There’s something undeniably otherworldly about derelict spaces. Whether it’s their ability to show us a lost way of life, to stir up intrigue about former inhabitants or fill us with a sense of trepidation, these places never fail to draw us in. Click or scroll through as we go on a journey to the world’s most fascinating abandoned buildings and places, from gold rush ghost towns to spooky theme parks, that tell some unexpected stories about times gone by.
An opulent 1970s party house in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this tiki-style mansion still holds signs of its former extravagance. Dreamt up by entertainment mogul Billy Hull, the home conjures up images of the parties it once housed, with a grand marble-topped bar in the living room and a large 20-by-40-foot (6x12m) pool emblazoned with a Playboy logo. Nowadays, the space is covered in graffiti and littered with debris. This photo was taken by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast.
Complete with rusty vintage cars, rotting wood-panelled houses and original gold rush-era signage, the town of Nelson, Nevada treads the line between decay and preservation. Founded in 1861, it was positioned right at the heart of America’s gold mining boom, becoming home to a number of infamous criminals and bootleggers during its roughly 80-year lifespan. As mining tailed off in the area in the 1940s, people left the town, although in 1994 it was restored and is now a popular tourist destination.
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In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a prison that was thought to be ground-breaking in its day: the Eastern State Penitentiary. Yet while it was luxurious in some ways, with inmates eating three hearty meals a day and having their own private toilets and exercise cells, it was also immensely cruel, enforcing strict solitary confinement which drove inmates to the brink of insanity. Hosting notorious criminals including Al Capone and bank robber Willie Sutton, the haunting prison has long attracted fascination and currently offers a number of historical tours to the public.
A luxurious palace built from corruption, Bamboo Palace was one of three residences built by Mobutu Sese Seko, former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which was then known as Zaire), who embezzled between $4 billion and $15 billion during his reign (equivalent to $6.4 billion-$24.1 billion today). The palace earned the nickname of 'Versailles of the Jungle' for its elaborate Renaissance-inspired décor, with glitzy Murano chandeliers, paintings by Monet and Renoir and Louis XVI furnishings. Since then, it’s been overtaken by nature, as well as looters and vandals.
A tiny town located around an hour’s drive south-west of Saskatoon, Bents was aided by a railway expansion into the Canadian Prairies in the 1930s, which brought a number of settlers to the area. It was short-lived, however, as the rail service was halted in the 1970s due to financial difficulties, causing many of the town’s inhabitants to leave. Nowadays, several structures remain, including two large grain buildings, a general store and a few homes.
It’s hard to believe that just a 10-minute drive from the tourist-thronged city of Dubrovnik is an eerie, crumbling ghost town. Between the 1960s and the early 1990s, Kupari Bay was a luxurious holiday spot favoured by the Yugoslavian military and their families, but it was hit hard by the Croatian War of Independence, when hotels were looted and burnt down. Kupari Hotel bears every trace of its destruction, with its soot-blackened interiors, wooden planks hanging from the ceiling, and the charcoal-written names of urban explorers making their mark on the walls.
Nestled among overgrown grasses in Natchez, Mississippi, this 19th-century Federal-style plantation house known as Arlington is thought to have been built by a couple, John Hampton White and his wife Jane Surget White, around 1819-20. The past two decades haven’t been kind to it: there was a fire on the premises in 2002, the windows have been broken and the exterior woodwork damaged. In fact, the owner was allegedly taken to court for damages in 2012, having failed to maintain the protected property.
Detroit’s expansion at the turn of the century led to an influx of hotels and resorts, one of which was the 17-storey art deco Lee Plaza Hotel, which opened in 1927. Despite quickly becoming popular with the wealthy and fashionable, its success was shortlived. By 1935, the manager’s unethical practices had hit the spotlight and the hotel became embroiled in legal battles which ultimately spelled its demise. It stayed in business until 1969 when it was sold to the city and used as social housing, before being stripped out in 2005. It’s expected to be redeveloped in 2024.
