Inside abandoned theme park with knock-off Disney castle left to rot after actor was KILLED on stage

8 months ago 4

ARTICLE AD BOX

A CREEPY theme park with a knock-off Disney castle has been left abandoned for over a decade.

Sitting in Netherlands, Het Land van Ooit, or the Land of Once was once the country’s most popular adventure attraction for the Dutch people.

Giant Dan was an eye-catcher back in the day[/caption]

People visiting the theme park with children in the ’90s[/caption]

A statue of Napolean and his army at the Battle of Waterloo in the theme park[/caption]

However, it soon became an eerily abandoned site filled with rot and dust.

Haunting pictures show the crumbling fate of the park with a knock-off Disney castle and spooky figurines.

The theme park was founded by Marc Taminiau in 1989 – and was meant to be a perfect children’s theme park.

With people and props all playing a part in the magical stories made for the park, little children were the kings of the castle.

The entire park was built around the theme of knights – and a dramatic fight between four armoured soldiers was staged every day.

But things took a wrong turn after an actor who played the role of the “black knights” tragically died after getting stabbed in a live play.

Soon, the number of visitors started to decline as the park received less attention from its administrators.

The boss of the theme park soon founded a similar theme park in Belgium, which turned out to be a major financial fiasco.

Despite Taminiau’s many attempts, the bosses failed to make the theatrical fairy-tale park a success again.

And in 2007, it finally shut its doors after facing a string of issues.

Little remains of the derelict theme park that was once the country’s most popular adventure attraction

But the pink castle, which has now faded down to its original brick colour, still stands.

Beside the main building, the Battle of Waterloo – a marsh filled with statues of French soldiers – remains to be the biggest eye-catcher.

The statues originally stood inside a fountain that slowly made the soldiers disappear.

Legend has it that when Napoleon and his army travelled through the Land of Ooit, a dark magician cast a spell on the fleet of fighters, turning them into rock.

After being sold at an auction for a loss, parts of the abandoned theme park including the castle have been repurposed by the local government and turned into a public park.

Visitors can now go and see what once stood as a dream destination for Dutch kids.

Meanwhile, a theme park that was supposed to be Japan’s version of Disneyland has been left to rot for over a decade.

Nara Dreamland was supposed to be the country’s most popular adventure attraction, but all it could become was an eerily abandoned site filled with rot and dust.

The theme park was opened in 1961 and was based on the original Disneyland in California, which had opened just six years before.

The theme park was heavily copied from the California-based site – it featured copies of Main Street USA, Sleeping Beauty Castle, Autopia, Matterhorn and Jungle Cruise.

From the above, the layout of the park seemed identical to that of the original Disneyland – even the entrance castle looked the same.

The park also had its own mascots Ran-chan and Dori-chan – just like Disney’s Mickey Mouse – which were two children dressed as bearskin guards.

But after The Walt Disney Company closed a deal to bring its theme park to Japan, things started to fall apart for Nara.

As the Tokyo Disneyland opened its gates in 1983, visitors to Nara slowly began to decrease since most people wanted to visit the original site.

Nara finally shut down its gates in 2006 – and was eventually demolished in 2016 for good.