Here’s my list of 5 of the most hauntingly striking abandoned places from around the world. Which one interests you most? Do you have any cool ones to add? I wanted to keep asylums and hospitals off this list and give you guys something a little different, I hope you enjoy!
5. I.M. Power Plant, Belgium
The I.M. Power Plant was built in 1921 the Belgian city of Charleroi and at the time was one of the largest coal burning power plants in the country. After years of service, a protest from Greenpeace and a lot of negative attention, the plant closed in 2007. Looking like something out of a post apocalyptic sci-fi movie, the cooling tower in particular is a great place for urban explorers to visit.
4. The Underwater City of Shi Cheng, China
Known as the Atlantis of the East, Shi Cheng (Lion City) is an ancient city built at during the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25 – 200) submerged at a depth of 26 – 40 meters. The city itself has only been submerged in water for the last 50 years as it was flooded to create a manmade lake but the city itself is around 1,400 years old. It’s a large city, at roughly 60 football fields long and features 265 arches throughout. Only recently rediscovered, there’s some fantastic photography of the place and I imagine it would be a dream place for diving fans to visit.
3. Abandoned Doll Factory, Spain
Creeped out by dolls? You’re not alone. Despite their association with children, there’s something quite eery about the haunting lifeless eyes of a dolly staring right at you and if you were to walk into this place and see not just one pair but thousands, it’d be safe to say you’d be more than a little freaked out. I couldn’t find an exact location for this place and I think it’s off the beaten track for most urban explorers which can be a good thing as it means the place has retained the feeling it had when it was first abandoned as it’s not been smashed by vandals and tagged by graffiti artists.
2. The Veterinary School of Anderlecht, Belgium
Once nicknamed the ‘Horror Labs and for good reason, this school of Veterinary Science in Brussels is no longer a place for Urban Exploration. According to the internet, the place was cleared out in 2014 but the photographs of what was once there are so fantastically scary I had to add this one to the list. Abandoned in 1990, time was not kind to this building and the poor preservation techniques meant that the pickled specimens began to decay over time. The unventilated lab full of poisonous substances meant that the overpowering stench of formaldehyde literally burned the nostrils of those urbexers brave enough to enter and some people had to leave quite rapidly as their skin began to react to the chemicals. The place is now cleared out and is apparently being renovated into luxury apartments but I’d recommend you check out photos of the place on Google, if you’re not too squeamish.
1. Oradour-sur-Glane, France
On Saturday the 10th of June in 1944, soldiers of the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division Das Reich entered the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane and rounded up its inhabitants. The women and children were funneled into the village church and the ‘men’ (this also included any boys older than 15) were herded into a barn. Without warning an explosion happened at the church, with the intention of the smoke suffocating those within but when the fire erupted, the women panicked and tried to escape but they were shot at. Only one woman survived by jumping from a window. The inhabitants in the barn were machine gunned down before their bodies were set on fire. A total of 642 men, women and children lost their lives that day before the soldiers set the rest of the village on fire. The ruins have been left as an eternal memorial to those who died but also as a permanent reminder of the Nazi atrocities.
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