The new Atlas of Dark Destinations, a book that maps out a route for your next vacation is an excellent way to make it more memorable than just escaping from the world. In the introduction, Dr Peter Hohenhaus describes that dark tourism is an approach to travelling where you are able to engage with the world around you.
‘Not all travellers simply want escapism,’ writes Hohenhaus, who points out that dark tourism is a way of learning about history and broadening horizons – ‘and for the most part is perfectly legitimate’. According to the author, who studies dark tourism and has visited more than 900 countries around the globe, dark tourism is something that almost everyone has done. You could say that nearly everyone is a dark tourist at some point, at most occasionally.
The tome features over 300 locations in more than 90 countries. These include prisons and concentration camps as well as nuclear testing sites, volcanoes and ghost towns. Hohenhaus cautions that visitor conduct should be considered when you visit these sites. Respectful behavior is required when visiting sites of tragic events. Dark tourism is not compatible with smiling selfies. Hohenhaus states that the goal of this book is to inspire your own explorations and be an open-ended atlas of discovery. You can scroll down to see more about the book’s fascinating, haunting, and sometimes chilling locations, as well as the author’s ‘dark rating’.
Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, Ford Island, Hawaii. Rating: 4/10
The wreckage of the B-17E Bomber Swamp Ghost, on display at Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum
Hohenhaus says that on December 7, 1941 Imperial Japan surprised the US military base in Pearl Harbor. The Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum is said to have original buildings where you can see the bullet holes left by the 1941 attacks.
He said, “Inside the Hangars as well as open-air displays are a large variety of aircraft from both World War Two and many modern types that were used in the Korean or Vietnam wars.
According to the author, the Swamp Ghost is perhaps the most remarkable of the exhibits. It’s a B-17E Bomber that crashed-landed in a swamp on Papua New Guinea in 1942. Hohenhaus claims that it lay submerged in the swamp for nearly half a century until it was found and saved by the museum.
Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rating dark – 7/10
A Titan II ICBM missile on display at the Museum of Nuclear Science & History in New Mexico
According to the book, there is an open-air area (pictured), where many aircraft and nuclear (mockup) missiles are displayed.
According to Hohenhaus, this ‘is the principal museum of all things nuclear in the USA’. This museum will cover the history and use of the nuclear bomb as well as the ethical dilemmas that were involved in bombings.
Hohenhaus revealed that the Cold War era, and its nuclear weaponry is the most important part of the museum. He says: ‘Artefacts on display include the smallest atomic weapons ever deployed as well as whole thermonuclear warheads (not real armed ones, of course). Most interesting, however, is the section about Broken Arrows. This refers to accidents involving nukes.
According to the book, the end of the Cold War was celebrated.
A section of the museum that is open to public view a variety of aircraft, along with nuclear bombs and missiles, all in one place, can be found according to the book.
Le Redoutable, Cherbourg, Normandy, France. Rating dark – 7/10
Pictured is the bridge, or command centre, on Le Redoutable – ‘the largest and only (ex-) nuclear submarine open to the public in the world’
Hohenhaus says that Le Redoutable was a nuclear-powered submarine carrying nuclear-warhead missiles. It was “laid down” in 1964, and re-entered service in 1971. ‘The latest missiles each had a one-megaton warhead – a mighty weapons system,’ he notes.
The author says: ‘This sub was decommissioned in the early 1990s and later converted into a museum ship placed in a purpose-built dry dock. This section contained the nuclear reactor had to be removed. Needless to say, the nuclear-armed missiles were removed too, so there is no risk of radiation to today’s visitors.’
Hohenhaus describes the French submarine as a ‘unique visitor attraction: the largest and only (ex-) nuclear submarine open to the public in the world’.
The book continues: ’Even from the outside, the 128m-long (420ft) submarine is something to behold, but the real treat is that you can explore the inside too, including the bridge/command post and the section with the SLBM silo tubes, as well as the officers’ mess, the galley and eventually the torpedo compartment inside the bow.’
Mimoyecques, Landrethun-le-Nord, Pas-de-Calais, France. Rating dark – 7/10
Underground base of the V3 tunnel system – Multiple-charged Super-gun (barrels exceeding 100m, 350ft long)
Hohenhaus describes the military complex of Mimoyecques, built by Nazi Germany, as an ‘absolutely unique site’.
