Dark Tourism in Prague - Term Paper Example

Dark Tourism Introduction Dark tourism is a phenomenon that has elements of post-modern, modern, and ancient horrific incidents. Dark tourism is any kind of travel associated with disaster, the macabre or death in a commercial form. Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic is one of the richest centers of dark tourism in Europe. Considering some of the horrific incidents from the past, it has established a number of sites with different interesting mysterious historical death stories. Examples of these dark tourist sites are Astronomical clock, spooky churches, out of the window, house of mystery and the worst room (Burmon, 2010). Astronomical clock It is an ancient dark tourist-attraction clock situated on the south wall of the ancient Town City Hall. Beside the clock is a skeleton that represent demise among gothic sculpture. Behind the astronomical clock is a horrific story of its creator. Jan Ruze, the creator of the clock is alleged to have been lynched horrifically. His eyes were gouged from their socket in order to stop him from creating a similar clock marvel around Europe (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 1998). Having no sight, he toppled himself into the clock wheels, rendering it functionless. Since then, the clock stopped working at his instant death for 100 years. It is due to this incident that the apostle seems to adorn the clock to date. After the clock’s dysfunction for over 100 year, Mikulas of Kadan and Jan Sinde formulated the astronomical dial and mechanics of the clock. To date the ticking clock is incredibly still in place and attracting dark tourists (Huyssen, 2003). Spooky church Despite the fact that most people do not associate churches with macabre, St. James the Greater proves to be the creepiest church in Prague. A thief‘s hand is believed to have been chopped off by a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary and which made him unable to walk. Worst, the chopped hand still hangs in the church. Out of the window It is an ancient site where the first victims of defenestration were lynched. For instance, Jan Zelivsky was lynched and thrown out via the window of the building. It is believed that the survivors were beaten to death. In the same incident, Tomas Masaryk was mysteriously found dead under his bathroom in 1948. He was murdered by communist loyalists then thrown out of his house via the window. House of mystery Faust’s house is located on the southern end of the square in which sinister event occurred in 1724. A man named Ferdinand Antonin Mladota bought the house after it had been in possession from many owners. Edward Kelly first bought the house in 1590. However, the most mysterious happenings took place after Ferdinand’s bought the house. Apparently, with his many mishap and convectional science experiments, he blew off the house roof, and eventually succumbed to the injuries incurred from the incident. The worst room in Prague It is a historic prison called Prague Pankrac. Inside the prison are skeleton, probably human, belonging to victims who died because of police brutality during the Nazi regime. The horrific gallows that Nazi police used to hand people was found in this house. It is believed that 155 women and 920 men were either hanged or guillotined in three special cells commonly known as Sekrarna within the house. To date, the Sekrarna are part of the Pankrac memorial and is occasionally opened to the public (Hallas, 2007). Purposes of the dark tourist sites Apart from tourist attraction, dark tourist sites serve a number of purposes. Generally, dark tourism has proved to be a generator of artwork. Through the historic political and social trauma, the public have identified an outstanding way to utilize and develop their artwork skills via artistic constructions. For instance, creating monuments depicting historic traumatic incidences such as skull carvings and statues displays extreme artistic wealth. The guerilla art group of Prague is embracing the idea in order to celebrate past and honor lives of past artists (Lennon & Malcolm, 2010). Historic sites serve as visual representation of the contemporary witnesses to horrific events and collective trauma in the past. For example, in the ‘Worst room in Prague’ skulls act as a contemporary representation of the brutal executions that happened in the prison during Nazi occupation. Similarly, by those representations, the traumatic occurrences in the past can be commemorated through dark tourism. Furthermore, dark tourism is exceptionally perceived as a medium for conveying cultural heritage and ethical massages to the society. In this case, historic horrific events such as genocide, massacres, and mysterious deaths, are evaluated. Thereafter, a clear message is derived concerning the vices that led to the incidences. A logical decision is derived which enlightens the community against performing certain things. In addition, dark tourism is also in existence to discourage fascism in the contemporary society (Philip, 2011). General overview The popularity of grisly