846 riverside inn you can stay in
- Haunted hotels in Iowa: where to sleep with a ghost story
- Haunted places in Iowa
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the Black Angel in Iowa City?
In Oakland Cemetery, 1000 Brown Street, on the north side of Iowa City. It stands over the Feldevert family plot.
What happens if you touch the Black Angel?
Legend says touching or kissing it brings death, unless you are a virgin. There is no record of anyone harmed, but please do not touch it: it is a grave and has been vandalized.
Why is the Black Angel black?
The bronze darkened naturally through oxidation within about ten years of its installation in 1913. The legends of sin and curses came afterwards.
Who is buried under the Black Angel?
Nicholas Feldevert and his wife Teresa, whose ashes lie beneath it, and her son Eddie Dolezal, whose remains were moved beside it.
Who made the Black Angel?
The Czech-American sculptor Mario Korbel, working in Chicago, for about $5,000.
Can you visit the Black Angel at night?
Visit in daylight. It is a public city cemetery, and after-dark visits disturb a place where families still come to mourn.
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.
- Wikipedia: Oakland Cemetery (Iowa City, Iowa)
- KCUR: How a Black Angel statue went from memorial to spooky legend
- IAGenWeb Johnson County: The Black Angel
- The Gazette: Cemetery walk and the Black Angel
- Notebook of Ghosts: The Black Angel of Iowa, fact and fiction
- Travel Iowa: 13 of Iowa's most haunted
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.