Spreepark, an abandoned amusement park located in the outskirts of Berlin, Germany, has been listed for sale for $2.22 million on eBay.
Originally known as the Kulturpark Plänterwald (derived from the neighborhood's name), it was built in 1969 by the communist East German government. It was the only amusement park in East and West Germany at that time, reports Gizmodo.
According to Atlas Obscura, it was purchased by Norman Witte, a famous German showman in 1991. He changed the scenery and settings of the park several times, adding a water landscape and English village. Witte eventually got into cocaine smuggling between Germany and Peru, and partly due to his notoriety and dwindling numbers of visitors, the park closed down in 2002.
It has been lying abandoned for more than a decade now. The listing description of the more than 3,175-square-foot plot notes that most of the "buildings are mostly destroyed." The ruins of the park include large dinosaurs, a Ferris wheel, a rusting "Santa Fe" toy train, a boating swamp and moss and weed-filled roller coaster tunnels.
Take a virtual tour of the park in a video below:
This is not the first time the park has been put on the market. It was put up for sale in 2013 and almost purchased by a concert promoter; however, the transaction was withdrawn as law requires the space to be used as an amusement park until 2061, reports Inhabitat.com.
Guided tours of Spreepark have been offered since 2011. The park also has an official website and a Facebook page with 21,566 likes.
According to USA Today, despite the weak economy, amusement park attendance has been growing in tandem with ticket prices in many places, including Disneyland Resort in California.
"It has always been the case that, even in tough times, people will still spend money to get out of the house. Amusement parks offer that escape at a price that many people can justify," Tracy Sarris, president of the International Association for the Leisure and Entertainment Industry, told Yahoo Travel.
