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Monastery P

This abandoned monastery and school was established in 1806. Over the years the site was expanded and remodeled. In 1839 the Golden Chapel was initiated, but later it was expanded and decorated and in 1846 re-initiated. The result was a large baroque chapel with rich ceiling- and wallcovering and a monumental baroque altar. Between 1843-1845 the Silver chapel was built. A private chapel for priest Joseph de Pélichy. The Golden chapel is protected heritage since 1981, a part of the buildings is also protected since 2012. The Sisters of Maria left in 2013, since 7 years this monastery is abandoned now. Highlights were the Golden and Silver chapel, the art deco livingroom, the corridors, dining and classrooms. On the attic we found two pictures of sisters. In the basement an old washing machine and a ironing board. A project developer has a plan to restore the historic and protected parts of the site. And they are studying how to re-use the Golden and Silver chapel and propositions are welcome. This hidden pearl will be restored in it’s honour again. We took pictures for 1 1/2 hrs and it was nice to meetup with old photographer friends which we don’t see so often anymore.

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Ægidium – The Diamond Palace

The abandoned Aegidium Theatre has been on my to do list since many years. It’s an architectural pearl and flashback in time. The theatre is situated in the most vivid district of Brussels “Saint Gillis”. It was constructed in 1905 by Guillaume Segers and bought by Léon Bejay-Dejonghe. Actually he bought a complete city block and found space in the middle to build the complex. The theatre was first known as ‘Ægidium’, named after the patron saint of Saint-Gillis, this name would give protection to the municipality according to the priests (Ægidius) It was first a ‘Salle de Spectacle’, the auditorium was located at first floor level. The foyer and stairs have the feel of entering a grand house, with marble, mirrors and chandeliers. Seating in the auditorium was provided in stalls and balcony levels. It was a palistered and mirrored auditorium, flanked by Moorish style arches along the walls. In 1913 it was decorated as a cinema and the name was changed to “The Diamond Palace’. After the death of the owner Bejay-Dejonghe, Mr. Fernand Dierckx bought the building in 1924 and turned it into a dance venue under the name ‘Panthéon Palace’. This was the hotspot of Brussels nightlife and got property of VZW “Parochiale Werken” that had put the building available for social life. It was used for receptions and parties for everyone, from scouts up till the third age, from 7 till 77 years, it got a meeting place for the population of Saint-Gillis. The building has various interior styles, Art Nouveau & Art Deco elements merge. The foyer downstairs has Art Nouveau panels with mirrors and figurative ceramic tiles from Helman. Next to the building the café is still active today, there’s also a smoking room and a winter garden. The monumental stairwell with oval skylight leads to the two large rooms located on the first floor. Firstly the spectacular Neo-Moorish style theater. Secondly, the smaller polygonal ballroom in the more common Louis XV style. Slowly the imposing building got aged and needed a thorough renovation and it was closed in 1985. The VZW Parochiale Werken and local government never had the courage to restore the building in it’s old glory. The first step was the classification of the building in 2006 to protect it, then the search of projects that could revive the building again started. There were many initiatives which appeared in the press, but they were withheld, as the renovation was needed first. The purpose now is to create a unique place for performing arts, music performances and many other activities in Brussels. In May 2013 Edificio (where the building was classified) gave instructions for the renovation and restoration to the architect studio Ma². The theatre is closed so you cannot simply visit it as a tourist. We booked an official photographers visit and paid €30 each for 1.5hrs shooting and support to maintain this architectural masterpiece. The theatre will be renovated very soon, luckily we were just on time before the renovation will start for a period of 5 years.

