Europe has no shortage of spooky spots that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention, from ghost-infested fortresses to abandoned islands. Ranked from mildly goosebump-inducing to too terrifying for words, we’ve scoured every country on the continent for its eeriest attraction. While this is only our humble opinion, you’ll definitely feel the fear factor with these petrifying points of interest. Please note that Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and the Holy See have been omitted from the list.
Click through the gallery to discover the haunting histories and macabre myths behind Europe’s eeriest attractions…
Named after the medieval Macedonian ruler King Marko, the Markovi Kuli are the towers of his great citadel. Perched on a hill above the village of Varoš, among a sea of granite boulders, the fortifications date from around the 13th and 14th centuries. Some of those who have visited the fortress have reported a symphony of odd sounds, including the clinking of armour and the eerie echo of footsteps. There's also been sightings of ghostly figures on misty evenings. Could it be that the men who once guarded the Markovi Kuli with their lives are still here?
Casa de la Vall served as the parliament building for the tiny Pyrenean nation of Andorra between 1702 and 2011. Built in 1580 as a mansion for the wealthy Busquets family, it contains the country’s one and only courtroom – the Tribunal de Corts. With a past going back nearly five centuries, it’s no wonder that some visitors have reported ghostly footsteps and disembodied whispers echoing around these historic halls. Perhaps it's the spirits of former rulers and politicians attending to unfinished business? Both self-led and guided tours are offered, and there’s an escape room too.
On the shores of Lake Geneva, Château de Chillon is a Disney-esque castle with a murky past. Owned by the wealthy Counts of Savoy during the Middle Ages, Chillon served as a prison in the 16th-century Wars of Religion. Its most famous ghost is said to date from this period, a renegade monk named François Bonivard, who was chained up in the dungeons here. Despite his later release, Bonivard’s soul still apparently stalks the site, seeking revenge for the injustices done against him. The poem The Prisoner of Chillon by Lord Byron was inspired by the monk’s life after the writer visited his cell.
St Olaf’s Church may seem innocuous to look at, but there are tales of a deadly curse swarming around its spire. The legend goes that seven of its master-builders fell to their deaths before the tower could be completed. When an eighth man vowed to finish the work, he slipped upon hammering the final nail home and plummeted to the ground. Onlookers claimed to have seen a snake and a toad crawl out of his mouth, crying that it was the devil’s work. That St Olaf’s has been struck by lightning and set ablaze multiple times since does seem to suggest it’s more than just a little unlucky.
From its seat on a prehistoric hill backed by dramatic mountains, Gutenberg Castle looks every bit the fairy-tale antagonist’s abode. One of only two castles in Liechtenstein to have been preserved into modernity, the ground on which it stands has revealed evidence of human habitation dating back to the Neolithic Age. With such a long history – and its former life as a cemetery – perhaps the eerie anecdotes about unexplainable noises and cold snaps at Gutenberg hold some weight. Visitors can enter the bailey year-round for free, while the castle chapel and rose garden are only open on Sundays from May through October.
Many countries in Europe claim to have a ‘Devil’s Bridge’, but we think this one near the town of Ardino in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains is particularly foreboding. Constructed in the early 16th century over the Arda River, the Ottoman-era bridge formed part of an ancient road linking Thrace (a historic region of the modern-day Balkans) to the Aegean Sea. Even now, some locals are reluctant to cross it after dark, owing to an alleged haunting. It is said the bridge builder, known only in legend as Dimitar, made a deal with Satan and that the soul of his dead wife lies entombed within the structure.
Heaving its wraith-like body out of Klaipėda’s harbour, Juodasis Vaiduoklis is a bronze sculpture created in tribute to a local legend. It is said that a hooded spectre such as this appeared in 1595 with a vague warning for the city: that its grain and timber stores would not be enough. The figure was right, because before long the land was struck by famine. Thankfully, the people of Klaipėda had heeded the ghost’s warning and increased their supplies in time. So, despite the terrifying faceless appearance, this ghoulish guardian is actually one of the good guys.
