Countless factories that were once buzzing with industry now lie eerily silent, having been abandoned and left to fall to ruin as relics of the world's industrial heyday. From American megafactories to a textile plant that was taken over by the Nazis, read on to explore the long-forgotten buildings that hark back to a time when much of the world's population worked in manufacturing. All dollar values in US dollars.

The Amazon rainforest is probably the last place you'd expect to find an abandoned factory. On the banks of the Tapajós river, however, lies Fordlândia, an industrial ghost town that was the brainchild of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company. Ford struck a deal with the Brazilian government and was granted 3,900 square miles (10,000 square km) of land in exchange for a 9% share of any profits made. He had a plan: he wanted to take advantage of the region's rubber trees in order to compete with Britain's monopoly of the market. He envisaged building a factory that would produce car tyres, as well as creating a surrounding town to house its 10,000 workers.

In 1928, one year after the Ford Motor Company ceased production of its iconic Model T, Fordlândia was founded, but the project was rife with problems. 

For one thing, the Brazilian workers objected to the harsh rules imposed by their American managers. Developers had planted 3.6 million rubber trees but they were positioned too close together, making them easy targets for blight. After just two years, the workers held a revolt that saw them cut telegraph wires and intimidate management, with the dispute only ending after the Brazilian Army intervened. By 1934, the dream was over and Fordândia lay abandoned. Ford's estate ultimately made a loss of over $20 million, which is more than $308 million (£226m) in today's money.

Henry Ford's grandson, Henry Ford II, sold the land back to the Brazilian government in 1945, by which time the invention of synthetic rubber was making natural rubber plants obsolete. Today, many of the American-style workers' homes have been reclaimed but the water tower, sawmill, and workshop still stand as empty shells in the Amazon. 

This imposing grain malting factory was built in around 1904, sitting adjacent to the Lachine Canal in Montréal's Saint-Henri neighbourhood. A well-known landmark in the area, the Canada Malting Silos produced an impressive 250,000lb (110,000kg) of malt per year in its heyday, and supplied a plethora of local distilleries and breweries. 

The factory was sold in the 1980s and had a brief second life as a soya and corn warehouse before being abandoned in 1989. Since then, the crumbling building has been the setting of several urban art projects, including a light show. Unfortunately, the graffiti-covered building has also been subject to vandalism.

Community group À Nous La Malting! has been trying to get funding to turn the site into social housing, and in August 2018 received $10,000 (£7.3k) from the Southwest borough to develop a project proposal. However, there are currently no firm plans to restore or redevelop the building.

Opened in 1904, this venerable factory in Lansford, Pennsylvania started out as a silk mill. Following the widespread adoption of cheap artificial alternatives such as rayon and nylon, it was repurposed as a factory for clothing business Rosenau Bros.

Rosenau Bros. was notable for making dresses under its Cinderella Frocks label. The brand was made famous after its dresses were worn by child star Shirley Temple in movies such as The Good Ship Lollipop, with an estimated 15 million units selling between 1934 and 1941. 

The company folded in 1988 but a group of enterprising employees snapped up the machinery and created the Kiddie Kloes label.

Sadly, the brand eventually went the same way as Rosenau Bros., and the factory closed for good in 1996. The building and much of its contents are still in place, slowly decaying. In 2017, Preservation Pennsylvania added the building to its Pennsylvania At Risk list, although it has been reported that local residents hope to restore it.

Founded in 1909 in Detroit, Michigan, the Hudson Motor Car Company was one of America's biggest car manufacturers in the early 20th century. By 1925, it had become the third-largest automobile maker in the US behind Ford and Chevrolet, and it employed roughly 17,000 people by the time World War II broke out.

In the 1950s, however, the demand for Hudson cars started to slow down, with sleeker models, and smoother production lines, becoming the norm. Standing at 6501 Mack Avenue, the Hudson Plant in Detroit is one of the company's few remaining factories. Although many other plants were taken over by the car company Chrysler, the Hudson Plant has stood empty for decades in what was once one of the busiest streets in the city. 

