A Virtual Journey through the World’s Horror Spots, Stop 1

A few days ago, I was just relaxing after a heavy meal and was starting to surf Google Earth, when I hit upon an idea that might be entertaining to my followers in the blogosphere.  Why not visit the locations of famous horror novels or historical figures via Google Earth?   I would only be trying to fool myself and you if I were to say that I would do this with any regularity.  I can say that I shall do it as the spirit moves me, which may or not be frequently.   Let me know what you think of the idea.  I encourage you to try the same with the horror locations that you know.   My first stop is at Cachtice (pronounced Chahk-teet-se) Castle, in present-day Slovakia, which was the home of the “Blood Countess”, Elizabeth Bathory, who is said to have tortured and murdered around 650 young girls circa 1600-1610.   I won’t go into a detailed biography of her here.  I have mentioned her in at least a couple of posts already and her biography can easily be found by surfing the Internet.  I do caution you to try to find good, authoritative sources of information about her.   Unfortunately, crap is pervasive throughout the “net” and a legendary figure from 400 years ago is apt to have more than the average share of strange ideas, rumors, falsehoods, mistakes, and outright lies. The Google image above is not of the highest quality.  I think this one has recently replaced one that was much better.  For a better view of the castle, I am providing this terrific view by Civertan from Wikimedia Commons:

The advantage of Google Earth though is that you can view a location from an infinite number of angles and even from street level (unfortunately this option is not available for Cachtice) and view photos visitors have taken of the location.  To find Cachtice, you will, of course, have to search for “Cachtice”.  This will take you to the village of Cachtice.  Look to the Northwest and you will find a smaller village called “Visnove”.  Just southeast of Visnove is a hill with a castle. That’s it.   See the diagram I have attached below for more details.

I hope you enjoy your virtual visit to one the world’s more infamous hellholes.