This huge industrial space, once occupied by the workers of the Rocklea Spinning Mills in Salisbury, Queensland in Australia and documented by urban explorer photographer darkday, is still filled to the rafters with antiquated machinery that once would have produced an enormous amount of cloth. This machine still has the fabric between its teeth; a white cotton weave with Brisbane Hospitals printed on it in blue.
Little is known about this mould-covered hotel in Germany, captured by urban photographer Brian for his site preciousdecay.com. In the dining hall, with its green-tinged walls and ceiling and a new moss carpet replacing the former floor, it’s clear that nature has totally taken over here.
It will come as no surprise that explorers and photographers flock to the decrepit Michigan Central Train Station in Detroit, which is seen as a symbol of the city’s economic decline. A grand piece of Beaux-arts architecture, the towering 18-storey building was completed in 1913 but closed in 1988 as residents had moved away from the city in droves. Having been abandoned for more than 30 years, in 2018 the Ford Motor Company hit headlines when it announced it would buy the old station and resurrect it – a poignant act, harking back to the city’s former status as a car manufacturing hub.
Captured by urban photographer Brian for preciousdecay.com, the Pension Sachsenruch ski resort in Saxony, Germany is the perfect time capsule – it’s allegedly full of old skiing equipment and signs of its former use. There’s something especially chilling about this image, in which a broken chandelier hangs like a spider’s legs from the ceiling and a rusty staircase leads to a dingy-looking lower floor.
Squatters might lurk at the once-luxurious Ducor Palace hotel in Monrovia, Liberia in West Africa but few would try their luck on the dilapidated diving board, hovering precipitously over an algae-tinged swimming pool. Part of the Intercontinental hotels chain, the five-star resort was built in 1906 and more than a few well-heeled guests stepped through its doors in the decades that followed, before it shut down in 1989 due to political turmoil. Since then, the hotel’s only guests have been a motley crew of squatters, looters and urban explorers.
A wander through the corridors of Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio is enough to send chills down anyone’s spine. In operation between 1910 and 1990, the prison includes two chapels, an infirmary, a solitary confinement section and a warden’s office, and around 200 people are thought to have died there – fuelling rumours about it being haunted. It was used for parts of the movie The Shawshank Redemption, filmed in 1994, and nowadays the prison offers tours for the public to learn about the history of the prison system.
Few things could be spookier than an abandoned asylum. The boarded-up Aradale Asylum in Victoria, Australia opened in 1865 and housed mentally ill people for 126 years. Local myths circulate about the fact it’s haunted, and it’s not hard to see why – ABC News reports that patients were subject to horrific treatment, including use of restraining jackets and electroshock treatment. Nowadays, attitudes to mental illness have come a long way, but this dilapidated asylum serves as a chilling reminder of a far more brutal past.
Around nine miles (15km) south-west of Nagasaki in Japan lies Hashima Island, an uninhabited, decaying piece of land with a troubled history. Also known as Battleship Island, due to the fact it resembles a Japanese battleship, it hosted thousands of Chinese prisoners of war during World War II, around 1,000 of whom tragically died due to forced labour. Serving as a mining site between 1887 and 1974, it was depleted of former residents when the mines began to shut down. Today, all that remains are burned-out buildings with crumbling facades. It was used as the setting for a villain's lair in the James Bond film Skyfall.
There’s not one but seven ghost Métro stations in Paris, which were either built and never completed, or replaced by other stations. One such haunt is the Saint-Martin station, located between Strasbourg-Saint-Denis and République, which was only used between 1931 and 1939 before shutting at the beginning of World War II, after which it never opened again. Currently, the graffiti-covered station serves as a day centre for the homeless.
Located on a grand 480-acre estate in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Lynnewood Hall is not your average abandoned mansion. The Neoclassical masterpiece, built between 1897 and 1900 for businessman Peter Arrell Browne Widener, has an impressive 100 rooms, of which 55 are bedrooms and 20 are bathrooms. In this grand entrance room, captured by YouTuber svvk, opulent stone pillars stretch towards the high ceilings and cast-iron balconies give ample opportunity for onlookers to gaze down. Yet the impressive home has a tragic secret. Its owner, Peter Widener, lost two sons who were onboard the RMS Titanic when it sunk to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912. The disaster meant that Joseph, Widener’s only surviving child, inherited Lynnewood Hall.