He says: ‘At this underground site, a new type of “wonder weapon” was to be installed: the V3, a multiple-charged “super-gun” with barrels over 100m (350ft) long and capable of accelerating a projectile to such a muzzle velocity that it could travel more than 160km (100 miles), bringing London within range of this site.’
According to the author five groups of five of these super-guns were built, each capable of firing 10 shots per minute. That’s 600 rounds per hour. These V3s would have been sprayed with shells in London, according to their plans.
However, the design was ‘fraught with technical problems’. The site ‘had already been targeted by the Allies’ and became ’severely damaged by deep-penetration “tallboy” bombs’. The author says that it was seized and demolished by Allied troops on September 1944.
According to the book in its entirety, tunnels from the underground network have been partially opened in memory of those who died in World War II. An exact replica of a V3 can be found at the tunnel’s end.
Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres (Belgium). Rating dark – 7/10
Hohenhaus states that the In Flanders Fields Museum exhibition, shown in the photo, contains’many sobering elements.
Hohenhaus says that Ypres is ‘forever connected with the horrors in World War One.
The Flanders Fields Museum in the area is the main museum dedicated to war. The name of the museum ‘is a reference to the famous war poem by Canadian poet John McCrae, who served as a surgeon at Ypres’, the author explains.
He says: ‘The state-of-the-art exhibition is comprehensive and includes many sobering elements; for example, the section on the use of poison gas.’
According to the author, the end of the exhibition has ‘large panels suspended from the ceiling on which all the conflicts around the world since the Great War are listed’. Hohenhaus says that this part of the museum makes ‘the hackneyed phrase “Never again!” look rather empty’.
Eagle’s Nest & Obersalzberg, Near Berchtesgaden, southern Bavaria, Germany. Dark rating: 8/10
Hitler received the Kehlsteinhaus for his 50th birthday. ‘The Kehlsteinhaus is now a popular tourist attraction during the summer season,’ the book reveals
Obersalzberg: Part of an underground tunnel- and bunker compound. Hohenhaus describes the surrounding area as ‘Hitler’s favourite place’
According to the book, this area ‘was Adolf Hitler’s favourite place’. ‘It was here that the private Hitler relaxed, although he also received political guests,’ writes Hohenhaus. Obersalzberg is the collective name for Berghof (Hitler’s private residence), private houses for other prominent Nazis, a guest house called Platterhof, and SS barracks and bunkers.
Hitler received the mountaintop Kehlsteinhaus (also known as “Eagle’s Nest”) for his 50th Birthday. Hohenhaus says: ‘The construction of the building at such an extreme location was an engineering feat – and an expensive one (it cost an estimated 180million US dollars [£133million] in today’s money). However, Hitler visited it only a few times.’
According to the book, during Cold War times the Americans used this complex for military recreation. ‘It was only after the US military left following Germany’s reunification in 1990 that the area was opened to the public,’ it reads.
Hohenhaus says: ‘The Kehlsteinhaus is now a popular tourist attraction during the summer season. It is also home to an authentic Bavarian restaurant. Many people come here simply to enjoy the views, but the place’s association with Hitler has an undeniably strong allure, particularly for anglophone tourists.’
Travellers can also visit the nearby Dokumentation Obersalzberg, a memorial museum ‘at the site of a former guest house in the Nazis’ compound, and incorporating parts of the underground bunkers’.
Europe’s concentration camp memorial sites
Pictured above is the gatehouse of the former Natzweiler–Struthof concentration camp in Alsace, France
According to the book, there were approximately 20 concentration camps in total, plus many thousands of satellite camps. POW camps.
Concentration camps within and close to Germany include Sachsenhausen, which was ‘just outside Berlin and one of the first camps established’, Ravensbruck, ‘the main camp for women, located north of Berlin’, and Natzweiler-Struthof, which was based in the Alsace region, now in France.