The town of Sintra is like a living fairy tale, with its hilltop castles and rainbow-coloured palaces. Mystical Quinta da Regaleira is especially fascinating to visit, given one of the estate’s past owners was rumoured to belong to the Knights Templar. There are two inverted towers hidden in the gardens here, so-called ‘initiation wells’ (pictured) that spiral down below ground and into a labyrinth. In order to join the brotherhood, potential new recruits would have to successfully navigate themselves out of the maze blindfolded. Whether the legend is true or not, it’s an eerily beautiful sight to behold.
For sufferers of formidophobia (fear of scarecrows), this roadside sight is the stuff of nightmares. Just outside Suomussalmi, in a field off Finland’s Highway 5, nearly a thousand peat-headed scarecrows stand soundlessly, staring down passersby with their featureless faces. The unusual, slightly unsettling, art installation is the work of Reijo Kela who created the figures in 1988. The meaning behind the Hiljainen Kansa – ‘Silent People’ – has never been confirmed by the artist, though one popular interpretation suggests the stationary horde represents those killed in the Battle of Suomussalmi, fought between Finnish and Soviet forces during the Winter War of 1939-40.
The oldest of San Marino’s emblematic trio of mountaintop fortresses, Guaita Tower also served as a prison in the past. In recent years, a whole gallery of prisoner graffiti has been unearthed in some of the rooms here. You can see the strange drawings for yourself on a tour of Guaita Tower, which connects to the microstate’s second fortress, Cesta Tower, via the so-called Witches’ Pass (or Passo delle Streghe). According to local lore, young girls used to gather at the pass in the Middle Ages to dance around fires, practise herbal medicine and engage in ‘magic rituals’. This led to them being labelled as witches.
The Harz Witches’ Trail (Harzer-Hexen-Steig in German) traces old trade routes and legendary landscapes, carving through historic mining settlements, forests, moors and gorges. Starting from Osterode am Harz and ending in Thale, the hiking route spans about 58 miles (94km). It climbs up the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountain range, where a coven of witches is said to meet every Walpurgisnacht (a pagan holiday celebrated the night before May Day). The summit is cloaked in mist 300 days of the year, so it’s no wonder things can get a little spooky.
Prior to the expansion of a dam in the 1930s that helped calm its currents, the waters of the River Danube were a swirling vortex. From time to time, it would wash up the bodies of unknown victims who had either drowned in the river or been dumped in it. With many of the dead remaining unidentified, this small cemetery was established on the Danube’s banks to offer them the dignity of a final resting place. Between 1840 and 1900, 478 nameless people were buried here. A walk through the leafy graveyard is both chilling and surprisingly tranquil.
Once one of the largest and most strategically important defensive fortresses on the Bay of Kotor, Fort Vrmac is now a shadow of its former self, eerily silent and overrun with foliage. Constructed at the end of the 19th century by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was bombarded by Montenegrin artillery during World War I and subsequently abandoned. Its position on the Vrmac Ridge between Kotor and Tivat makes the fort a popular destination for hikers, who can reach it on several trails. With cavernous halls, crumbling walls and an isolated location, entering Fort Vrmac is enough to unnerve even the pluckiest visitors.
The tiny principality of Monaco is a veritable playground for the rich, royal and famous. Even this trendy microstate can’t escape the supernatural though, with its most iconic building also purportedly one of its most haunted. The Casino de Monte-Carlo has welcomed millions of gamblers since it opened in 1878, and a few of them still haunt the place. Take Crazy Heloise, who reportedly won so much money that she laughed until her heart stopped. She can still sometimes be heard cackling and counting her fortune. Then there’s the sad and lonely Countess, who tragically lost all her wealth on a badly-placed bet.
In Albania’s most historic town, the haunting tale of Rozafa Castle has been passed down through generations. According to local lore, no matter how hard the three brothers building them worked, the walls of the castle walls kept falling down. To break this cycle, an old man told the brothers to sacrifice one of their wives by sealing her into the ramparts. The fate fell to Rozafa, wife of the youngest brother, who went willingly. All she requested was that part of her body remain unburied so that she could continue to comfort her newborn son. A poignant sculpture of Rozafa and her baby stands near the castle’s museum entrance today.