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Decay Boutique

Decay Boutique is a clothingstore established in 1970 in Belgium. It’s situated on a busy road in the middle of a village, so we had to pop in quickly, unseen and silently. This last thing was a bit of a problem, the open door was stuck and made a loud screeching noise, the whole village heard us arriving already. After 8 years of exploring and hundreds of locations, this is our first abandoned clothingstore, so it’s something unique. I didn’t find any further information online, except that it got bankrupt in the summer of 2013. My pictures show you the natural decay after 7 years of abandonment. Mother earth painted the walls creatively with mold patterns. It was a humid place due to the many leaks in the ceiling after all the rainfalls. This location was not so big, only 1 floor with a personal living space at the back, but it was nice to see how natural decay done it’s work over the past years. Take a last glimp after 43 years of selling jeans and other clothing, Decay Boutique will be demolished soon…

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Wet Dogs | HF4

This steel industry site was built in 1836 in Belgium. The powerplant was part of a blast furnace, which wasn’t used anymore since 2008. During it’s history there were many fusions and takeovers, in 2001 the final owner was an Italian group. But they stopped their activities already in 2008. In 2012 the main part of the site got abandoned and started rusting. A lot of buildings on the site have been demolished already and there’s still an active part with working camera’s and security guards. Possibly they called it “Wet Dogs” because of the security guards and their dogs. There are plans to turn the blast furnace into a museum and maybe also the powerplant in future.

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The Foot Factory

The Foot Factory is one of the nicest abandoned factories that we have ever seen. This high-end brand of socks and panty’s was established in 1819. They created the first children socks in 1926 and in 1966 they launched the first panty’s without a suspender belt. In the seventies it had +-1700 employees, but in 1999 it got afflicted by the heavy competition of low wage countries like Marocco. During 20 years the company had to make a dozen of social plans and saw it’s personnel shrinking day by day. This company produced 3500 pairs of socks daily with loss, this was only one third of the sold volume under it’s brand. The inheritants, three families, needed to sell the factory to an Italian company after a lack of profit. This shows the difficulty in the textile industry, since 2000 more than 25.000 people lost their jobs worldwide. Although it was difficult to find qualified personnel for this demanding activity, the average age of the staff was more then 50 years old. The management thinks this is the cause of the productivity drop and the loss. The shops still stay in France with hundreds of employees. The revenu of the brand is about 15 million Euros a year and the company would get profitable again after the closing of this fabric. They invested in new knitting machines to improve the quality of the products but the new machines suffered from operational problems. Since 2003 the management made 3 social plans before finally closing the historic site end of 2011 forever, so today it’s almost 8 years abandoned. A few people advised us not to go as there could be security. We arrived at the immense complex and saw a group of Dutch photographers wandering around the fence, but it was well protected with barbwire so they left. We didn’t give up and with some luck we found an entrance! We spent a few hours on the large site and we even didn’t see all buildings. On the other side of the road there was a building especially for parties of the company with a theater, but it was too dark inside to take pictures. We could have spent a whole afternoon here, but we had other locations on our planning. We entered the main production building and immediately noticed the advanced knitting machines with dolls legs and socks over them, those complex machines had a futuristic feel, the inventors must have been real geniuses. On the attic we have never seen so much socks left behind, probably enough pairs for everyone in the village. We were charmed by the retro publicity posters everywhere.

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Ferme Aux Plantes

On an early saturdaymorning we arrived In a pittoresque village in France that was still asleep. We walked through the nettles of the heavily overgrown garden to bring you photos of “Farm Of The Dead Plants”. An abandoned house of a 94 year old Mr Omer that deceased 10 years ago in 2009. The veranda is open and we immediately see pots full of dead plants. Next we entered the 60s styled livingroom with colourful seats and wallpaper, a scratching post for cats, a few bears and many other details. Suddenly we hear noises, it was a group of French photographers that arrived, we were not the only early birds… We continued upstairs with the bedrooms. In the master bedroom we saw a wheelchair with a very old rocking toy. I hurried up to the last bedroom to make an overview shot and saw other photographers walking in the hall, so I closed the door that they would not be in my picture. Suddenly I realised the door handle was gone… The windows were to high to jump from the second floor, but lucky enough a French female photographer opened the door from the outside. In the end we took some pictures of the kitchen. There is no history available of this location, but it was a nice warming up for our long daytrip.