Hohenhaus writes: ‘Within the German-occupied parts of Poland during World War Two, the very largest of the camps was established: Auschwitz. Not so much a concentration camp but more a small site with an “experimental” function was Chełmno not far from Łodz. The method of killing victims with carbon monoxide in gas vans by murder was first used here. This technique would later be adopted by Operation Reinhard. [the phase of the Holocaust that actioned the systematic murder of Jews] camps of Treblinka, Sobibór and Bełżec.’
Others camps existed further out, like those in Riga, Latvia and Minsk. The author adds: ‘There were also various transit camps in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, with Westerbork, Amersfoort and Vught being the names that stand out and where substantial memorials can be found today.’
Hohenschonhausen, Lichtenberg district in eastern Berlin, Germany. Dark rating: 9/10
View of a cell block in the Berlin-Hohenschonhausen Memorial. Guided tours of the ex-prison are required to see this area.
Hohenhaus says of the Berlin-Hohenschonhausen Memorial: ‘This was the main remand prison for political “offenders” in the GDR [German Democratic Republic] run by the infamous Stasi in East Berlin.’
He adds that the Stasi was ‘the former secret “security” police organisation and intelligence network in the GDR’, a state that existed from 1949 to 1990.
According to the book, ‘suspects’ were brought to the prison for interrogation prior to their trial. Hohenhaus writes: ‘The prison was within a restricted, gated and guarded district and thus invisible to the public. Today this is one of the most important memorial sites related to the legacy of the Stasi.’
Guided tours of the prison are required. The book mentions that former prisoners sometimes guide these tours. It adds: ‘Tours include the garage where prisoners arrived in special arrest vans, interrogation rooms, and of course the cell blocks. You will find the most squalid basement cells that are located in the oldest section of the compound. These were in existence when it was occupied by the Soviet NKVD, the predecessor to the KGB. They were there before the Stasi took over the facility in the 1950s.
‘Occasionally, the tours feature a peek inside a special railway carriage that was used for transporting inmates to other prisons.’
The ‘brute of concrete’ that is the Gefechtsturm Flak tower in Vienna’s Augarten Park
Three locations of Flak Towers in Vienna, Austria. Rating: 2/10
Hohenhaus writes: ‘Three cities of the Third Reich – Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna – were equipped with Flak towers, or Flakturme, during World War Two. Flak is short for Flugabwehrkanone, “anti-aircraft gun”.’
According to the author, the ‘towers came in pairs: the Gefechtsturm, or “battle tower”, with the guns at the top, and a smaller Leitturm, or “guidance tower”, with early forms of radar and distance measurement equipment to aid the guns’ aim’.
He says: ‘As weapons, these systems proved ineffective during Allied air raids, although the bunker towers did provide shelter for the civilian population. As so often with such massive construction projects, forced labour by POWs and concentration camp inmates was used in the creation of these brutes of concrete.’
Some of the towers were damaged in the conflict, and others were rebuilt for new purposes. The book reveals: ‘Visually most impressive is the pair in Augarten Park (Vienna), which still stand abandoned and unused. However, they are free-standing, without any neighbouring buildings, giving the best impression of their overwhelming size.’
It adds: ’The inside of the bunkers is not normally accessible and the entrances are sealed. There are no signs informing passers-by about the nature of these huge grey monsters, so they often generate puzzled looks on the part of people who encounter them for the first time.’
Bucharest in Southern Romania. Rating: 5/10
Hohenhaus says that the construction of the Palace of Parliament, pictured, ‘cost billions and crippled Romania’s economy’
‘The Romanian capital was once one of the grand metropolises of the East, but suffered badly during the Ceausescu regime.’ So writes Hohenhaus of Bucharest and the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was in power from 1965 to 1989.
The author says: ‘Allegedly inspired by a visit to North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, the dictator had a large part of Bucharest bulldozed to make way for socialist high-rises, especially along a new boulevard in the centre, at the top of which the most megalomaniacal of all Ceausescu’s construction projects was erected: the grandiose Palace of Parliament.’ Hohenhaus describes the building as an ‘orgy of marble, crystal chandeliers and gold fittings’ that ‘cost billions and crippled Romania’s economy’.