Built in the late 19th century and expanded in the 1920s, the Continental Rubber Factory in Hanover has a chequered history. During World War II, Continental used forced labour at the factory, with the enslaved workers provided by the Nazy Party and subjected to horrific conditions.

Operations ceased for a time towards the end of World War II but resumed again in 1945 and continued until 2000, when the factory was finally abandoned. At present, the desolate site, which has attracted more than its fair share of urban adventurers, is in the process of being demolished to make way for a housing development.

The Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit first opened its doors in 1903, with its premises eventually expanding to a bewildering 3.5 million square feet (325,000 square metres). At the time of its opening, the factory – which belonged to the Packard Motor Car Company – was considered to be the world's first truly modern automobile manufacturing facility. At its peak, the plant employed 40,000 people across 80 different trades. 

The colossal factory was shuttered in 1958 after the Packard Motor Car Company went bust, but the site continued to house other businesses until the late 1990s. It then became a venue for underground raves, as well as a haven for urban explorers. The largest abandoned industrial complex in the world, the derelict plant was undergoing redevelopment until October 2020, when plans were suddenly scrapped.

The former plant is now for sale and has been split into two 20-acre sites, which went on the market with an asking price of $5 million (£3.7m) in autumn 2021. 

One of the most aesthetically pleasing abandoned industrial buildings in our round-up, the stunning Oustau ceramic factory, nicknamed the "Red Factory", stands in Aureilhan, a town in the southwest of France.

The factory was co-founded in 1873 by the industrialist Laurence Oustau, who was famed for having perfected a unique technique for glazing bricks. The factory specialised in the production of bricks and tiles, and it also reportedly boasted the first brickyard in France to use kilns with gas burners.

The Red Factory's halcyon days were in the early part of the 20th century, and the business fell into a gradual decline before finally closing for good in 1970.

The building was declared an historic French monument in 1994. Despite this impressive status, the once-thriving factory stands in a state of disrepair to this day, and is crying out for a sympathetic restoration.

Forst, a town in Brandenburg, was once dubbed the "German Manchester" due to its abundance of factories and other industrial buildings. Among them was this textile factory, which was built for two Jewish brothers in 1923.

The Nazi Party took control of it during World War II. Once the conflict ended, the factory was used as a district administration office by the Socialist Union Party. This came to an end after Germany's Peaceful Revolution of 1989, and the building has stood empty ever since. According to reports, it has been completely stripped of all contents, with a rotten staircase making it too dangerous to safely explore.

As well as the austere factory buildings, a large number of grand villas remain. These once-elegant mansions originally housed the owners of Forst's factories, and are believed to have been erected at great expense. Today, many of them have been allowed to go to rack and ruin, although several have been restored.

Yet another factory left abandoned in Detroit, Michigan is the Fisher Body Plant 21. The Fisher clan is considered to be one of the founding families of the American car industry, and they branched into automobiles after first making a name for themselves with their horse-drawn carriage shop in Norwalk, Ohio. 

Fisher Body became the world's largest producer of car body parts, and the Fisher Body Plant 21 (pictured) was its biggest factory. It was located on 700 Piquette Avenue in downtown Detroit, and was just a short walk from the Ford Piquette Plant. The Piquette area was synonymous with car production at the start of the 20th century.

The fortunes of the Fisher family and their factory changed when integrated chassis were invented in the early 1900s. As car companies started to produce their own body parts in house, the demand for the goods manufacturers at the Fisher Body Plant 21 sharply dropped.  After changing hands numerous times in the 20th century, the 3.7 million square feet (344,000 square metres) plant was eventually abandoned. Bar visits from urban photographers and graffiti artists, it has been empty since 1993.

Although a $1 million (£729.7k) restoration project has been launched, the future development of this historic site remains uncertain, and it's now part of the Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District.

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