Completed in 1823 by the Dutch army, Fort de la Chartreuse was taken over by Belgian troops in 1830 during the Belgian Revolution and served as a barracks for several years. It was then captured by German forces during World War I, who used it as a prison in which they executed 49 people. In World War II, the fort became an American military hospital. But for decades now, it has stood in ruins on the outskirts of Liège, slowly being reclaimed by nature in the Parc de la Chartreuse. Graffiti artists have turned its creepy, abandoned carcass into an evolving urban art gallery.
In another life, Spinalonga was feared for its military might, becoming a formidable Venetian stronghold towards the end of the 16th century. But by the early 1900s, the islet inspired dread for wholly different reasons. Between the years of 1903 and 1957, hundreds of leprosy patients – having been shunned by society – were exiled here. Tourists arriving by boat today will pass through Dante’s Gate, the disquieting entrance to the former colony, before discovering the ruins of a hospital, disinfection room and cemetery. While its dark past is somewhat cast in shadow by the bright Mediterranean sun, Spinalonga retains an undeniably sombre air.
Deep in Arctic Norway, Pyramiden was a Soviet-era coal mining settlement until its abandonment in 1998. Now it’s a ghost town, home only to seabirds and the odd polar bear, Arctic fox or reindeer – as well as a creepy bust of Lenin. Sweden sold the remote outpost to the Russians in 1927, who used it continually for mining for 53 years. But as coal became a dwindling industry, Pyramiden’s residents were gradually extracted, leaving behind anything too cumbersome to carry. Even now, there are still cups, dishes and furniture lying eerily forgotten. You can visit Pyramiden on cruises and boat trips in the polar summer.
You may have heard of the deadly ‘sneaker waves’ at Iceland’s most famous black beach, Reynisfjara. But these same lethal forces also plague Djúpalónssandur, a dark pebbled beach on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula with imposing rock formations. Here, the barrelling surf of the North Atlantic can unpredictably grow more powerful, capable of dragging unsuspecting visitors out to sea. What makes Djúpalónssandur even more ominous is the rusting shipwreck strewn across the shore. This is all that remains of the English trawler Epine GY 7 from Grimsby, which foundered in 1948 and took 14 crew members with it.
Listed as the world’s largest cave castle in the Guinness World Records, it’s hard to see where Predjama Castle ends and the mouth of silver rock begins. Built in its current Renaissance style in 1570, it looks to be almost consumed by the surrounding karst landscape. When the TV show Ghost Hunters International visited the fortress in 2008, they encountered paranormal presences supposedly feeding off the charged energy given off by mineral deposits in the caves behind it. Predjama’s spooky reputation has turned it into something of a celebrity – eagle-eyed viewers of The Witcher may recognise it from season three of the Netflix series.
Less than a decade before the Bosnian War turned Sarajevo into a bloody battleground, the city hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. Purpose-built facilities, like Mount Trebević’s bobsleigh and luge track (pictured), that took centre-stage during the Games soon found themselves at the heart of the siege. Athletes' hotels became prisons, medal podiums became execution sites, and ski slopes were heavily mined. While restoration efforts to several sites have been made in recent years, many of the old Olympic relics remain eerily derelict. Sarajevo Insider currently runs a five-hour guided tour to some of these venues.
Aptly-named Spooksteeg, or Ghost Alley, is the setting for a widespread urban myth that Amsterdam tour guides love to share. It tells of sisters Helena and Dina, who supposedly lived on this street in the 18th century. After Dina fell in love with a handsome sailor, a jealous Helena killed her and made it look like a fatal accident. Helena then went on to marry the sailor herself, who damned her soul for all eternity when she finally confessed to him with her dying breath. The moans and wails of her doomed spirit have since been heard echoing through the dark alley.
The second largest fortress in Europe and one of the best preserved structures of its kind on the continent, Petrovaradin Fortress took almost a century to build between 1692 and 1780. It overlooks the River Danube from the top of a volcanic plateau and sits on the edge of Serbia’s oldest national park, Fruška Gora. Its most mysterious parts lie below ground level, including dungeons that have held notorious political prisoners like Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia’s former president. There are also 10 miles (16km) of unlit tunnels, rumoured to be haunted by deceased soldiers and used for satanic rituals.
