Let me begin with what I believe ought to be AT the VERY top, or at least in the top 5.

The Crypt of the Capuchins in Rome [sadly, never been there!] Counter-Reformation Catholic death-obsession at its ghastly BEST!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capuchin_Crypt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlK0frpbh5s

-- Wed Apr 07, 2010 9:53 am --

Next are the catacombs of Palermo, Sicily:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/ ... /gill-text

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/ ... hotography

A nice way to keep mum and dad close to your heart: it's as if they never left us at all!


[Who'd a thunk it! We Italians may well be the darkest, gothiest folks in Europe, contrary to the popular image of the nation!]


And the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otJPAUoB5TI&NR=1

What a fun topic, Annwn! I'll add to the list all of the places featured on the History Channel's wonderful series called Cities of the Underworld. You can buy this series on DVD or borrow it from your public library (if your public library doesn't have it, ask them to get it).



Many of these places aren't normally open to visitors because of the danger involved underground. So, this series is perhaps your best chance of seeing these amazing places – unless you're game for doing a lot of traveling and trespassing.

-- Nephele

Ha! don't need to tell me!

I've watched just about EVERY episode!

Paris and Rome have the most obviously fascinating ones.

But I was surprised to learn about how interesting Edinburgh's was!

These are the gothiest places to me:

1. Alcatraz
2. St. Augustine.
3. Arlington Cemetary
4. Stone Hendge
5. Rome
6. Greece
7. Ancient City of the Mayans
8. Any and all Medieval Castles
9. Mt. Kilawaya in Hawaii

10: My grandmother's back yard at night. She has a very large property, and I lve to go out their at night, lay down on the grass and just look up at the stars. Corny, yeah maybe- but once there there is no place else I would rather be in whole world.

Hmm. St Augustine, you mean in Florida? It never struck me as particularly gothy. Mostly it just seems like... a little Spanish city that someone accidently dropped in Florida.

Just speaking of the places I've been, I've got a great fondness for ruins in general, but since my mind associates them with weekend family picnics, it's hard for me to automatically tag them as 'goth'. The city of Ephesus in Turkey was pretty cool, as was the little Necropolis outside it.

I'll certainly agree on Rome and Stone Hendge, but gotta rank Pompai as pretty much the 'gothiest' place I've ever personally visited.

Greenwood cemetery in New York comes to mind, you won't find many cemeteries in the north east with such a concentration of cared-for victorian architecture, sculptures and tiffany stain glass windows. I've been dying to take a drive out there and spend a week just walking around.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mount Moriah cemetery in Philadelphia is a place I've wanted to visit for a year or so now. Located in one of the worst parts of Philadelphia, the cemetery was in its day one of the most elaborate in PA and had its own subway stop but sometime after WW2 it pretty much became abandoned. The cemetery hasn't been cared for, for many years. The overgrowth has covered up virtually everything in the cemetery, save for a few spots by the road where the grass is still cut, and one of the military plots. If you want pictures of a post-apocalyptic Victorian cemetery, this is the one you'd want to go to. Closer to the road it's still actively used, mostly by the families of philly violence victims who can't afford to bury their dead anywhere else. Today the cemetery is a safe heaven for gangs, drug dealers, and thieves. Stolen cars are dumped there, and the crime presence is so bad even the police are afraid to try to go in it. I've wanted to go in the early spring or fall some time, when there are no leaves on the vegetation covering up all the headstones, mausoleums, and statues. But, I have been putting the trip off because I am not sure I want to roll the dice with the crime in that particular area, and would probably need a machete just to walk around some of the inner parts of the cemetery (would it be legal to walk around chopping up overgrowth in a cemetery?).

I'm also going to have to say Bolt Castle in NY. Built by a Victorian hotel tycoon, Bolt wanted a nice gift for his wife so he bought an island on the st lawrence, had it painstakingly shaped into a heart, and then set to work having a castle build, a smaller castle-like structure for the children, and another to house the generators. But the wife died not too long after construction started, so Bolt had all the workers drop what they were doing and leave. The island was abandoned exactly as it was when the wife had died, then with the world wars the buildings were gutted for scrap metal, then after that vandals started to have their way with the place. When I visited, several years ago, they hadn't really started to restore anything yet. All of the buildings were empty, the walls walls were covered with the writing left by vandals, there was no lighting at all in the basement with the big indoor pool (I can't remember if at that point the pool was still littered with parts from the castle that had been dumped there or not). By chance on that visit there was almost no one around the island other than the employees so it had a very cold, loneliness atmosphere. But now it's a tourist spot, and the people who run the island are set on, not just restoring it, but finishing the construction that Bolt had given up on. I've visited it a couple times in more recent years and it is like going to a whole other place. Many of the walls have been repainted, the plaster has been restored, the elevator is no longer a series of open holes you can walk into to fall to your death. Still, it is a pretty place.

