9 Creepy Places to Visit on Your Next European Vacation

Poveglia, an island off Venice, is known as the “island of madness,” or sometimes simply as “hell.” No other place in Italy is said to be as haunted as this. In the 16th century, plague victims were buried here. And some 200 years later, Poveglia suffered the fate of so many islands around the world: all those with whom the supposedly healthy society did not want to come into contact were banished here – initially people with infectious diseases, and from the 1920s, those who were considered mentally disturbed. A few years ago, the city wanted to sell the right to use the island to the highest bidder in an auction, which the Venetians fiercely resisted. Poveglia has since been closed to visitors for safety reasons – and a new auction is planned.

One of the UK’s most famous dramatic ruins reflects an eventful past. The eerie abbey, which inspired Bram Stoker on his visit to Whitby in 1890 to write “Dracula,” stands on the site of a monastery founded in the 7th century. In the 13th century, Whitby was rebuilt as a Benedictine monastery slightly further south of its predecessor but fell into disrepair after its dissolution under King Henry VIII during the English Reformation. Relentless North Sea winds and rain caused considerable erosion damage, and a German bombing raid in 1914 finished the building off by destroying the entire west façade.

The Schlosshotel Waldlust in the Black Forest is supposed to be a “place of unredeemed souls” where inexplicable things happen. The Grand Hotel opened its doors in 1902. Princes, sultans, kings – high nobility came and went. In the 1930s, film stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford stayed here. The hotel had its heyday under Adele B., known as “Adi,” who lured illustrious guests with dance events and congresses. In 1949, she was said to have been murdered in the then-world-famous hotel and to have haunted the house ever since. With her death, it was all over in one fell swoop. Many changes of ownership and vacancies led to its final ruin in 2005, but the hotel still stands as a setting for horror and crime films.

Although only ruins remain, this 14^th-century castle never fails to enchant visitors. It is located in the Krakow-Częstochowa Jura and seems to be one with the Inselberg mountains located in its immediate vicinity. Legend has it that a black dog dragging a chain behind it can be seen inside the ruined walls. It is said to be the ghost of the former lord of the castle, Stanislaw Warszycki, who, according to folklore, personally supervised the torture of his subjects and tortured all his wives to death. After his demise, he was led to hell and turned into a dog. Today, he is haunting the castle as punishment for his terrible deeds. Visitors can walk around the castle, and a knights’ tournament is held annually.

Until 1974, Varosha, with its fine sands and azure blue, warm water, was the most popular vacation paradise in Cyprus. The complex was built in the 1960s when mass tourism was developing on the island. In its heyday, the town had more than 100 hotels and apartment buildings, 21 banks, 24 theaters and cinemas, and around 3,000 small and large stores. It was the Côte d’Azur of Cyprus: Elizabeth Taylor sat here under a parasol, and Sophia Loren had a villa on the beach. But then Turkish troops marched into the north of the island – and the once thriving vacation resort became an abandoned ghost town. Today, through a barbed wire fence, people can observe corroding classic cars, dilapidated high-rise hotels, and shop fronts boasting the latest 1970s fashion as nature reclaims the prohibited zone.

Ungru Castle, now in ruins, is one of Estonia’s most impressive neo-baroque buildings, although it was never actually completed. It is a mighty structure that was built as an almost exact copy of Merseburg Castle in Germany. There is a sad love story behind its construction: Count von Ungern-Sternberg fell in love with the daughter of the lord of Merseburg Castle, who had vowed to spend her entire life there. However, the count promised to build her an identical castle, which the lord’s daughter agreed to. Construction began at the end of the 1890s on the grounds of a 17th-century castle, but the work was halted when the count’s mistress unexpectedly fell ill and died.

The huge Buzludzha monument in the Bulgarian mountains looks like a stranded UFO. It was built in 1981 to celebrate socialist communism. Huge mosaics tell the story of Bulgaria, and a red star-shaped window shines above everything in honor of Soviet Russia. After the government’s fall in 1989, the complex was abandoned and left to vandalism. Finally, three years ago, all access to the building was closed to the public, leaving it neglected and exposed to the weather.

Once upon a time, Pyramiden was the largest mining settlement on Svalbard, the largest island in the Norwegian archipelago of the same name in the Arctic Ocean. The Swedes began mining coal here in 1910 but sold the rights to the Soviet Union in 1927. A large part of the town’s infrastructure was built under their watch. After supplies ran out in 1998, the ghost town was abandoned, and for years, no living soul set foot here. However, according to the local tourism authority, about a dozen people now reside in Pyramiden again in the summer months.

Minard Castle, one of three tower houses built on the Dingle Peninsula during the mid-16th century, sits majestically on a hill above Kilmurry Bay. The ruins are badly damaged – a result of the siege by Oliver Cromwell’s troops in 1650, in which no inhabitant survived. During the siege, the English noticed that the Irish had run out of ammunition and were firing bullets cast from pewter with little effect. The planting of gunpowder under all four vaults of the castle killed many men in the explosion that caused the upper stories of the castle to crumble. The remaining survivors were put to death and buried in shallow graves where they fell. The haunted castle remained uninhabited from that day forth.