Abandoned amusement parks offer a unique glimpse into the past, telling fascinating stories of innovation and ambition to decline and unrealized dreams. From Pripyat Amusement Park near Chernobyl to the unfinished Fantasy World in the Philippines, these are five of the most fascinating abandoned amusement parks around the world.
Fantasy World – Lemery, The Philippines
Known colloquially as the “Disneyland of the Philippines,” Fantasy World was a highly anticipated amusement park originally slated to open in 2005. Nestled in the hills of Lemery, its colorful, multiturreted medieval-style castle still stands out as an unexpected sight in the Philippines, drawing visitors from near and far — even though the park never actually opened.
The builders behind the venture initially envisioned a members-only amusement park, but the plans expanded to include a resort theme park. However, due to financial hardships, the park was left incomplete. Despite the financial setback, the park eventually opened as an attraction showcasing what could have been.
The castle’s stairs are open to climb, offering panoramic views of the lush landscape surrounding the walls, and a bridge allows visitors to cross into a treehouse. The park also serves as a popular backdrop for professional photo shoots. Although Fantasy World’s debut didn’t go as planned, it reinvented itself as a unique, abandoned attraction.
Western Village – Nikko, Japan
The aptly named Western Village was a Western-themed amusement park located near Nikko, a city of around 77,000 people in Japan’s Tochigi Prefecture. Opened in 1973, the park was inspired by American and Italian Western films, as well as the 1973 sci-fi film Westworld, which featured evil robots attacking visitors. At its peak, the strange yet fascinating park attracted over 1 million visitors annually and was occasionally used as a film set.
However, its popularity eventually declined, and by 2007, the park closed its doors. Since its closure, Western Village has attracted tourists who are now drawn to the eerie environment. They wander through the park’s iconic Mount Rushmore replica and its Main Street with a general store, barber shop, saloon, and sheriff’s office. Each building is still filled with unsettlingly lifelike cowboys and cowgirls, and the park’s eerie atmosphere is underscored by robot figures who are frozen in place and appear as though they could come to life at any moment.
Park Albanoel – Brazil
Located approximately 50 miles outside Rio de Janeiro in Itaguaí, Park Albanoel is a Christmas-themed attraction created by Antonio Albano Reis, a well-known politician affectionately dubbed “the Santa Claus of Quintina” for his tradition of dressing as Santa each Christmas. The park was planned to span over 300 million square feet and was designed to feature everything from water slides to a Wild West-themed town and a concert hall.
Construction started in 2000, but the project halted when Reis tragically died in a car crash near the park in 2004. Only the Santa-themed section was finished, and the park was open to the public for just a few years before the rest of its construction ceased. Today, Park Albanoel stands abandoned and is slowly being overtaken by nature. The Santa attractions are now rusting and decaying, while the surrounding jungle, complete with a beautiful waterfall, gradually reclaims the land.
The Enchanted Forest – Maryland
The abandoned Hansel and Gretel house in the woods of Maryland is one of the most beloved relics of the Enchanted Forest, once one of the oldest theme parks in the U.S. Opened in 1955 by the Harrison family in Ellicott City, 15 miles west of Baltimore, the park was inspired by favorite nursery rhymes of the era. The Harrisons sold their hotel business to fund the project and hired Baltimore-based artist Howard Adler to bring their vision to life.
Alongside a 10-person team, Adler crafted all of the park’s attractions — such as Willie the Whale, Old Woman’s Shoe, Alice in Wonderland, and Cinderella’s pumpkin coach — in a Baltimore shop using chicken wire, paper-mache, and a fiberglass-style material known as silastic. The park was a hit, and it flourished for five decades before its popularity declined and it closed in the 1990s.
The park lay abandoned until 2004, when community members formed the Friends of the Enchanted Forest and moved the attractions a few miles down the road to Clark’s Elioak Farm in Howard County, where they are still on display today. Visitors can wander among these charming relics and be transported back to the whimsical world of the former theme park in its heyday in the 1950s and ’60s.
Pripyat Amusement Park – Pripyat, Ukraine
The grand opening of Pripyat Amusement Park was originally slated for May 1, 1986, to coincide with the city’s May Day celebrations. However, the park’s debut was tragically cut short by the Chernobyl disaster, which struck just a few miles away on April 26, 1986. Although it never opened to the public, Pripyat Amusement Park boasted an 85-foot-tall Ferris wheel, bumper cars, swing boats, and a paratrooper ride, among other attractions.
Today, the abandoned park — particularly the forlorn Ferris wheel — stands as an eerie symbol of the catastrophe that unfolded nearby. Planned as a vibrant place of family fun, the park rests, never to be used, in the heart of the still-contaminated Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ). What was once a symbol of joy has now become a haunting reminder of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
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