Top 3 Halloween Destinations in Europe

Maybe it’s fate that I was asked to write about what I’d consider the top Halloween destinations in Europe, since I have such an affinity for things like crypts and cemeteries.

Fate or not, I’m happy to tell you why I think these three cities are some of the best for travelers who love the spookier side of things.

It may be worth noting, however, that these three cities didn’t make the list because they have some big Halloween celebration every year, or because there’s some kind of haunted house in any of them. In fact, Halloween just isn’t a big deal in Europe. Throughout my travels, I’ve seen elements of the holiday creeping in here and there – jack o’lanterns decorating a few front windows, scary movies being shown on October 31st – but those sorts of things are few and far between (and, at least in my experience, primarily in the U.K.).

Instead, the three cities I think are the best places to spend Halloween in Europe make the grade because I just feel like they exude a splendidly creepy quality year-round. Which is a bonus if you can’t make it in time for Halloween this year.

• Halloween in Rome

As far as I’m concerned, any city that’s housed as many people over the millenia as Rome has is bound to have some scary corners. Just walking through the Colosseum and thinking of the countless gladiators who fought and died there is enough to give you the creeps. But Rome’s got more going for it than a city full of ghosts that you may or may not believe in – it’s got bones, too.

Like many other cities in Europe, Rome has catacombs which have become tourist attractions. There are more than 40 different catacombs in Rome, many of which you can visit, that served as the main burial places for the ancient Romans for centuries. They’re artistically interesting as well as slightly unnerving, if you’re into that kind of thing.

But perhaps the most famous collection of bones in Rome is at the Cappuccin Crypt, where you’ll make a small donation to get an up-close-and-personal look at five tiny chapels decorated (and I do mean decorated) with the bones of more than 4,000 Cappuccin monks. And just in case you forget that the “wallpaper” is made of the human bones of thousands of dead people, the message in the last chapel should send a chill down your spine: “As you are, we once were. As we are, you shall be.”

Rome hotel near the Colosseum: Bed & Breakfast Santiquattro Al Colosseo

• Halloween in Paris

Paris is known as the “City of Lights,” but there’s a dark side to the French capital, too. And as you’ll soon see, that dark side has been drawing tourists for more than 200 years.

One of the more well-known tourist attractions in Paris is a cemetery, but it’s not just any cemetery. Père Lachaise is the kind of cemetery where they actually sell a road map at the entrance, with points of interest marked. Those points of interest? Graves of famous people – like Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison. But despite the pretty tree-lined “avenues” of Pere Lachaise, it still positively screams “spooky” to me. I mean, those tree-lined “avenues” aren’t punctuated by houses, they’re punctuated by tombs. Of dead people. Plus, any cemetery for which you need a map is a cemetery you could get lost in. Enough said.

I’ve already mentioned Rome’s Catacombs, but there’s something even scarier to me about the Paris Catacombs. They were opened in the late 18th century in order to move the city’s cemeteries away from the living, and became a tourist attraction less than a century later. But most disconcerting in my opinion is the maze-like quality of the catacombs – there are more than 300km of tunnels full of bones, and you could quite literally get lost in them. If getting lost in a maze of the bones of more than 6 million people doesn’t make your pulse race, you might already be dead yourself.

Hotel near Paris catacombs: Hotel du Lion

• Halloween in Prague

I love the creep-out factor of Rome and Paris (and, really, of several other places in Europe, too), but I think my favorite spooky city in Europe has to be Prague. And this time it’s not just about cemeteries and bones.

Prague is home to one of the coolest cemeteries I know of – the Old Jewish Cemetery in the Old Town Jewish ghetto. It’s not the scariest of cemeteries, as it’s compact and almost always crowded, so you’re not likely to get lost or feel abandoned, but the collection of tombstones is unsettling in its haphazardness. The stones are toppling in every-which-way, largely because the Jews were forced to bury their dead in layers after being given only a small parcel of land as a cemetery. To give you an indication of how gloomy the cemetery must have been decades ago, Czech author Franz Kafka used to hang out in the cemetery just to think.

Just outside Prague is one of the best-known ossuaries - or bone churches – in the world. The Sedlec Ossuary sits underneath a church and, like the Cappuccin Crypt in Rome, it’s not just piles of bones but bones used as interior decor. At Sedlec, the “artist” got quite creative – a local family’s coat of arms is on one wall, an enormous working chandelier hangs from the ceiling in the center of the chapel, and near the stairway he even left his signature and the date of his work – all in human bones.

But the thing that makes Prague my pick for the top Halloween destination in Europe is the city’s Old Town Square. By day you might focus more on the pastel-painted buildings or the hordes of tourists following flag-toting guides. But even on the brightest summer day there’s no denying that the Gothic Týn Cathedral that peers over the square from behind another building is downright menacing. It still looks to me like it’d be the perfect place for the bad guy’s lair in some Batman movie. And at night? Sure, it’s lit up and could be considered pretty, but those lights aren’t fooling anybody. One look at those pointy black spires will tell you all you need to know.

Hotel in Prague’s Jewish Quarter: Hotel President

Photo of Rome’s Catacombs by jimforest

Topic:  Tips and Ideas | 0 Comments
Tags:  Halloween, Paris, Prague, Rome

About the author

Jessica Spiegel is a writer at the BootsnAll Travel Network who has a passion for all things Italy. She writes BootsnAll's Italy travel guide, and is planning a move to The Boot. She swears it's not just for the gelato and shopping.