Ceausescu’s regime did not last. He explains: ‘When one after the other the communist regimes of the Eastern Bloc collapsed, the same thing happened in Romania, but in the least peaceful way of any of these “revolutions”. As protests and violence escalated, Ceausescu and his influential wife, Elena, fled the capital but were eventually captured, court-martialled and executed on Christmas Day 1989.’
Today, visitors can undertake guided tours of the Palace of Parliament, or can walk around the Piața Revoluției Square, where Ceausescu ‘gave his final speeches until he was booed off and had to flee by helicopter’.
Tourists can also visit the ‘former HQ of the feared secret security organisation Securitate’, which has since been converted into offices and a bar, and the graves of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, which are located in the city’s Ghencea cemetery.
Riga, central Latvia. Dark rating: 5/10
Salaspils Memorial is home to the ‘giant concrete statueuary’. It was once part of a concentration camp.
Hohenhaus writes: ‘The capital city of Latvia is a true gem in many ways, not least for its fabled Jugendstil (“art nouveau”) architecture, but also as a dark destination.’
He explains that when the Nazis invaded Riga, the city’s ‘sizeable Jewish community became a target of repression and extermination’. He says: ‘A ghetto was set up and some of the worst systematic massacres of Jews committed during the Holocaust took place on the outskirts of Riga.’
Describing what happened to the concentration camps in Riga after World War Two, Hohenhaus writes: ‘The site of the camp at Salaspils to the east of the city was given an eerie Soviet-style memorial with giant concrete statuary, but nothing remains of the original camp structure.’
At the end of the war, Latvia became a part of the Soviet Union again, and its people suffered ‘repression, surveillance and even deportation’, according to the author. Riga’s former KGB building is now a memorial museum and there is a deportation memorial in the city’s Torņakalns neighborhood, he says.
Hohenhaus observes that the ‘achievement of overcoming Soviet rule and regaining independence’ is ‘keenly celebrated in several museums, such as the People’s Front Museum and the 1991 Barricades Museum’. They are both located in the Old Town.
Chernobyl (north of Kiev), Ukraine. Dark rating 10/10
The control room at the shut-down Chernobyl nuclear power station – the site of the ‘worst nuclear accident in history’
Hohenhaus describes the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which took place on April 26, 1986, as the ‘worst nuclear accident in history’.
He says: ‘It took the authorities more than 24 hours to evacuate Pripyat, the town purpose-built in the 1970s for the NPP (nuclear power plant) staff and their families. The residents were instructed to only bring the essentials and an overnight bag. They were then taken out on buses in convoys, and never returned. Firefighters were called to the NPP but found it impossible to extinguish a burning core. Without any protective clothing, several received lethal doses of radiation.’
An ‘Exclusion Zone’ was subsequently declared around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the book reveals. It adds: ‘Although some elderly residents later returned, initially illegally but later tolerated, most of the settlements and towns in the “Zone” have remained depopulated ever since – of humans, that is. In humanity’s absence, wildlife has thrived, including wolves, elk, wild boar and Przewalski’s horses.’
Hohenhaus says: ‘If you can afford it, it is recommended to invest in a private Chernobyl guide or at least join a small-group tour, and it is best to go off-season.’ He adds: ‘No other place on Earth is so like time travel in both directions simultaneously – back to the Soviet past and forward to provide a glimpse of how a post-apocalyptic, post-civilisation future could look in which nature slowly reclaims what humanity built.’
The book states that the major stops of any tour are a visit “some parts of Pripyat”. You will find more information about Pripyat if you take longer trips (with overnight accommodations). By special arrangement you can also visit the inside of the NPP and see one or two of the control rooms and a reactor hall.’
National Chernobyl Museum, Podil district, Kiev, Ukraine. Dark rating: 8/10
Dummies in protective suits can be found in the National Chernobyl Museum, pictured, which is located in Kiev
‘Short of going on a tour to the real thing, this is the best place to learn about the Chernobyl disaster of 1986,’ says Hohenhaus.
According to the book the museum is located in an ex-fire station. Some Soviet cars are kept outside.
It explains: ‘The inside provides a good overview of the function of Chernobyl’s reactors, the accident, the clean-up operation, medical effects and the aftermath, with a special focus on children affected by the radiation.’