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Le Père Noël Est Une Ordure

We walked through a quiet residential area in France to visit “Santa Claus Is a Stinker”, an abandoned house named after the French comedy of 1979. There was nobody in the streets, all neighbours were probably chilling in their gardens with the sunny weather. We spotted the abandoned house and climbed over the gate. We had to be very careful that our genitals wouldn’t get pierced as the gate had some high sharp pins. In the garden two abandoned cars were parked just in front of the house. As the name of the house predicted : inside it was a total mess. In the livingroom we had to place our tripods between a mass of empty bottles and the house was full of cobwebs and creepy paintings. In the kitchen the fridge was even not emptied, there we saw the last calendar dated 2002. The Christmas tree was still present from the time that the owner deceased, so here you can celebrate Christmas the whole year through. I took some pics of a photo album with French marriages to have an impression what kind of people lived here back in the good old days.

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Circuit De Reims

On a sunny day we visited the champagne region of France and we stopped at the famous abandoned racing circuit of Reims to bring it back alive for you. After 2 editions (1912-1913) Grand Prix de Champagne (exclusively for motorcycles) the real adventure starts in 1925. Mr. Danglard & Mr. Raymond Roche decided to organise a first “Grand Prix de la Marne” for racing cars and motorcycles. The circuit became known to be the fastest of the era due to it’s 2 long straight roads of 2.2km in length each. This allowed maximum straight-line speed resulting in many famous slipstream battles. A number of big names took pole position at the circuit including, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham and Jackie Stewart. The last Formula One race was in 1966 and the last sports car competition was held in 1969, but the motorcycle racing continued up till 1972, then it closed permanently due to financial problems. The Reims circuit had competition with the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the official title of “the fastest racing track of Europe”. In 1997 a historic race was planned but cancelled for technical reasons. In 2002 parts of the track were demolished, today a few old buildings, grandstands and structures are still visible around the pit lane. A non profit organisation “Les Amis de Gueux” is trying to preserve the old pit buildings and structures and renovation started. After more than 100 years the racing track remains very popular. We saw many English tourists with expensive sportscars stopping by to take selfies in front of their Porches and Ferrari’s with the old racing circuit in the background, probably a short stop while driving to the villages to buy champagne. For the fans : I added some historical pictures that I found online where you can feel the sparkling atmosphere and see how alive this place was in the past with the audience. Here you can view a racing video of 1956, you can still recognise the old buildings and structures of my pictures : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMgX3tn_CpY

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Manoir Annabelle

This mansion was once inhabited by a well settled couple, it has majestic ceilings, stairs, chandeliers and furniture. They loved travelling seen the many details left behind. The man had a very important function locally, he deceased in 1988. His widow continued living there untill 2004. Now 15 years later we took a glance at the past glory of this fantastic abandoned mansion and the second house on the domain.

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Maison Bob & Bobette

This abandoned house belonged to an elderly couple, it’s named after the comic collection on the closet in the living room. In the garden we saw a conservatory, completely overgrown where the couple relaxed enjoying crates of Spanish wine. And a few storage barns with an antique scale, pool table and even a tandem taken over by nature.

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Manoir De l’Avocat

This abandoned manor is located in a quiet area, it has a large garden with many roses and a pond with geese, which are still fed by the neighbour. Back in the days it was inhabited by a lawyer. Inside it was dark, moldy and the stairs above were rotten. The lawyer had 2 pianos. We expected more of this location, we didn’t take many shots but it was a nice short adventure.