With Wild West-style buildings designed by a Disney theme park architect, as well as rollercoasters and rides that were ahead of its time, the aptly named Ghost Town in the Sky theme park in North Carolina attracted hordes of visitors in the 1960s and 1970s. Yet its popularity dwindled in the 1980s and 1990s, with attractions regularly breaking down. When a chairlift malfunctioned and left passengers stranded in 2002, it was the final straw, and the theme park shut down for good. Despite two attempts at restoration, both were shortlived, and the park remains abandoned to this day.
Beneath the gardens outside New York City Hall lies a well-preserved Art Deco gem: City Hall Subway Station. Opened in 1904, it was in operation for just over 40 years before it was forced to close in 1945, as its curved tunnels were unsuitable for the new, longer trains. What remains today is a remarkably well-preserved interior, complete with vaulted ceilings, elaborate skylights and iconic tiling designed by the architect Rafael Guastavino. While it’s closed to the public most of the time, the New York City Transit Museum runs semi-regular guided tours there if you’re desperate to see it.
Very little is known about the Resort Euphoria, a mysterious hotel in Poland. It’s comprised of several large buildings, all of which have been left to rot to decades, with this striking image of a glass-walled circular section showing the layers of grime and dirt that have built up. Captured by photographer/explorer Brian for preciousdecay.com, it’s safe to say there’s little to provide much “euphoria” in the property today.
With the oldest of its silos built in 1905, the Canada Malting Silos in Montreal, Quebec is more than a century old, although it’s been abandoned for just over 30 years. At its peak, the factory produced 250,000 pounds of malt per year, which was then used to supply local distilleries and breweries. The factory was sold in 1980 and had a brief stint as a soya and corn warehouse, before being abandoned in 1989. Nowadays, the imposing industrial building hosts the occasional urban art installation, although it could soon become a museum according to local news sources.
When a powerful earthquake struck the Italian island of Sicily in January 1968, it wiped out four entire towns, one of which was the historic town of Poggioreale. While many buildings’ facades remain somewhat intact, they’re surrounded by heaps of rubble, with roofs destroyed and window shutters blown away. The haunting husk of a town is now a popular spot for visitors, drawn in by its frozen-in-time appearance.
The former winter retreat of banking mogul James Ross Mellon and his family, captured by photographer Leland Kent, this 19th-century Eastlake-style property in Palatka, Florida has been left to the elements in recent years. An upstairs bedroom is scattered with remnants of a time gone by – from an old wireless radio to an American flag, paintings, and even a miniature piano which was likely once played by the Mellon children. Peeling paintwork reveals mouldy off-white walls beneath, while clumps of plaster scatter around the soot-caked fireplace.
With rusty cars and buildings set amid barren grasslands, the abandoned mining town of Bodie in California seems to have become almost subsumed into the landscape. But it wasn't always so. In 1859, a gold deposit was discovered, and a mill established, which started with just 20 miners and grew to 10,000 people over the next two decades. Yet in 1942 when the government banned most mining it spelled the end of the road for Bodie. While a few stragglers remained, the land was purchased by California state in 1962 and since then it’s been kept in a state of “arrested decay” for people to visit.
Despite its rusty metal facade and peeling paintwork, the spirit of Tom’s Diner, located on an interchange in New Jersey, very much lives on. The establishment, which closed in 2005, is still decorated and visited at Christmas by former regulars – at one point there were even Facebook and Twitter pages dedicated to restoring the diner. Despite these efforts, the roadside food cart remains closed and the only reminder of the food it once served is the old-fashioned menu that’s still displayed above the counter inside.
Look inside America's abandoned restaurants and supermarkets
It might look like the set of an apocalyptic movie, but Kolmanskop in southern Namibia on the west coast of Africa was once a thriving diamond-producing town, contributing to 11.7% of the world’s diamond supply in 1912. Yet its history is intertwined with colonial violence – more than 60,000 indigenous Herero people were killed by German colonisers in 1908 for protesting mining. By the 1930s, diamond reserves had been depleted and inhabitants fled, leaving Kolmanskop completely deserted by 1956. The sand dunes burst in through homes, giving the frozen-in-time effect that can be seen today.
