Several people are encountered, including a man who plays music into the cracks in the walls in order to deal with the demons which haunt the place, and a woman who claims to be the ghost of Donna Maria d'Avalos, Gesualdo's wife whom he murdered.
In fact the artifact shown in the film had puzzled Herzog himself and caused him to lose sleep, yet had no connection to Gesualdo.
[1] The story of Gesualdo's murder of his son by forcing him to ride on a swing for three days while a choir sang madrigals to him was also invented for the film.
[1] The final scene of a renaissance fair performer talking with his mother on a cell phone was also staged.
To elicit the strange stare that the man gives, Herzog instructed him to look very serious, but then played around and made various jokes right next to the camera as soon as he started filming.