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Maison Corset

Maison Corset is a cosy abandoned house in Belgium full of vintage stuff. The atmosphere feels 70’s with the orange/green/brown colours and wallpapers. In one of the bedrooms we found a paper dated 1989. There is totally no history available, so I let the pictures tell you the story…

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Château Jumanji

Chateau Jumanji’s domain was part of a nearby beguinage and it was sold in 1575 to a noble lady. In the beginning of 1880 the old castle was demolished and with those stones the current countryhouse was built in sober neoclassical style. In 1910 on the Eastern facade an odd winter garden was built from bricks completely covered with grey cement and decorated with tree trunks and rocks. On the front side there were stairs between the rocks leading to the terrace. Creepers give it a true to nature impression. The winter garden was built by a company that specialised in artificical rocks, caves and aquariums. The strange interior was finished completely as a cave withe stalactites & stalagmites, plants, statues and built in mirrors. In 1950 the plaster of the main building was removed, Since 2002 it got classified as protected heritage together with the chapel on the domain.

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Train Graveyard

On this train graveyard some nice old steam locomotives and carriages are parked. Some are rotting away, others are waiting for restoration by voluntueers. The most impressive was a steam locomotive from 1846, the Henschell was active at a German steel plant and later in a mine and cokes factory. Between 1990 and 1997 this locomotive was used for museum rides. But due to defects the train is out of use since more than 12 years. The other smaller locomotives are smaller industrial ones, all in bad shape. Today photographers visit the site fore for communion or modelshoots.

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Ferme Pin Pin

This lost farm is full of memories of an old farmer and his former family. All furniture, clothes, pictures… are still present. The kitchen was extremely small, just like it was made for dwarfs. Probably the farmer deceased or he was placed in a resting home by his family. Many trees were cut in the courtyard, probably by a neighbour, or the farm would get taken over by nature completely.

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Maison Anaconda

Early in the morning we entered the abandoned Maison Anaconda, full of terrariums from a passionate hobbyist and/or a reptile dealer. No history is known about this place. Living in the middle of a jungle full of snakes and other reptiles must be a strange feeling.

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Kruidenier

This small local grocery store has been abandoned for more than 15 years now. You can still see the conversion poster from Belgium Francs to Euro (which was in 2002). It’s strange that all expired food, drinks,… are still present on the shelves. Some products still have prices in Belgium Francs, others in Euro. The private livingspace of the shopowner was also very nice, they were Catholic and very religious. Possibly this was the last small grocery store in the village at that time, just before the big supermarkets took over…

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Lost Vegas

Lost Vegas is a large collection of gambling machines of a failed casino, stored in a dark abandoned car dealer’s warehouse in Belgium.
The purpose was probably to sell them, but vandals broke open all slot machines in search of coins and money. There are some old-fashioned mechanical fruit machines, but most appear to be more modern ones. At one side of the room is a collection of virtual poker machines, there is also an old roulette wheel.

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Aquapark

This partly abandoned industrial terrain in Belgium includes a 50m high water tower and a building with red turbines. The powerplant iself is still in usuage with sensors and security. Normally industry isn’t my cup of tea, but we have never been in a water tower, so it was a new adventure.

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Château d’Alchimiste

Château d’Alchimiste is an impressive abandoned castle situated in a small village in France, where the population is decreasing day by day. The castle was once inhabited by a professor, it was shocking to discover that all his test tubes, antique chemistry equipment and even his butterfly collection were left behind. We felt like wandering through a museum! In his spare time the professor created many paintings which were spread across the castle. In the children’s room we unexpectedly bumped against a hidden door in a wall. We entered a small space and suddenly we found ourselves in his secret rest room surrounded by his paintings, a marvelous place! The bedrooms were breathtaking like in a fairytale, there we found a newspaper dated 1992. On the attic we found even a larger collection of paintings. We left via the spooky garden, the castle and trees are getting overgrown. Suddenly dogs from the neighbourhood started barking loudly, the strange thing is that we saw no inhabitants, half of the village looked abandoned.