massacre site all around the world have grown substantially in the recent years. Dark tourism has elicited debates and awareness has increased in television and social networks worldwide. Ultimately, dark tourism has motivated tourist exploration besides being a commodified factor of most tourism experience everywhere. Through dark tourism, all the horrific happenings that took place in the past have been uncovered (Carter, 2012). Therefore, it gives people a chance to witness to what it was like living in the oppressive regimes. Reasons for increased demand in dark tourism There is increasing demand and pressure from tourists to explore destinations where the most horrific events occurred. The main reason for this increased demand is the increased curiosity by the public to witness terrifying past events. Most people are becoming anxious about the realistic nature of most of the alleged horrific incidences; curiously, they would be interested in visiting respective incident sites to find more information by themselves (Edkins, 2003). As a result, they will prefer spending their vacations in recreational horrific sites such as chambers of former state prisons, homes of serial killers and nuclear disaster zones. Consequences of dark tourism to tourists Despite the pleasure moments of tourists travelling in horrific places, visitors are exposed to unpleasant experiences. For example, in Vietnam, tourists to the Cu Chi tunnels are invited to crawl inside while above the tunnel to give them an experience of what happened. Such experiences can be fun but dangerous to the lives of the tourists (Coldwell, 2013). In Latvia, the Karosta prison tourists are privileged to experience ancient brutal prison experiences at their own discretion. In this case, they are risking their own health and life since such prisons were fitted with poison cylinders. Literature review Dark tourism is defined as travel to places actually or symbolically associated with human suffering, misery, and deaths. Countries such as Czech Republic always perceive dark tourism as commodification of death and human past suffering or pains. Numerous sites such as old prisons, murder sites, old battlefields, and cemeteries are viewed as example of dark tourism. However, dark tourism has been criticized because it is believed it can lead to loss of the reliability of the area or site experience and elicits the issue of ethics and morality in operating such sites. Despite all these criticism, dark tourism is very essential since it helps tourists to understand the past, which can assist them to change societal perception about past life, and probably learn from it. Dark tourism is assisting people practicing it to act as a meaning system that replaces the void once occupied by past people such as kings and religious leaders. This in turn promotes self-identity in that people are able to celebrate their roots (Edkins, 2003). It is important to note that the demand of dark tourism is not only associated with human suffering and death but it also aims to depict the reasons why the place or area is associated with darkness. In addition, if a battlefield is of great significance to the people engaging in it, more resources will be channeled towards it in terms of destructive power and lives in addition to media coverage (Philip, 2011). This will instead cause more suffering and deaths thus making it a dark site but because of importance of the battlefield and its exposures, it receives general public awareness via media and word of mouth, which makes people more interested in visiting and experiencing the site, and learning about events that took place. Conclusion Dark tourism is clearly an important aspect in the tourism industry as it not only provides revenue for the country, but also assists in commemorating important historical aspects in the society. It is generally like a mirror reflecting the image of the global society, reminding it of the current situation in comparison to the horrific situation in the past. Therefore, the global community should positively embrace dark tourism. References Burmon, A, 2010, Dark Tourism. Cambodia tries to turn its bloody history into a sightseeing boom, 306 (1), pp. 34-35. Carter, L. (2012). My Lai Revisited, 159 (13), PP.19-20. Coldwell, W, 2013, Dark tourism: Why murder sites and disaster zones are proving popular with travelers. Guardian News and Media limited. Edkins, J, 2003, Trauma and the Memories of Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hallas, R, 2007, The image and the Witness: Trauma, Memory and Visual Culture. Columbia: Wallflower Press. Huyssen, A, 2003, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. California: Stanford University Press. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, B, 1998, Destination Culture: Tourism Museums and Heritage. California: University of California Press. Lennon, J. and Malcolm, F, 2010, Dark Tourism. Michigan: Continuum International Publishing Group limited Philip, R. (2011). The commodification of Death: A Reflection on dark tourism research, education media interest, 36(1), pp. 22-26. Read More