Terrible places on earth have not yet died out. They still tickle the nerves of thrill-seekers and scary stories, who want to see what any normal person runs away from without looking back.
In an effort to find something new, unknown and, if possible, chilling, tourists go on excursions to damp dungeons, climb ancient torture towers, photograph monstrous exhibits of all kinds of pathological museums as a keepsake …
Sedlec Monastery, Sedlec, Czech Republic
The Sedlec Monastery, guides tell tourists today, has long been famous for its ancient cemetery, because one of its abbots, Abbot Indrich, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, came up with the pious idea of bringing a bag of Palestinian land with him to the Czech Republic and scattering it in this very cemetery.
The prospect of resting in the sacred land of local residents was extremely attractive. Gradually, the dead were brought to Sedlec not only from all over Bohemia, but even from Germany. Historical documents claim that seriously ill people (especially during plague epidemics) still reached the monastery alive in order to have time to take a place in the cemetery.
Because of this excitement, the cemetery had to be repeatedly dug over several centuries, and the excavated bones were carefully stored in the monastery crypt. By the beginning of the 18th century, there was nowhere to store the bones. And forty thousand skeletons were disassembled into bones, disinfected, bleached in bleach, and then the owner of the land, Prince Schwarzenberg instructed the famous woodcarver Frantiska Rint to make decor from all this peculiar material
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All Saints Chapels
Master Rint did it. He made the ornament on the vaults from the shoulder blades, vertebrae and collarbones. The giant chandelier - a complete anatomical atlas in itself - still hangs on peculiar chains of jaws. Instead of curly plump cherubs, there are skulls woven into endless garlands. The tabernacle and chalice, standing in the niches on either side of the throne, are made of many small bones.
On the wall - also made of bones - the coat of arms of the lords of the Schwarzenberg family laid out in accordance with all the rules of heraldry. However, no matter how hard Master Rint tried, all forty thousand skeletons could not be put into action, and the unrealized "material" was simply folded into six giant pyramids, the appearance of which is impressive in itself.
Tower of the Mad, Vienna, Austria
The Vienna Museum of Pathology is a real monument to deformities, gene mutations and harsh medieval medicine. The second name of the museum is the Tower of the Mad. The fact is that the museum is located in a former mental hospital, in an isolation ward for sleepwalkers who were kept here in the 18th century.
Climbing the tower is recommended only for the most hardened and cynical tourists who have traveled the world in search of a horse dose of adrenaline. For everyone else, dried and alcoholized organs, dissected skulls and mummified heads of criminals, as well as exhibits dedicated to cases of pathological enlargement of the genitals, will cause at least an attack of nausea.
Bran Castle, Transylvania, Romania
The medieval Bran Castle was built on the very edge of a deep abyss in the Carpathian Mountains. Narrow passages, stone stairs and cramped rooms, suitable for a vampire, but a normal person pressing on the psyche. The castle looks the way Brem Stoker described it over a hundred years ago in his famous novel "Dracula".
The main chimney - quite in the spirit of horror films - makes special howling sounds in strong winds. In one of the 56 rooms there is a huge bed with four racks and a canopy - on which, allegedly, the owner of the castle sucked the blood from his victims. The building has earned a reputation as a "castle of horrors" thanks to Prince Vlad IV, known as Vlad the Piercer. The prince himself has earned a reputation as a bloody monster for his inherent passion to impale everyone. The road leading to the castle is still called the Road of Pointed Stakes.
Capuchin catacombs, Palermo, Sicily
The catacombs, located in the vast basements under the Capuchin monastery, are the personification of the Sicilian cult of death, a real exhibition of mummies, in which there are about 8000 bodies, mostly the remains of the local elite and prominent citizens - the priesthood, aristocracy, representatives of various professions.
The practice of mummification here arose at the end of the 16th century, when the local Capuchin fathers discovered that the catacombs under their monastery contained a certain mysterious preservative, which naturally delayed rotting corpses.
The first burial dates back to 1599 - these are the relics of a local priest, distinguished by special righteousness. However, then the catacombs became fashionable, and many expressed the desire to be buried here. Some in wills have indicated the clothes in which they wish to be displayed. Many wear festive outfits, officers wear uniforms, and "professionals" wear the insignia of their profession.
"The most famous and beautiful inhabitant of the catacombs is the Sleeping Beauty", the girl Rosalia, whose body was placed here in 1918. Recent research by scientists has led to a sensational discovery. The girl is not dead - she is sleeping!"
Paris catacombs, France
The Parisian catacombs with their depressing atmosphere are also well known to tourists. They pass all over Paris, but only a small part of them are open for excursions. The rest is patrolled around the clock by special underground police, and not to protect the catacombs (there is nothing to steal there, except for human bones), but to protect curious tourists.
The fact is that the Parisian catacombs have long been legendary about ghosts, monsters, and blind madmen who have been living in the center of the dungeon for several centuries.
Death Valley, Tibet
It is located at a distance from the famous pilgrimage route around Mount Kailash. The Death Valley Field is strewn with bones. Yogis come here for illumination, purification and gaining secret knowledge. However, not all come back.
It is believed that in the Valley of Death, the soul undergoes a kind of judgment, and a sinful or meaningless life here ends.
Walls Unit Prison, Hunstville, TX
The ghosts of the prisoners executed there for various crimes still visit this old Texas prison. Ghosts in the prison began to play pranks at the beginning of the 20th century: old warders said that at night they noticed how one or another ghostly figure flashed from cell to cell. There were frequent cases when a prisoner who saw the charred ghost of a criminal recently executed in the electric chair from a nearby cell was taken unconscious to a prison hospital, from where he did not want to return to the cell.
“During the Second World War and immediately after it, the ghosts of the executed began to appear in Walls Unit much more often,” Kevin Hitchcliffe, a public relations officer in the prison, told reporters. - In this regard, my position appeared several years ago.
The state government found out about this case, and someone decided that "this show", as he put it, could make good money. So we are now forced to let select tourists into prison, a list of which is sent to us from above. All of them, of course, undergo a medical examination and give a signature that they impose full responsibility on themselves, even if their adventure ends in death."
Fans of extreme adventures are warned about the "lethal outcome" for a reason. Such cases, unfortunately, regularly occur …
Gennady FEDOTOV, staff correspondent of "AN"