Seven monuments to human progress, including the Austrian hospital where hand-washing was first advocated
- In 19th-century Vienna, a doctor discovered the importance of hand washing to stop the spread of germs
- Meanwhile, New Zealand was on course to becoming the first self-governing country to give women the vote
Dark tourism has been defined as the visiting of places notorious for death, disaster and doom (think Auschwitz and Alcatraz, Chernobyl and Checkpoint Charlie). There is, on the other hand, no term for travel to locations associated with great strides in human progress.
It is possible to visit archaeological sites in Kenya that reveal the earliest evidence of our ancestors’ use of fire. And there are guided tours of Woolsthorpe Manor, in Grantham, England. In the grounds of the 17th century farmhouse is the 400-year-old tree from which the apple fell that inspired Isaac Newton to speculate on the nature of gravity.
In normal times, sightseers descend on the palaces, temples and cemeteries in Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, in China’s Shandong province, and the John F Kennedy Space Centre, at Cape Canaveral, in the United States, attracts tourists keen to see where the first astronauts to walk on the moon blasted off from.
Here are some more hallowed places where humans changed the course of history for the better.
Vienna General Hospital
While working in the hospital’s maternity ward, in 1847, Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that frequent hand-washing with a chlorinated lime solution helped stop the spread of infection. He urged his fellow doctors to adopt the practice but was mocked and invisible germs continued to be transmitted from doctor to mother-to-be.
In 1865, Semmelweis suffered a mental breakdown and was committed to an asylum, where he soon died of sepsis caused, ironically, when a wound on his hand became infected. Soon after his death, Semmelweis’ ideas gained widespread acceptance.
Ranked the most liveable city in the world for the past 10 years, Austria’s capital, Vienna, is renowned for its cultural, musical and artistic splendour. Baroque streetscapes compete for tourists’ attention with imperial palaces, coffee-house culture and Danube River excursions and cruises.
National Library of New Zealand, Wellington
In 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant women the right to vote. The landmark legislation was the culmination of years of meetings, speeches and lectures that rallied people to the cause. A petition signed by almost a quarter of the female adult population was presented to the House of Representatives and led to the signing into law of a new electoral act.
The more than 270-metre-long list of names on display at the National Library of New Zealand is recognised by Unesco in its Memory of the World register, which lists documentary heritage.
Magna Carta Memorial, Runnymede
The document, the name of which means “great charter”, continues to have huge relevance today because it established the principle that all English citizens, including the monarchy, are subject to the laws of the land. The text enshrines individual rights, religious freedom and access to justice and a fair trial.
Independence Hall, Philadelphia
Independence Hall is regarded as the birthplace of America. In 1776, delegates from each of the 13 colonies assembled at the 18th century Georgian building, then known as the Pennsylvania State House, to debate, draft and sign the Declaration of Independence. Eleven years later, the Founding Fathers reached agreement on the details of the US constitution in the same building.
The iconic landmark features on numerous Philadelphia walking tours. Other stops include Betsy Ross House, the 18th century home of the seamstress credited with designing and sewing the first American flag, and the Liberty Bell, which was rung to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence.
Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart
The automobile appears near the top of any ranking of great inventions – usually somewhere between electricity, penicillin and the printing press. In 1886, German engineer Karl Benz applied for a patent for a “vehicle powered by a gas engine”, a milestone generally accepted as the birth of the petrol-driven motor car.
The Mercedes-Benz Museum is home to about 200 exhibits, ranging from early models to cars owned by royalty and politicians, pop stars, sporting personalities and Hollywood legends. Housed within are military vehicles from World War II and even a bulletproof Popemobile built in 1980, for the visit of John Paul II to Germany.
St Petersburg
In 1917, Petrograd found itself at the epicentre of a revolution that resulted in the fall of the Russian monarchy and the rise of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks and their allies stormed the Winter Palace and overthrew the government, enabling Vladimir Lenin to seize power.
Whether a revolution that ushered in decades of Soviet-style communism merits inclusion in an article celebrating human achievements is debatable. Workers and peasants who had been living in extreme poverty under Tsar Nicholas II would certainly say so. The tsar and his family didn’t survive to give their side of the story.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka was gradually recovering from the Easter 2019 terrorist bombings when coronavirus struck. The country formerly known as Ceylon is no stranger to strife, however. A 26-year civil war and the 2004 tsunami have come and gone and the resilient island nation is sure to bounce back again. Of course, it helps if you have Unesco-listed forts and ancient cities, rolling tea hills and wildlife parks, not to mention some of the world’s most sublime beaches.