The forested outcrop that towers over Vianden has been fortified since Roman times, and its original tower was later incorporated into the medieval castle that still occupies the spot today. Over the centuries, all manner of spooky happenings have been reported at the historic stronghold, from ghost sightings to strange sounds and sudden temperature changes. Said to be among the unearthly menagerie is the White Lady, who wafts around in a white gown, and a former lord who dwells in the castle dungeons. A Dementor-like hooded creature with terrible claws also allegedly haunts Vianden’s shadows at night.
One of Europe’s only known Neolithic necropolises, the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is an eerie monument to a lost civilisation. The vast underground tomb complex was in use between 4000 and 1500 BC before being largely forgotten, until it was accidentally unearthed in 1902 during construction works. An estimated 7,000 prehistoric humans are thought to have been buried here, some of whose remains are still contained in the hypogeum’s chambers. Be sure to pre-book your visit around three months in advance as visitor numbers are limited at the delicate site.
Could the tiny settlement of Borgvattnet be Sweden’s most haunted village? The spooky stories surrounding its old vicarage, now a bed-and-breakfast, seem to suggest so. The building was supposedly first blighted by ghosts in 1927, when the resident vicar at the time complained that his laundry had been mysteriously torn from his washing line. With each new inhabitant came fresh claims of supernatural happenings – furniture moved of its own accord, screams shook the property, and shadowy figures watched people as they slept. The vicarage is so haunted that even an exorcist priest couldn’t rid it of its demons.
Witch trials weren’t just an American trend in the 17th century – across the Atlantic, Spain was swept up in the hysteria long before Salem. And the cave complex just outside the village of Zugarramurdi was perceived to be a hotbed of devil worship and debauchery, where akelarres (covens) would hold pagan gatherings. In 1610, during the Spanish Inquisition, dozens of people from Zugarramurdi were accused of witchcraft, with 11 later burned at the stake. A plaque at the entrance to the caves commemorates the victims today, while the Museo de las Brujas (Witch Museum) in the village gives further context to their story.
The building now known as the House of Terror museum and memorial was once the headquarters for the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party, who controlled the Hungarian government during the late stages of World War II. After taking power, the party used this site (then called the House of Loyalty) as a prison and place of torture and execution. When the war ended, the House’s brutal function continued under the Soviet Political Police. The harrowing stories of the victims and perpetrators of both the fascist and communist regimes (referred to together as the Double Occupation) are told through the museum’s exhibitions.
The oldest parts of the Tower of London have stood on the banks of the River Thames since the 11th century, and the fortress has served as everything from a royal palace and mint to a secure store for the British Crown Jewels. But it was most notoriously a prison, where three of England’s queens – Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey – were beheaded and buried. While most public executions took place on Tower Hill, 22 were exacted within the Tower of London’s walls themselves. That’s a whole lot of ghosts to run into.
Is this the world’s most haunted castle? Dating back to the early 1500s, Leap Castle is one of the longest continually inhabited buildings of its kind in Ireland – and some of its residents have never left. One of the spirits trapped here is the so-called Red Lady, who brandishes a dagger and turns each room she enters ice-cold. It is thought that, in life, the woman was captured by the notoriously violent O’Carroll clan, who owned Leap Castle until the mid-17th century. Other ghostly figures reported at the site include a priest, an old man, a governess and two little girls.
Deemed one of the most haunted buildings in Europe, Dragsholm Slot was built around 1215 and supposedly has over 100 ghosts roaming its corridors. Located on Zealand, Denmark’s largest island, the castle was fortified in the Middle Ages and later repurposed as a prison. Its most famous inmate was James Hepburn, fourth Earl of Bothwell and third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. He is just one of the lost souls spotted wandering the grounds, along with apparitions of a woman in white, a bishop and the so-called Mad Squire. In addition to the otherworldly residents, Dragsholm is now home to a hotel and Michelin-starred restaurant.
This supersized military bunker is like something straight out of a zombie apocalypse movie. Built by the Soviet Union, which Moldova was part of during the Cold War years, the bunker lies hidden among rural forests in the country’s north. In the event of nuclear war between the communist Warsaw Pact nations and the US and its allies, the Soviets intended to use facilities such as these as alternative command centres. Though things thankfully never came to that, the empty shell of so-called Object 1180 remains intensely foreboding. The site is unmanned today and completely derelict, so do take care if you go exploring.
