With Halloween just around the corner, dark tourism or tourism associated with mystery and fear is back in fashion. Each country has its legends about witches, occult rituals and paranormal phenomena, and until the pumpkins and ghosts are replaced by Christmas decorations, it is time to embark on a journey full of chilling emotions. If you don’t know where, we advise you to read what we have prepared for this special date.
Just half an hour by car from Barcelona we will find Rupit, a medieval city known as the City of Witches. Legends say that the sorceresses fled to this isolated place among the mountains to hide from the authorities. However, they were found by the Holy Inquisition. Today Rupit is a medieval gem to visit during the day, but everything changes at night walking through the streets full of magic, where witches once lived.
In the heart of Transylvania there is a castle where, according to legends, lived a person who instilled fear in all his enemies and infidels, Vlad the Impaler, or Count Dracula. So what would it be like to spend a Halloween night in the fortress of the most famous vampire of all time? Now you have the opportunity to live this experience by reserving your place at the most terrifying party in Romania, with music, open bar of drinks, traditional dinner and guided tour of Bran Castle.
Beyond trick-or-treating, the Scottish capital offers all kinds of spooky activities, from visiting old haunted houses to listening to stories told by guides about body snatchers and unexplained apparitions. In Edinburgh be sure to see the Greyfriars cemetery, which is reputed to be one of the darkest places in the world due to its supposed paranormal phenomena. In addition, it was a place of inspiration for Joanne Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter.
We follow in the footsteps of the witches in Trasmoz. This cursed town in Zaragoza owes its fame to the legends of the 13th century, which claim that wizards and witches gathered within the walls of its castle to celebrate magical rituals. Thus, Trasmoz is considered the only town in Spain excommunicated by the Catholic Church since 1255, and its castle, the epicenter of witchcraft, still hides secrets not suitable for the bravest.
In Portugal, in the Peneda-Gerês national park, is located Vilariño da Furna, a ghost village completely submerged in the waters of a reservoir since 1972. However, it has not been erased from the map and it is possible to see the remains of the houses abandoned when the water level drops. If you’re lucky, this Halloween, the village will rise to the surface with all its secrets.
70 kilometers from Prague, the Czech capital, also known as the city of witches, is the medieval Sedlec ossuary made up of the remains of about 40,000 people, although there are those who raise the figure to 70,000, accumulated during the plague and the wars. One of the works that attracts the most attention of tourists is a ceiling chandelier that, according to National Geographic, is made up of all the bones of the human body. Without a doubt, a chilling spectacle.