The exhibition rooms are ‘full of intriguing artefacts’, the book adds, as well as ‘models of the reactor before and after the explosion’. It notes that ‘dummies in protective suits hang from the ceiling’ and the ‘floor of the main hall is a recreation of the octagonal top of the Chernobyl type of reactor’.
Strategic Missile Base Pervomaisk is located between Kiev, Ukraine and Odessa (Ukraine). Dark rating: 8/10
An empty silo at Strategic Missile Base Pervomaisk for an SS-24 ICBM, that has ‘its lid permanently ajar.
Hohenhaus writes, “The star piece” is a decommissioned SS-18 ICBM (“Satan”) (pictured), which was the most powerful built in the USSR.
Pictured above is the base’s launch control centre (LCC) deep underground. There, visitors can experience ‘a simulated launch sequence’
Hohenhaus says: ‘This is a unique Soviet relic in the middle of Ukraine: a decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo and launch control centre.’
According to the author, this missile field – developed during the Cold War – had ‘ten SS-24 “Scalpel” ICBMs, each with ten thermonuclear warheads all programmed for targets in the West’.
Hohenhaus revealed that although all nuclear weapons had been removed from Ukraine, and their bases were destroyed in the Cold War, Pervomaisk was still home to some of the most dangerous nukes. He says ‘parts [of the base] have been preserved’, which includes ‘one empty ICBM silo, with its lid permanently ajar, and the base’s launch control centre (LCC) deep underground’.
Tours of the site include going down to the bottom of the shaft into the LCC for ‘a simulated launch sequence’, the book reveals. It reads: ‘The topside of the site is now an open-air exhibition of rockets, missile carriers and associated hardware. One of the stars is a retired SS-18 “Satan,” ICBM. It was the USSR’s largest ICBM. There is also a small indoor museum about the history of the base.’
According to the book, visitors who don’t have sufficient Russian or Ukrainian knowledge should arrange a tour with an English-speaking guide.
Sarajevo in the middle of South Bosnia. Dark rating: 8/10
Part of the ‘Tunnel of Hope’, which today ‘forms one of the prime tourist attractions’ in Sarajevo
Hohenhaus writes: ‘The capital city of Bosnia & Herzegovina suffered the longest siege in modern history during the Bosnian war of the 1990s: nearly four whole years, from 1992 to 1996. From the hills surrounding the city, Serbian forces bombarded it and shot at civilians seeking shelter. In total, over 10,000 Sarajevans were killed and the living conditions in the city were atrocious, yet the inhabitants carried on.’
According to the author, the citizens were helped by a tunnel that was dug underneath the airport to supply the city from the outside, which was known as the ‘Tunnel of Hope’. Today, it is a tourist attraction that has been preserved in part.
Elsewhere in the city, there are various ‘war-themed tours’ on offer, guiding travellers through the ‘so-called sniper alley in the west of the city, cemeteries of victims, the refurbished parliament building and the remaining war ruins’.
Hohenhaus says: ‘All over the city centre you can see the so-called Sarajevo Roses – shell scars in the pavement where people were killed that have been filled with red resin so that they look like splattered blood.’ The Sarajevo Siege section in the History Museum, the Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide, and the War Childhood Museum also shed light on the war.
Highlighting another key event in Sarajevan history, the book adds: ‘It was here that the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in 1914, which is widely regarded as having been the trigger that sparked World War One. At the site at the northern end of the Latin Bridge in the city centre is a small museum about the assassination and Sarajevo during the Austro-Hungarian era.’
Perm-36 Gulag Memorial, Northeast of Perm in the Urals region of Russia. Dark rating: 9/10
Perm-36 Gulag monument, shown in the photo, is one of only two original Gulag sites that have been converted into a permanent memorial.
Hohenhaus says that this site was established as a hard labor camp in 1946. He says: ‘Unlike most other camps it was not closed down after the end of Stalin’s rule but continued as a “correctional labour colony”.’ The camp was used from 1972 to 1987 as a place for political prisoners.
According to the author, today it’s the sole Gulag site which has been made into a monument for tourists. He reveals: ‘The memorial was originally run by an independent organisation, which got into trouble when Putin tightened up legislation and NGOs of this kind were declared “foreign agents”. It had been long listed as endangered and had to be closed down in 2015.