Another relic of the Cold War, the now-abandoned gulag on the unforgiving island of Goli Otok will send chills down your spine. When Croatia belonged to the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, its leader Tito imprisoned his critics and political dissidents in these buildings originally used to incarcerate Russian prisoners of war. Between 1948 and 1956, an estimated 15,000-plus convicts were shipped to the brutal prison camp, with as many as 600 people losing their lives, either from exhaustion, disease or possibly torture. Tourists can visit Goli Otok's sinister ruins on boat trips from nearby ports.
Often called the ‘Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania’, the Hoia-Baciu is regarded as one of the world’s most haunted forests. Its name comes from the local legend of Baciu the shepherd, who mysteriously disappeared here – along with 200 sheep. But how does one man and his flock just vanish into thin air? No one has ever been able to find out, though there are whispers of UFOs and malevolent forces at work. And Baciu isn’t the only poor soul claimed by the ancient woodland. A young girl went missing only to return five years later, having not aged a single day, but with no memory of the time she was gone.
Paranormal investigators from Ghost Hunters International called Karosta Prison the most haunted place in the world. Europe’s only military prison open to tourists, it was used for over a century as a penitentiary for sailors and non-commissioned officers in both the Soviet and Latvian Navy. No inmate has ever escaped from its dreary cells and between May and September, it’s possible to spend the night in one yourself – without breaking the law. If sleeping like a prisoner isn’t for you, there’s also a chief prison officer’s room available (or just take a guided tour if you’d rather go home to your own bed).
Concealed among the Masurian forests, the Wolf’s Lair was Adolf Hitler’s secret military headquarters during World War II. This massive bunker complex, spanning 18 hectares, is where the Führer spent much of the conflict and where a famous attempt to assassinate him (code-named ‘Valkyrie’) took place in 1944. Though it failed in killing Hitler, the operation claimed four other lives. To this day, a lingering and oppressive darkness still clings to the historic site. The bunker was mostly destroyed by the retreating Nazis at the end of the war and what remains is now a haunting museum.
Beneath the beautiful boulevards of the French capital lurks a macabre underground boneyard. The Catacombs of Paris were once the tunnels of a quarry that supplied the limestone to build landmarks like Notre-Dame and the Louvre. But with excessive quarrying causing deadly sinkholes and the city’s cemeteries becoming overcrowded by the late 18th century, the two problems were solved by transforming the old limestone mines into a crypt. Most of the anonymous corpses laid to rest here were victims of the French Revolution, and the subterranean ossuary was opened to the public in 1809 on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Christened the ‘Blood Countess’ by history, Elizabeth Báthory was the most prolific female serial killer to have ever lived – and Čachtice Castle was the site of her crimes. Born in 1560, Báthory was accused of torturing and murdering hundreds of young women within these walls, allegedly bathing in their blood in vain attempts to keep herself youthful. Báthory herself died at Čachtice in 1614 while under house arrest, having been imprisoned for four years in one of the castle’s towers. Today, walking through the ruins with this violent history in mind is sure to chill you to the bone.
Thought Venice was all pastel architecture and pretty canals? Think again, because there is nothing romantic about Poveglia. Abandoned since the 1960s, this island is where thousands of Venetians afflicted with bubonic plague were quarantined and, if they perished, cremated. Poveglia was used in this way several times throughout the centuries, earning it a reputation as the ‘Island of Ghosts’. It was also the site of a psychiatric hospital in the 20th century, rumoured to be staffed by sadistic doctors. While the island itself is off limits (unless special permission is granted), Venice Tour by Boat and Classic Boats Venice both offer trips that sail around Poveglia.
Topping our ranking of the eeriest attraction in every European country, Czechia's Houska Castle stands in the middle of nowhere. The nearest water sources, towns and trade routes are all miles from the lonely fortress, so why is it here? One legend holds that, in the 13th century, the forests of Houska were deemed a gateway to hell itself – home to a yawning pit of doom. To seal off the bottomless chasm, a local duke is said to have erected the castle directly atop it. In the years since, the site has supposedly attracted black magic practitioners and Nazi worshippers of the occult. Today, access is by guided tour only (if you’re brave enough).