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Garage Poussette

In a small village in France we visited an abandoned repair / car trade shop. It was built next to the home of it’s owner Mr. Gilbert. He collected about 250 vintage cars for restoration, mainly French cars like Citroën, Peugeot and Renault. His business was about to expand, but 35 years ago he suddenly died and nobody cared for his collection anymore.
In the garage and backyard we saw one after the other classic car wreck from the 60s and 70s almost completely overgrown, ideal to make some dramatic shots. Among them are a Opel Rekord C, several Simcas, a Mercedes W110, Renault Dauphines, a Renault Monaquatre of 1935, two Panhard PL17, a Peugeot 202 and many other models we could not identify due to the extreme decayed state. The most recent model was a Jaguar XJ-S built in the 80’s, after this time stopped here. It was getting dark and we just managed to take the last shots of the day. They don’t make em like this anymore….

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Top Gun

On a cool cloudy morning we visited an abandoned part of an active airfield in France. In total there are 3 military planes in decay : a Noratlas 2501 marine plane of 1953 (aka Double Girder, that was used for military transports and to drop paratroopers), a Lockheed Neptune P2V7 (used in 1947 to bomb submarines) and finally a Fouga CM-170 Jet Fighter of 1952 (aka Magister Fouga, used for training of pilots and also used by the Patrouille de France). First I climbed into the marine plane, it had enormous space with benches on both sides and nice symmetrical shapes. Then I entered the bomber via the bottom of the plane, a lot was stripped already. In the Fouga CM-170 jetfighter there was only limited space for a pilot & co-pilot.

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Universe Chapel

This small abandoned chapel was built in 1855, it was part of an orphanage. The gigantic painting above the entrance was made in 1863. The chapel was renovated in 1933, it witnesses history and art, the walls are full of 3D ornaments displaying the pelgrimage of Christ. Parts of the roof had fallen down, workers wiped them in a corner of the chapel. The good news is that the chapel is protected heritage, it will be probably be renovated and connected to a new building.

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Meet The Meat

This abandoned Belgian slaughterhouse was built in 1955 and had a slaughter capacity of 1 million pigs a year. Since many years the local residents and authorities wanted it to get closed after complaints of smell and noise. Finally, under pressure of the government, it got closed down in 2017, a relief for the local residents. This site will be demolished in order to start a housing project in 2019, but the company opened a new slaughterhouse somewhere else, with a double capacity to slaughter 2 million pigs a year… When entering the building, you start to imagine what horror must have happened here for more than half a century, seeing the thousands of hooks and slaughter machines. Pigs were gasified as first anesthesia, next electrocuted (you can still see the pincer on one of my pictures), their throats were cut over and their hair was burnt off. Next they got washed, put on hooks, cut open, organs removed and carcasses cleaned. Finally they got approved, stamped and put in the freezer. It’s impressive to see what goes on behind the scenes to be able to get that piece of meat on your plate. With this photoset i’ll try to make people more conscious what animals go through. I hope this can be a small contribution, so that you all think twice to save our loving animals and our planet for our future and children.

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Château Des Livres

In a pitoresque village in France we visited this luxurious castle of a wealthy world traveller and his wife, abandoned since 20 years. The couple deceased and their children moved to the capital. It’s one of the nicest castles that we have ever seen, full of furniture. We enjoyed the smell of old books, mostly about travel, art and history. We went through a journey in time and saw many memories, old 60s b/w travelphotos and earlier,…. Each room had it’s own charm. The castle remained in good condition after the departure of the residents, pity enough we saw starting vandalism already, nevertheless it’s a magnificent place and a it was a great explore.

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Ferme Schimmelpenninck

Time stood still in this nice typical old farm in Belgium. It has been abandoned almost 10 years now seen the date on the calendar. One of the bedrooms is full of cobwebs, enjoy this journey through time…

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Green World

This abandoned greenhouse with barns lays on a big domain in front of an old baron’s castle. He can stay there, but soon the front barnyard part will become public domain, local shops will be opened in the barns, visitors can buy local products and walk around. Many tiles were decorated with plants, the kitchen, bathroom and even the nice chapel. This location had somewhat of a fairytale feeling.

