• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

Europa Point

  
   - darkometer rating: 4 -
  
The southernmost spot of the peninsula that is Gibraltar. It's the location of the current Sikorski monument as well as a restored historic coastal gun battery.  
More background info: See under Gibraltar in general.
   
Note that this is not the southernmost spot of Europe on the Iberian peninsula – that's Punta de Tarifa in the province of Cadiz, Spain, some 15 miles (25 km) further west.
  
Gibraltar's always played an important military role, due to its location at the entrance to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic – and hence its southernmost point has been fortified since times immemorial.
  
Today, there's a restored British coastal artillery bastion called Harding's Battery. The original one had been taken away in WWII when it was replaced with anti-aircraft guns. But from 2010 the original 38-ton 12.5 inch cannon has been reinstated.
  
The lighthouse close by was built between 1838 and 1841 (automated since 1994). And Europa Point is also the location of Gibraltar's only mosque, as well as the new University of Gibraltar.
  
   
What there is to see: The main tourist attraction visitors come to Europa Point for – other than that of standing at the peninsula's southernmost spot – is to see the restored Harding's Battery, a coastal artillery bastion, originally built in the mid-19th century. This was recently restored and reopened in 2011, with a big shiny historic cannon as the centre piece.
  
In the ammunition stores underground, there's also a small exhibition featuring some text panels and a few dummy artillery soldiers in period outfits as well as an audio station. It's more for military history buffs, but may be worth a look for general visitors too. The exhibition also has bits about natural history and flora and fauna.
   
But from a more specific dark-tourism perspective, the main thing to come to Europa Point for is the Sikorski memorial. This commemorates the then Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile during WWII, General Władysław Sikorski, who died in a mysterious plane crash shortly after take-off from Gibraltar in July 1943.
   
The current memorial is actually the third version, after an initial modest plaque installed in 1945 and an earlier memorial monument located at the airfield. The current design is Polish-made but incorporates the original propeller of the crashed B-24 Liberator plane that had already been part of the second memorial. Other than that there are a few plaques and a wall made from Polish sandstone. This memorial was inaugurated in 2013. Given the grave historic significance of the death of Sikorski (for Poles at least) this is quite a pilgrimage destination!
   
   
Location: right at the southernmost point of Gibraltar, ca. 2.5 miles (4 km) south of the Old Town centre.
  
Google maps locator: [36.1095, -5.3461]
   
   
Access and costs: A bit out of town, but easy enough to get to by car or taxi; free.
  
Details: To get to Europa Point from Gibraltar Town or other busier parts of Gibraltar, it's easiest to drive there, if you have a (hire) car, or else get a taxi. In theory the distance would be walkable too, but the lower parts of Europa Road wouldn't be fun to walk along, given the lack of a proper pavement. So driving it is. There's a large car park between the mosque and the playground a few steps north of Harding's Battery and the Sikorski memorial. Note that in strong winds the swell rolling in from the sea can cause waves to crash over the eastern battlements sending salt-water spray over the car park! It might be advisable to bring an umbrella and to hose down your car to clean away the salt afterwards.
   
   
Time required: not long, less than 20 minutes should easily do.
   
   
Combinations with other dark destinations: see under Gibraltar in general.
   
   
Combinations with non-dark destinations: the main thing is the view over the sea and, weather permitting, over to the coast of Morocco, Northern Africa. The lighthouse – a classic picture-book-perfect example of a red-and-white ringed tower is also quite pretty. And of course it's also worth turning round and marvelling at the soaring height of the rock rising from the rather flat land of Europa Point to the north.
   
See also under Gibraltar in general.
 
   
  
   
  • Europa Point 01 - big gun and big rockEuropa Point 01 - big gun and big rock
  • Europa Point 02 - Harding BatteryEuropa Point 02 - Harding Battery
  • Europa Point 03 - you can go insideEuropa Point 03 - you can go inside
  • Europa Point 04 - info and dummiesEuropa Point 04 - info and dummies
  • Europa Point 05 - illuminated dummyEuropa Point 05 - illuminated dummy
  • Europa Point 06 - heavy artilleryEuropa Point 06 - heavy artillery
  • Europa Point 07 - pointing out to seaEuropa Point 07 - pointing out to sea
  • Europa Point 08 - restoration infoEuropa Point 08 - restoration info
  • Europa Point 09 - new Sikorsky memorialEuropa Point 09 - new Sikorsky memorial
  • Europa Point 10 - quite recentEuropa Point 10 - quite recent
  • Europa Point 11 - at the crossroads to AfricaEuropa Point 11 - at the crossroads to Africa
  • Europa Point 12 - mosqueEuropa Point 12 - mosque
  • Europa Point 13 - the Rock from the southEuropa Point 13 - the Rock from the south
  • Europa Point 14 - soon to be home to Gib UniEuropa Point 14 - soon to be home to Gib Uni
  • Europa Point 15 - the lighthouseEuropa Point 15 - the lighthouse
  • Europa Point 16 - being battered by storm wavesEuropa Point 16 - being battered by storm waves
  • Europa Point 17 - sending spray all over the headlandEuropa Point 17 - sending spray all over the headland
  • Europa Point 18 - looking out to sea in less stormy weatherEuropa Point 18 - looking out to sea in less stormy weather
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

 

 

© dark-tourism.com, Peter Hohenhaus 2009-2023

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