Someone should mention Highgate, anyone here been there?

All of these responses and no one has mentioned New Orleans. Anyone who's ever read Anne Rice should be dying (pun intended) to go there and see where she got her inspiration for the vast majority of her writings.

Not to mention the Haunted History Tours, all the cemeteries, the voodoo and the shopping.

~spidey, who has been many times and wants to go again

Good mention, Sgath! While Greenwood is in Brooklyn, another grand olde NYC cemetery is Woodlawn in the Bronx. I'm a member of the Friends of Woodlawn Cemetery, and one of the perks I get with membership is access to a number of mausoleums that aren't open to the general public. On Halloween night (and a few other nights in October) Woodlawn does open up its crypts for special guided tours.

To see some really beautiful Tiffany glass in mausoleums, NYC's Calvary Cemetery (in Queens) is a great place to tour. I especially like the mausoleum for Texas Guinan, the infamous madam saloon-keeper of Prohibition Era NYC. (And, yes, the name "Guinan" for Whoopi Goldberg's Star Trek saloon-keeper character was inspired by Texas Guinan.)

Spidey, I'd heard that the cemetery in New Orleans is probably one of the most dangerous places in the nation as far as crime goes. But then, they'd told me that about Westminster Burying Ground in Baltimore, but when I made a pilgrimage to E.A. Poe's grave it was without incident. Maybe I picked the right time of day to be lucky.

-- Nephele

I mention St. Augustine (In FLorida) for its historical value and haunted past.
I should also Mention Xanthos. I read about them once and was entralled by their fate. Though what i read was much more interesting that how Wiki makes it sound.

Also, I would say the Taj Mahal, if for no other reason that the thought behind it.

I heard that St. Augustine is an architectural treasure house and is a lot like Savannah, Ga. in its antique, long-lived atmosphere.

Isn't it the oldest city in North America, even older than Quebec City? [another gothy place]

Abney Park Cemetery, anyone?

I also would really love to visit Notre Dame de Paris before I die. Then there's the Catacombs of Rome and Italy (already mentioned), King Mary's Close, those tunnels where the Hellfire Club met, all the places that Jack the Ripper was spotted, this island near Scicily where plague victims where shipped to die, Hunedoara Castle in Transylvania, and this really creepy as hell house somewhere in my city (I'll take a pic later). Every town has its Boo Radley house, so why not make a spectacle of it and earn some paper at the expense of some poor, elderly hermit that lives in seclusion in the house along the way?

I'm not really specific; I just watch a lot of haunted Travel Channel shows.

I've found that a lot of actively-preserved Victorian cemeteries allow the public into the mausoleums, chapels, and other structures if you can corner a sympathetic employee and ask about access on an individual basis (obviously they can't just leave places unlocked with the way vandals have at things). It can be pretty hit or miss though. And occasionally you'll run into a cranky groundskeeper who doesn't even like people so much as visiting cemeteries to take photographs, but the worst they can do is say no so it doesn't hurt to ask.

Ah, yeah, I forgot about the haunted business.

I kept visiting at the wrong time of year to hit the haunted tours.



Yeah, it is.

During my first cruise we had a history teacher on board to offer some college courses. In an attempt to demonstrate how history books don't always give the full, or even true, story, he asked the class, "What's the oldest continuously occupied city in the US?" As one, we answered, "Saint Augustine."

He gave us a very baffled look for a moment, then said, "Aaaah. Florida ship. You know I get a different answer from ships stationed out of Norfolk." (Apparently they tend to answer Jamestown. )

It was founded in 1565. My husband and I spent the day there yesterday. We go there as much as possible (it is about 30-45 minutes away). It is one my favorite places in the world and very beautfiul. I only went to Savannah once when I was a young girl, but i have heard of its appeal as well.

I've been there. It smelled horrible in a really subtle way.

If any of you end up in Dublin at any stage let me know in advance and I can show you the park which is bordered on one side by the street where Bram Stoker lived while writing Dracula. There's other stuff, but it's all been wrapped up in pay-to-play silliness.