Staff still attend perfectly preserved abandoned theme park two years after it closed

In Spain, you'll find an abandoned theme park kept in surprisingly good condition, and that's because staff still work there despite the place closing down.

This is Tivoli World in Benalmadena, Spain, and it used to be a very popular place for locals and holidaymakers alike.

Sadly, that all changed when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and forced plenty of places to close in order to save lives.

That included the theme park, and so Tivoli World shut up shop and hoped it would be able to welcome guests once again.

Tivoli World managed to open up once again, but could only keep going for another couple of months before the place was gone for good, leaving behind a perfectly operational theme park that couldn't afford to run.

Michael McLoone / Alamy Stock Photo

While you might have expected this place to be bulldozed in order to make way for something else or to become slowly more derelict over time, Tivoli World is instead looking surprisingly good for an abandoned site.

That's because the staff still come in and keep the place in a good condition, and it's all thanks to a weird clause in their contract which means they're not allowed to look for other jobs yet.

According to Euro Weekly News, two years after the theme park closed down, there are 87 workers who are stuck in limbo as they aren't getting paid but can't get other jobs.

They've never been properly let go, meaning if they walked away now they'd get no compensation or unemployment insurance, but if they're working for Tivoli then they can't go and work somewhere else.

While they could show up and do nothing all day, the staff instead make sure the abandoned theme park stays nice and clean in case it opens up again.

Perry van Munster / Alamy Stock Photo

If you've ever wanted to snoop around an abandoned theme park without the usual set of risks that normally come with a derelict site (rides falling down, wild animals nesting there, ghosts who get unmasked by a group of meddling kids etc) you should look somewhere else.

The theme park occasionally gets thieves poking around looking for stuff to steal, but watchful staff guarding the site have managed to catch would-be burglars in the act.

Juan Ramon Delgado, president of the Salvemos Tívoli group, explained that they get people trying to pick over the remains of the place from time to time.

He explained that thieves were interested in making off with 'many metres of electric cable', and would be eyeing up 'machinery in the bars and ice cream parlours'.

Anything with 'aluminium and copper' was a prime choice for people wanting to nick valuables from the site, but if thieves make off with crucial parts of the abandoned theme park then it might never come back.