At the City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana, impressive Neo-Gothic architecture intermingles with modern-day street art to create an urban explorer’s paradise. The church was first built in 1926, complete with ornate pillars, arches and stained-glass windows, and had a congregation of nearly 2,000 at its peak. Yet as the population of Gary dwindled in the 1970s, the church became too expensive to maintain and it closed in 1975. Since then, it’s remained abandoned, although it has featured in movies such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Transformers 3.
Beneath Cincinnati, Ohio lies an unfinished subway station which most of the city’s residents aren’t even aware of. With initial building works beginning on the station in 1920 at an estimated cost of $6 million, or $77.4 million (£59m) in today’s money, the subway’s underground section was finished in 1923. Yet it still needed significant investment – around $10 million or $129 million (£98m) in today’s money – and the stock market crash of 1929 diminished hopes of completing it. Since then, various proposals have been suggested but nothing has been done and the subway remains abandoned.
With its shuttered windows, barbed wire-topped walls and locked gates, Imber Court – part of Imber village in Salisbury, England – sends out all the right warnings to trespassers. It may come as a surprise that less than 80 years ago it was little more than an ordinary English village. That all changed in 1943, when it was announced that it would be used for US troops’ training and residents, of which there were around 150 at the time, were given just 47 days to evacuate their homes. Since then, the village continues to be used for military training.
Set among the beautiful mountains of Kootenay, British Columbia in Canada, Sandon is a ghost town with a rich mining past. Back in the late 1800s, it was a commercial hub during Canada’s silver mining boom, with a population of around 5,000, and had numerous hotels and saloons, as well as a factory, hospital and school. Yet it was hit by several tragedies over the years. Firstly, a fire in 1900 destroyed many of its wooden buildings, then two floods in 1925 and 1955 wrought further devastation. Since 1955 it’s been largely abandoned, although a handful of people still live there.
Located in Suffolk County, New York, this hauntingly beautiful abandoned mansion, photographed by Bryan Sansivero, retains a striking sense of its former grandeur. Given that it’s been abandoned for 40 years, the farmhouse, dating back to 1860, is surprisingly well-preserved and offers a glimpse into the life of its long-time resident, renowned schoolteacher Marion Carll. In the sitting room, a dusty old Singer sewing machine perches on a period-style desk while a small coffee table is piled with books.
Here’s a spooky abandoned stately home with an unusual past. Built in 1896 by architect Robert Brinkley Snowden, the property was within the Snowden family until the 1950s, when it was sold to the city and served as a restaurant. Then in 1990 it was purchased by an eccentric millionaire, Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges, who renamed it Mongo Hall and turned it into an infamous nightclub. After several high-profile incidents, it was shut by the authorities and has been left to gather mould and graffiti.
A victim of the global decline in the coal industry, the abandoned White Bay Power Station in Sydney, Australia makes for a compelling sight today, its eerily hollow interior illuminated by beams of sunlight from the narrow windows. Entering into operation in 1917, it remains to this day the city's longest-serving power plant, eventually closing in 1983 and being decontaminated in the 1990s. Since then, the building has been used for several TV shows and movies including The Matrix Reloaded and The Great Gatsby.
The London Underground is the oldest metro system in the world, with its first electrified line opening in 1890. Yet not all of its stations have survived that long – in fact, there are some 40 disused stations across the capital, according to Transport for London. One of which is Aldwych, which opened in 1907 and stayed in operation until 1994, when it was closed due to lack of use. Since then, it’s been maintained by London Underground, functioning as a part-time museum and filming location for movies such as Sliding Doors and the James Bond movie Skyfall.