Since then, the state has taken control of running the memorial. Hohenhaus says: ‘After the takeover in 2015 there was much criticism in the West and among the Russian opposition that this was a political move to “sanitise” the dark history of the Gulag. Indeed, in the current exhibitions there is a stronger emphasis on “criminals” and “nationalists” (Ukrainians, say), but the fact that this was part of the Soviet system of political repression is by no means swept under the rug.‘
According to the book, the original independent exhibition has been ‘augmented by additional ones, including one on banned books and the reasons political prisoners were sent here’.
It adds that the site’s ‘main attraction’ is the ‘buildings themselves, including the cells, as well as the watchtowers and many fences around the two compounds – one the “strict” camp, the other the “special” (i.e. even stricter) camp’.
Stalin Museum, Gori (Georgia). Dark rating: 5/10
Stalin’s ‘preserved birth house’ on display at the Stalin Museum in Georgia, which Hohenhaus describes as a ‘unique relic’
The book revealed that the Stalin-death mask, (pictured), is ‘as sombre as possible’.
This museum was built in the town in which Stalin, ‘one of the most ruthless dictators in history’, was born.
Hohenhaus says that it’s surprising ‘that this shrine-like site survived de-Stalinisation in the USSR under Khrushchev after Stalin’s death in 1953′. He notes: ‘Even after the USSR’s collapse and Georgia becoming independent, it still survives to this day. This is an exceptional relic.
According to the author, the museum’s main exhibition has remained relatively unchanged since 1953 and celebrates Stalin ‘as a genius and hero’. ‘Displays include some of his clothes, furniture, gifts from other leaders and a Stalin death mask in a hall that is as sombre and over the top as can be,’ the book reveals.
It adds: ‘Unsurprisingly the bias at this museum has caused controversy. An additional section was added to the museum that reveals the dark side of Stalin: his purges, trials and deportations into Gulags. Outside are Stalin statues, his personal railway carriage and his preserved birth house.’
A-Bomb Dome, Central Hiroshima, Japan. Dark rating 10/10
The A-Bomb Dome, pictured, is ‘the gutted ruin of what was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall’. It was located 150m (450ft), from the epicentre of the nuclear bomb explosion.
‘This is the most iconic landmark of Hiroshima, and a symbol of the horrors brought by the atomic bomb that is recognised worldwide,’ says Hohenhaus of the A-Bomb Dome.
At 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. ‘About 70 per cent of the city was destroyed,’ says Hohenhaus, and 140,000 were killed overall, ‘according to a later independent estimate’.
The A-Bomb Dome is ‘the gutted ruin of what was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, built in 1915’. The book explains: ’It stood just 150m (450ft) from the hypocentre of the atomic bomb explosion; everybody inside was incinerated instantly. Its solid construction meant that the building did not collapse altogether.’
It adds: ‘The ruin is surrounded by a fence, so you cannot go inside, but it still emanates a sinister atmosphere when you stand by it. A few information panels around the site provide some background.’
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Central Hiroshima, Japan. Dark rating: 10/10
Pictured is an especially poignant exhibit at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the ‘scorched tricycle and helmet of a four-year-old victim of the Hiroshima bombing’
This museum ‘is the principal visitor attraction of Hiroshima and one of the world’s top dark-themed museums’, Hohenhaus notes.
He says: ‘Following a complete makeover, it reopened in 2019 with an all-new exhibition. The new design is visually gloomier than before but technologically state of the art, featuring multimedia and interactive elements.’
According to the book, artefacts on display include ‘the stone steps of a bank on which the shadow of a person who was vaporised in the blast is still visible’. Visitors can also see a wall that shows traces of ‘black rain’ – the ‘fallout that rained down from the mushroom cloud and that many injured people desperate for water drank, making their exposure to radionuclides even worse’.
An especially poignant exhibit is the ‘scorched tricycle and helmet of a four-year-old victim of the Hiroshima bombing’.
The book adds that the ‘historical, technological and medical contexts’ of the bombing are explained in depth in the museum.