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Maison Boon

Time stopped at this old abandoned Belgian farmhouse. The former owner, Mr. Boon, his personal clothes, belongings and furniture where still in it’s place. Legend is that Mr. Boon loved his wife so much that he kept her body in the freezer after her death. After his death, power was cut off, this would have released strange smells in the neighbourhood, they alerted the authorities who made the macabre discovery. The family lives next to the farm and they aren’t happy with visits of photographers, they even stab their tyres flat, we parked safely further. Unexpectedly this was a nice explore, seen that this place is very old and well preserved without any vandalism.

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Moldhouse II

We entered Moldhouse II, situated in Belgium, with dust masks, seen the presence of black mold, but the air was quite doable in comparison with Moldhouse I that we visited earlier this year. There isn’t any information why or when this house has been abandoned, on the desk we found a detailed letter about a child-birth, possibly of the child on the picture. The vintage radio full of mold is a classic that we often see in old abandoned houses, this was a small location to fill our day.

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Lost Tanks & Trucks

Nature is taking care of a German Leopard A1 tank (built in 1968) and another tank with a tree growing through, 3 Volvo N10 transport trucks made in the 80s. All vehicles were used by the Belgian army in the 80’s and still today. This looks like an abandoned battlefield, but it’s a military practice domain. After a small jungle trip we were able to make some nice shots and also inside one of the tanks.

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Town Mansion

Town mansion was built in 1912 by the son of a rich German shipowner. His father had a Transatlantic transportcompany that imported petroleum and wood by ship. When the transport of migrants that wanted to start a new life in the United States got more important, he started a new company for this. The street…

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Maison Alexa

This creepy abandoned house has fantastic natural decay. The big livingroom with fireplace must have been cosy back in the days. The stairs are rotten and half of them are gone, when you are unlucky you can fall in the deep dark basement filled with water. So you definitely need to be with 2 persons…

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Laundry Day

This creepy abandoned house, built in 1919, was inhabited by a 99 yo widow who lived only on the ground floor. In 2014 the upper floor got on fire and she was saved by a nurse. The livingroom is like a scene of a horrormovie full of moisture, mold and the wallpaper is coming down.…

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Church Of 1000 Arches

Church of 1000 Arches is a beautiful abandoned church situated in a small village in Belgium. It was built in 1876 in neo-Gothic style and it got abandoned in 2012. Less people visit churches, this results in a big loss of revenus for the church community in general and no funds for restoration when needed.…

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High Speed Train

This high speed train reached speeds of 300km/hr, it drove through the channel tunnel between Paris & London in 3hrs up till 2015. Since then newer and faster trains replaced this type of train. The old or defective ones, were left behind awaiting their demolition.

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The Skeleton Factory

The Skeleton Factory was a Belgian printing office owned by a pressman/photographer who also created postcards. During WWI it got occupied by the Germans. The owner was still allowed to create postcards but in very limited edition only with German soldiers printed on them. His work got censored, only pro German cards could leave his printing office. He wasn’t even allowed to put his name on them anymore. In the end of the war the soldiers destroyed all the printing machines. Since they the warehouses were left abandoned. Today this place is full of outstanding skeleton graffiti artwork, bringing over a dark message about death, war and decay to make people think about the crazy things they are doing… The warehouses will be demolished soon to make place for a big parking.

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Graffiti Zoo

Graffiti Zoo was founded in the early 50’s, this factory was specialised in metal processing for the car industry. About 20 years ago it moved to another location and the site got abandoned. The city council launched a co-housing project, in 2020 about 60 families will live here. They want to keep the graffiti as much as possible and integrate it in the residential units as they are important for the local culture. Rust, nature and rain created a jungle through this empty factory, it got the workingspace of a local graffiti artist.

