6 of the strangest places in Europe

Ever wondered about the strangest places in Europe? Sure, Europe is full of beautiful and awe-inspiring sights and destinations, but thanks to its smorgasbord of cultures, histories and peoples, it is also home to some truly fascinating – and completely bizarre – places; many of which need to be seen to be believed.

Over the years, I been fortunate enough to travel a lot around Europe and during that time, I’ve come across some very odd places. Here are some of the strangest places in Europe.

6. Strange places in Europe: a ‘fake’ capital city

If Skopje in North Macedonia is known for one thing, it’s its inauthenticity… provided that is actually a word. While still a part of Yugoslavia, the city was devastated by a powerful earthquake destroying much of the historic city centre. Fast forward to the early 21st century and Skopje is now the capital of a little-known independent republic. In order to redevelop the city and bring international attention to the region, the government embarked on a controversial project named Skopje2014.

Essentially a frantic building spree, the project resulted in the frenziest construction of pompous neo-Greco buildings along the riverbank and the construction of statues to famous Macedonian figures in history. So many statues. The result being that the city centre now resembles the vision of a tyrannical dictator – more North Korea than Southern Europe.

Read more: Why I just couldn’t like Skopje

5. Strange places in Europe: two towns in one

Surely one of the strangest places in Europe (if not the world) is the town of Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau. The border between The Netherlands and Belgium criss-crosses madly throughout the town, creating pockets of Belgium within the Netherlands and vice versa, even dissecting streets, buildings and cutting houses down the middle.

The bizarre phenomenon means that this otherwise very normal town is actually two towns in one. Or, if you prefer: a town within a town.

Read more:  The Curious Case of Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau

4. Weird places in Europe: an Italian village in Wales

Portmeirion is probably most well-known for appearing in lists like this one. Designed and built by a wealthy (and I’m sure we can assume, fairly eccentric) architect, the village is modelled on an archetypal Italian village on the Mediterranean.  The only minor difference being that instead of the shores of the Med, the village is located in heart of North Wales. Finished in 1975, the ‘town’ has no residents, but is run like a hotel by a trust who charge a small fee for a day’s entry.

Portmeirion is also home to Festival No. 6 every September – a boutique festival of arts, culture and music that should definitely be on your bucket list.

Read more: 11 fairy-tale villages in Europe

3. Bizarre places in Europe: an abandoned city

I definitely couldn’t do a list on Europe’s oddest places without including this place. A city abandoned just eight years after its construction due to the worst nuclear disaster in history. Visiting Pripyat is an incredibly strange experience, but a fantastic way to see how life might be after a human catastrophe.

Exploring the abandoned buildings slowly being reclaimed by nature was chilling, but fascinating.

Read more: Embracing Dark Tourism: a day at Chernobyl

2. Strange places in Europe: a religious hill

If you sat and thought about what things you might expect to see in the rural Lithuanian countryside, I don’t think the Hill of Crosses would be one of them. In fact, it seems more like something out of The Wicker Man. The site is a place of great national and religious importance: crosses were placed here as a form of demonstration against the Soviet regime after numerous attempts to bulldoze the site and the Pope even visited in 1993, making the hill an important place of pilgrimage for Lithuanian Catholics.

Despite this, the hill is mightily creepy. The sheer number of crosses is staggering and coach loads of visitors show up daily to leave more.

Read more: Lithuania: the best country you’ve never been to

1. Strangest places in Europe: a fictional city come to life

Elista is, without a doubt, the weirdest city I’ve ever been to. Five hours drive from the nearest city, or train station, Elista is the capital of Kalmykia, or the Kalmyk Republic, in Southern-European Russia. It is the only Buddhist region in Europe, thanks to the ethnic Kalmyks, who make up around 57% of the population and can trace their ancestry back to Mongolia – something that is reflected in their language and their religion.

There is a huge new Buddhist temple on the outskirts of the city, aptly named The Golden Temple, and a beautiful pagoda in the town square, dwarfing the compulsory Lenin. There are other Buddhist motifs throughout the city, which makes you feel like you’ve suddenly taken a wrong turn and ended up in Asia.

But it gets stranger still.

The city’s other claim to fame is chess. Yes, chess. The Kalmyk Republic’s former president, Ilyumzhinov, was the head of the World Chess Federation until 2018. And handily, he’s also multi-millionaire. He brought the Chess Olympiad to Elista in 1998, making it an important centre for chess.

To illustrate this, there’s also a huge chess set in the main town square, which seemed pretty popular when we were there.

But wait – there’s more.

To host the 1998 competition, Ilyumzhinov ordered a huge compound to be built on the outskirts of the city to house visiting competitors and a state-of-the-art chess school. This area still has an immaculate suburban feel and is known as ‘Chess City’, or ‘New Vasyuki’.

And if that wasn’t enough… not far from the city is a statue of Ostap Bender and 12 chairs. This is a reference to the classic 1928 Soviet novel The Twelve Chairs, in which a con-man Ostap Bender finds himself in a city obsessed with chess and vows to build the population a state-of-the-art city solely for chess called… New Vasyuki.

…ring any bells?

So, to sum up: Elista is the only Buddhist city in Europe in a Republic within Russia populated by Mongol descendants ruled by an eccentric chess-loving billionaire, who built a city devoted to chess echoing the actions of a fictional con-man. Cool.

What strange places in Europe would you add to the list?