Offering a window into Britain’s manufacturing past, Tonedale Mills in Wellington, Somerset was founded in the 1700s. It functioned as a thriving wool factory right up until the mid-20th century, producing 21,300 feet of material per day at its peak, before it was beset by cheap competition from abroad and fell into decline. Today, much of the original machinery remains, although it’s covered in moss, rust and creeping ivy. In October 2019, the local council held a meeting to discuss the future of Tonedale Mills, although the outcome remains confidential, Wellington Weekly News reported.
In Berlin, ruins of one of the city’s former most important train stations serve as a chilling reminder of the city’s dark past. Anhalter Bahnhof opened in 1841, offering train connections to Germany’s major cities up until the early 20th century. Yet, during World War II, Anhalter Bahnhof was one of Berlin’s three stations used to transport more than 50,000 Jewish people to extermination camps in Eastern Europe. The station damaged by several air raids and in 1952 it was closed for good, before being largely demolished in 1960. Only the central section of the façade remains.
Stunning photos of abandoned train stations around the world
Cutting a stark silhouette against the evening sky, this former rubber factory in Hanover-Limmer, Germany has a dark past. The Continental Rubber Factory was built in the late 19th century and became a prime manufacturer of rubber tyres. During World War II the factory came under control of the Third Reich and prisoners of war were used as forced labour, subject to cruel and unsafe working conditions. The rubber works was continued to operate – save for a short period of disuse between 1943 and 1945 – right up until 2000, when it was finally abandoned.
There’s a striking contrast between ancient-looking ruins and well-preserved features, such as this original sign, on display in the abandoned town of Linda on the Australian island of Tasmania. The town had been home to the North Mount Lyell Mine, which brought miners to the area in the late 19th century, but it fell into decline and by the 1950s the Hotel Linda had shut its doors. Now the town’s only remaining relic, the skeletal building retains few signs of its formerly raucous reputation.
The five-star Hotel Belvedere in Dubrovnik, Croatia had been open for just six years when it was ravaged by Serbian forces in an attack in 1991 during the conflict following the break-up of Yugoslavia. While most of the city, which suffered major damages during the siege, has been restored since, this hotel serves as a jarring reminder of the brutalities of war. Shards of broken glass form a thick layer on the floor, fixtures hang from ceilings and once-grand bay windows have become skeletal metal silhouettes – a sharp contrast to the picture-perfect scenery.
Lurking on a hill in Ione, California is the foreboding abandoned Preston Reform School, which has a very dark past. Completed in 1894, it served as a military-style school until 1960, a period which has become associated with horrific stories of violence, sexual abuse and inhumane punishments. Several deaths are known to have occurred over the years, notably that of housekeeper Anna Corbin, who was found beaten to death in 1950. Nowadays, locals say her ghost haunts the building.
Initially intended to be a luxury apartment building, Bangkok’s Sathorn Unique Building has been abandoned since 1997, when construction halted due to the Asian Financial Crisis. The building, which was thought to be 80% complete at the time, has since gained the nickname of 'Ghost Tower' due to the fact it’s rumoured to be haunted – rumours which intensified after a backpacker was found dead on the 43rd floor in 2014.
In Beelitz, Germany lies a hospital with a troubled past. It was used to treat injured soldiers during both World Wars – including Hitler during World War I, after his leg was injured in the Battle of the Somme. After the war, the Soviet Red Army occupied the building and kept it as a military hospital until 1994. Since then, it’s been left empty, serving as a film set for movies including The Pianist and Valkyrie.
Located in Forst, once a major industrial hub of Germany, this abandoned textile mill was set up in 1923 for two Jewish brothers. Yet it was taken over by the Nazis during World War II, after which it was used as an administration building until 1989, when it was abandoned completely. Nowadays, the austere and decaying building shows the scars of time, from broken windows to crumbling brickwork.
It’s not your average disused power plant – Budapest’s Kelenföld Power Station in Hungary has an ornate Art Deco glass ceiling, which remains remarkably intact despite the fact it’s been abandoned for more than a decade. Opened in 1914, it was one of the most advanced power stations in the world at the time, providing power to the capital for just shy of a century before closing in 2007. Nowadays, it’s legally protected from demolition or restoration, and has become popular with design-savvy urban explorers.
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