The 4th spookiest place to me is Wewelsburg Castle located near Paderborn, Germany. It's a 17th century fort which became the home of Heinrich Himmler and the SS of Nazi Germany. Yes, this is the place where the darkest evil done by the SS was created and pursued. The home of hate and the occult which Himmler practiced. This is it. Nice place, huh? It actually was once. Then Himmler took it and brought in the SS.
Inside this fort is a place called the Crypt. It's a chamber where an eternal flame was to be lit. The flame
was surrounded by 12 pillars representing 12 knights of the SS. Himmler had a thing for King Arthur's round table of 12 knights. He wanted the same ranking for his most shall we say loyal SS men. Now this wasn't enough for Himmler. He made concentration camp laborers build a giant swastika in the basement. This would become the place where the SS heroes would be brought to be cremated. Great place. By the way, the concentration camp laborers came from a camp in the village of Wewelsburg. It held 3,900 prisoners of which 1/3 died. Most at this camp were Jehovah Witnesses, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and opponents of the regime. Himmler's castle became legendary as a place of mystery, paganism, occultism, and devil worship. How about it? You want to go? It's there, converted into a museum which makes sure that it doesn't become a shrine to the SS or Nazis, but lets face it, no matter what you try to do, there will be those who will flock there. Not for the history of it, but for what it signifies. Hate. Pure and simple hate.
Now, the place I consider the 3rd spookiest place on Earth is the Chapel of Skulls near Czemna, Poland. It's one of three such chapels in Europe, This one was started in 1776 by Waclaw Tomaszek the local priest.
He found a mass grave of the victims from a cholera epidemic, collected their bones, disinfected them and placed them in the chapel. There are over 3,000 skulls in the chapel and shinbones make up the ceiling. In the cellar is a hatch which when opened reveals another 21,000 skulls. Sounds like a fun place to worship at. Father Tomaszek did do this for a reason though. He wanted a sanctuary where one could go for reverie about life and death. I don't know about you but having all those skulls looking at me would not be a place to think about life and death. But there are those who would find this tranquil.
Alright, number 2 on my little countdown goes to Futaba, Japan. It's the newest place for me to consider being spooky. This is the town which was abandoned after a tsunami hit the island in March 2011 and crippled a nuclear power plant. By April 21, 2011 it was a ghost town. So why do I think this is a spooky place?
Look at this picture above. It's a hospital. Everything has been left. Not a single human is here, at least not legally. Think about it. This is a shrine to what could happen anywhere. Every person gone. All the homes, businesses, schools, deserted. It's empty of all life- except for what is reclaiming it. But what is taking it back and what is the radiation doing to that life. Certain people can go there, but you must be in a hazard suit and you better keep an eye on the amount of radiation you will be subjected to.
Now, number 1. Like Futaba, Japan, my spookiest place on Earth is the result of a nuclear power plant accident. The Cherynobl power plant accident occurred on April 26, 1986. An explosion ripped through the plant supposedly killing 31 people (though this has been argued), and a large plume spewed a tremendous amount of radioactive particles into the atmosphere. Belarus would receive the bulk of the fallout, but Europe and Russia received it as well.
The town of Pripyat, which is near Chernobyl was not evacuated immediately. Its citizens went about their business; until they began to fall to radiation poisoning. The evacuation of Pripyat began at 1400 hours on April 27th. The people were told to take enough for only 3 days. The citizens of Pripyat had been exposed to the radiation for over 24 hours. Wow! Not good. As of 2008, 64 confirmed deaths from radiation had been reported. Most of these were employees of the plant and emergency responders. This does not contain the figures for cancer deaths related to this incident.
So yeah, Chernobyl and Pripyat are my top pick for spookiest place on Earth. Everything abandoned, yet, homeless dogs live there among other wild animals. The Earth is taking it back, but it is a spooky reminder, especially with its riderless ferry wheel standing in its shadow. Waiting for the people to come and celebrate May Day. Or maybe they do come and ride. Maybe they are there, walking through the desolated buildings and grounds of Pripyat.....
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