While many of Europe’s scary destinations are tourist-friendly, child-friendly places where enthusiasts have seen harmless ghostly apparitions, there are some places which are spooky because tragic and horrifying things happened there.
Be respectful when visiting these places, and make sure that nobody is exposed to anything that they would find too upsetting.
1. Sedlec Ossuary, Kutná Hora
If you are visiting the Czech Republic and have a love of spooky things, Sedlec Ossuary should be on your list.
A train ride from Prague will take around an hour. On the train you should admire the scenery, revel in the ease of European train travel, and gather your thoughts.
When you arrive in Kutná Hora, make your way to the suburb of Sedlec. Tucked away there you will find a small church. Unassuming from the outside, but this church will make your breath catch in your throat the moment you enter. In this church are the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people. They are arranged artfully, but the atmosphere will astound you.
The recorded history of the ossuary tells us that there is nothing gruesome about the abundance of human bones found there, though it is slightly bizarre. In the 13th century, a pot of earth was brought from The Holy Land to Sedlec and was distributed there.
Hearing word of this, people from all over Czech Republic and its neighbouring countries wished to be buried there. Some time later, war and disease conspired to kill off vast swathes of the population, meaning that Sedlec cemetery was overrun with bodies.
It was in 1870 that the task of organising the bones was given to a creative woodcarver, who took it upon himself to create a variety of macabre sculptures from the bones.
2. Hill of Crosses, Šiauliai
If you are drawn to the idea of places where people’s lives and deaths are commemorated on a large scale, but don’t feel comfortable seeing the actual bones of the bodies, you should head to Lithuania’s Hill of Crosses.
Historians estimate that people began to lay crosses on the hill in 1831, to mark the end of an uprising that killed around 40,000 people. At various times throughout the years, people have added to the collection of crosses, such as when Lithuania has fought for its independence.
The hill of crosses today stands against an idyllic backdrop of rolling green countryside as a testament to lost lives and resistance of oppression.
3. Scheffler Palace, Stockholm
Scheffler Palace in Stockholm, Sweden is a place so widely believed to be haunted in some way that it is often referred to only as ‘The Haunted Mansion’. The mansion dates back to 1690, and eerie tales about it began circulating not long after that.
The creepy stories attached to the Scheffler Palace run the whole gamut of scariness, tapping into almost every latent fear each one of us has. One of the owners of the mansion is rumoured to have worshipped the devil, possibly invoking some unholy forces within its walls; at least one resident of the mansion committed suicide while living there; people were murdered there; unmarked graves were discovered in the garden.
Passers-by have reported hearing bizarre noises coming from within the mansion, including music and singing, sounds of glass shattering, and other sounds that could not be accurately identified.
There is even a legend that says a priest came to rid the house of its many supposed ghosts, and even he was so terrified that he ran from the house, leaving the ghosts to take over.
4. Edinburgh Castle
The castle of Edinburgh is rumoured to be home to at least 7 different ghosts, ranging from different time periods in Edinburgh’s long and varied history. Ghosts that have been spotted inside the castle include drummer, a piper, and even a dog.
Visitors have reported strange feelings while inside the castle, such as suddenly feeling very hot or very cold, feeling somebody passing by when there is nobody around, an intense sensation that they are being watched, and in some cases even feeling that somebody is pulling at their sleeve to get their attention.
The ghost of the piper stems from a legend in which a man playing a pipe was sent to discover more about Edinburgh’s underground tunnels, and abruptly stopped playing and disappeared while exploring.
The drummer is an apparition that supposedly will only emerge shortly before the castle faces invasion or attack, possibly in an attempt to protect Edinburgh. The ghostly dog has a surprisingly simple explanation: Edinburgh Castle has a cemetery where the remains of dogs related to the army are buried.
5. Catacombs of Paris
Many visitors to Paris walk around the city simply enjoying the sights and sounds, stopping off in corner cafés for a croissant, without ever considering what might be hiding beneath them.
Under the streets there is an ossuary holding the bones of around 6 million people, known as the Parisian Catacombs. This municipal ossuary is completely safe to visit, and as of January 2013 is included in the Paris Musées.
There are groups of people, colloquially known as cataphiles, who are not content with exploring only the areas of the catacombs to which they are granted official access. Although it is not legal to enter the quarries which lie under the streets of Paris, these passionate people find a way to get there, whether simply for the thrill, or to socialise somewhere away from the surface world.
6. Pripyat, Ukraine
The derelict city of Pripyat draws in a surprising number of tourists, who flock to the area to catch a glimpse of the city life that was destroyed by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
As a lot of time has now passed since the disaster, the city of Pripyat and its surrounding areas are completely safe to visit, health-wise, though travelling there is not recommended without a tour guide, as the city is abandoned and therefore possibly unsafe.
Visitors to Pripyat should be sure to behave appropriately and respectfully. Chernobyl is not a ghost story, but a real tragic incident that is still fresh in the memory of many people, a few of whom remain living in the outskirts of the city.
Keep in mind the horror and panic that would have been felt by the residents of Pripyat on that unfortunate day. The most enduring and iconic images of Pripyat are the ferris wheel and bumper cars, which serve as a metaphor for the happy childhoods marred by the Chernobyl disaster.
7. Catacombs of Palermo
If you have visited Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora and the municipal ossuary in the Parisian catacombs and thought that neither of them were quite scary enough for you, you should take a visit to the catacombs of Palermo.
This is a place so grim that even the most hardened fright-lover might find it a sobering experience that will linger in their mind for some time afterwards.
While Paris and Kutná Hora only display bones, making it easy to separate the bones from the person to whom they once belonged, the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo feature gruesome-looking mummies whose eyeless stare is likely to fill you with a sense of dread.
8. Mikhailovsky Castle, Saint Petersburg
Russia’s long and difficult history is the perfect breeding ground for tales of the macabre and unknown. Saint Petersburg, the Russian city founded by Peter the Great, can lay claim to many of these spooky stories.
One place in this city that is commonly thought to be haunted is Mikhailovsky Castle, alternately known as Saint Michael’s Castle or the Engineer’s Castle. The castle was built for Emperor Paul I, who disliked his other residence as he had an all-consuming fear that he would be assassinated.
He ordered for a new residence to be built in the style of a castle, even down to details such as digging a moat around the building so that people could not easily reach it.
The emperor then left the Winter Palace and moved into Mikhailovsky Castle, assuaging his fears that someone would find their way into the building and have him killed. A mere 40 nights later he was killed in his bedroom by a group of his own officers who were attempting to force him to abdicate.
Ever since his death, the emperor’s ghost has been said to walk the passages of the castle, desperately searching for the people who betrayed and conspired to kill him.
Cover photo: www.channels.com
Ooooh, I love spooky stuff and these sound like some great locations to check out!