I recently read an e-mail from Lonely Planet that had a list of Seven Startling Sites of Eastern Europe that I found to be pretty interesting. I’ve been to Eastern Europe a couple of times and haven’t made it to any of these sites.
Here is the List:
- Raclawice Panorama- Wroclaw, Poland: A painting 114m around the walls of a rotunda depicting the Battle of Raclawice in 1794. The article says the “Raclawice Panorama takes you so close to the battlefield you can almost smell gunpowder”.
- Hill of Witches- Lithuania: Lots of woodcarvings in a forested sand dune in the Curonian Spit “teeming with folkloric wooden carvings”.
- Sea Organ- Zadar, Croatia: Hear the ocean sing as the tide pushes water into the organ’s pipes creating all different kinds of music.
- Ghost Town- Prypiat, Ukraine: Visit a town left abandoned due to the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. The area is too radioactive to farm or inhabit but organized tours can get you in for a visit.
- Hotel Viru- Tallinn, Estonia: Visit a hotel (now a museum) that where every move you made during the Cold War was taped by the KGB from the secret 23rd floor.
- Capuchin Crypt- Brno, Czech Republic: Check out this monastery who’s airflow preserved the monk’s bodies still clothed in their robes when they were laid to rest here.
- Kuntskamera- St Petersburg, Russia: The first museum in Russia created by Peter the Great which has many natural and human oddities.
I’ve been wanting to visit Prypiat (Chernobyl) for a while now after seeing it covered on various TV shows and the Kuntskamera sounds like it might have many oddities similar to what I saw at the Mutter Museum. I’ve visited a bones church and other crypts in Europe and would love to visit the Capuchin Crypt in Brno.
What sites would you like to visit from this list? Have you visited other odd sites around the world not listed here?
Read the full Lonely Planet article which has more details about each site HERE
