Mereja

Author: hross and Dylan

  • Castle Town Ghost Town

    Image of Castle Town Ghost Town located in Castle Town, Montana, US

    Castle Town Ghost Town

    Mining town from the late 1890s, once home to Calamity Jane

    The first mine regiestred was the North Carolina mine in 1884, but within the next 7 years, 991 claims had been made.
    The main street of Castle, incorporated in 1891 with a population of about 1,500 people, the result of the influx of miners, and the barkeeps and prostitutes which provided them with services should they have a good day in the mine. Like many other mine towns, the silver panic of 1893 caused the town to die a rapid death.
    The best-known one time resident of Castle Town was Martha Jane Cannary Burke, or as she is better known Calamity Jane. A frontierswoman, alcoholic, Indian fighter, sometimes prostitute, she came to Castle to open a restaurant, determined to lead a lady-like existence. This didn’t work out too well and she eventually returned to the boom-town of Deadwood in the Black Hills.
    Today once can still see the remains of the town, and the open rock basement is the remains of what was once the baker’s general store and post office. Berg’s meat market and Kidd’s furniture store was across the street and on the far hill side was Minnie’s sporting house.
    Castle Townsite is located on private lands, and permission is required for access.

    Read more about Castle Town Ghost Town on Atlas Obscura…

    Category: Ghost Towns
    Location: Castle Town, Montana, US
    Edited by: hross, Dylan

  • Arthouse Tacheles

    Image of Arthouse Tacheles located in Berlin, Germany

    Arthouse Tacheles

    An old department store turned Nazi prison turned artist commune

    “Tacheles” is an old Jewish word meaning to disclose, to reveal or to speak clearly. The slang meaning of the word was to bring something to an end.
    Located in former East Berlin, the Art-Centre Tacheles is situated in a ruin in Berlin Mitte. The building itself was the entrance of the Friedrichstadt-Passage, a huge shopping mall built in 1907 and the area, a Jewish quarter in the past, has become a meeting point for people interested in arts and culture.
    Within a relatively short time of its 1907 opening the department store went bankrupt, and in 1928 the house was taken over by AEG, which founded the Haus der Technik, a display and marketing space for their products. In World War II parts of the building were used by the Nazi Party, and on the 5th floor French prisoners of war were detained.
    Partly damaged but not completely destroyed during the war, after 1948, one side of the building was slowly torn down, step-by-step, as the East Berlin government had no funds to restore it properly. Eventually the site became just a storage for building material. The very last structure still standing was planned to be demolished in April 1990. Which very well may have happened, if not for the artists.
    In February of 1990 the building was discovered and taken over by a group of young artists from all over the world. After the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, a subculture which had its main focus on autonomy, spontaneity and improvisation arose in former East Berlin areas Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain. Artists and individualists from all over the world used the plurality of available free spaces to put alternative lifestyles to the test.
    Due to the individualistic character of the building and the mass of creative activities taking place, the Tacheles soon became famous. Many international artists staged performances or concerts here, exhibited paintings, sculptures and installations.
    Tacheles also attained recognition from the Berlin government and receives a varying amount of subsidy every year in order to help finance a part of its many projects. Other money is raised through commercial enterprises such as the cinema and the bar.

    Read more about Arthouse Tacheles on Atlas Obscura…

    Category:
    Location: Berlin, Germany
    Edited by: hross, Dylan