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Bloso

This big open air pool is situated on a big recreation domain in Belgium. The history starts in early 1902, the national railway company wanted to add a new line for freight trains, but it stopped in 1912 when WWI started. During these years the digged holes got filled with water creating two lakes. After the war the digging continued and the lakes grew. In the 1920’s the domain spontaneously became a touristic place. More and more people went there in the hot summers to search for cool water and recreation. In 1925 the city claimed the lakes, they needed them to provide the city of water. The lakes were fenced off and armed guards protected the place. The local people and the press started a campaign to get the domain back. It took until 1933 before the domain got public again and was opened by King Albert. A private company run the place and opened a small beach and some catering buildings around it. About 35.000 people enjoyed the beach on a sunny day. Around the domain, hotels, cafes and amusement parks arise on an marketplace. In 1937 a master plan for the park was completed, the cafes and dance halls were demolished. The new infrastructure had to be more sports orientated with a large open air swimming pool, it was the biggest in Europe for several years. During WWII the domain got in German hands, they used the field as a military site. In 1944 the Americans take over the domain and it was used as an army truck repair site for several years. In 1978, the large outdoor pool was taken out of use, the pool, changing rooms and snackbar were abandoned in 1990.

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Stadium DS

This Belgian football club was founded in 1919, in the 80’s it degraded to the 1st Provincial division. The club left their previous stadium in 1984 and moved to this bigger stadium. In 1998 they promoted to 4th National division, the new stadion had a capacity of 10.000 spectators, this was still too big for a club in this lower division. In 2004 there was a fusion with a local club and this team even promoted to 3rd division. There was a lot of ambition, the management bought some well known players like Gilles de Bilde (who became international Red Devil later), in order to make promotion to the 2nd division. Unfortunately they didn’t get the attention of the big audience and sponsors, the well known players left and the club degraded again and got into financial troubles. In 2010 the bankruptcy was deviated but the club decided to withdraw from football. Today mother nature is taking over, the grass is knee high, paint is peeling off and the dug-outs lay desolate on the grass.Vandals tried to smash in the amour-plated windows of the old vip business building and it has been set on fire several times, so police is patrolling often. Many people found that this stadium one of the nicest of the lower divisions, today it’s nice in a different way. The future is uncertain as the neighbourhood wants the derelict stadium to be demolished as it’s only a memory of the failed ambitious plans of the club. The stadium will probably be demolished to make place for a new bigger sports hall.

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Maison Limmi

Somewhere in Belgium, in the middle of the bushes, we visited Maison Limmi. Around 2007, 10 years ago, the owner left his house and nature is taking over, nobody knows why. His neighbour sees him once a year, today he still pays vacancy tax. He probably had a big family before, seen the long dining table, it was just like a table for knights. The special window in the livingroom was made in some sort of space age architecture. The other big window was completely gone, butterflies simply flew into the house. The livingroom was the most cosy with a fireplace and windows with stained glass and magazines from 1982. When the sun came out, the livingroom was full of colourful patterns everywhere. When leaving I discovered a second abandoned empty house next to it of which I took some pictures in the garden to end the day…

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The Walking Dead

We have visited many abandoned places except a supermarket. This one was blooming business until the downfall started and it was sold. Several new owners ran this place until it got closed permanently and all employees lost their jobs. In the office we saw some pictures of the good old times… This building is dark and empty, it feels like the decor of The Walking Dead.

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Château Du Loup

This breathtaking château was built in the beginning of the 20th Century in Belgium by two sons of a well settled family. Their father was the mayor of the city, he gave them the order to build two castles on his big domain. This eclectic castle has strong neoclassical influences. During WWI the two brothers had military duty and had to fight on the frontline. The Germans took over the castle and used it as a jail for prisoners of war. The castle got heavily damaged but after the war it was rebuilt. One of the sons returned ill from the front and died. His widow and children continued living there and she remarried. During WWII both castles were occupied again by the Germans. They brought over the family to a Nazi concentration camp. Luckily they survived WWII and they returned to Belgium. After the war they moved to another city and sold the castle to a rich industrial and his wife. Château Du Loup got abandoned since 2003, in 2016 the extinction of fungi started and the restoration started slowly. The future of the castle still needs to be discussed. The castle itself was empty, but the staircase looks like the one from Beauty and the Beast.

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Manoir Neglected Elegance

This fading beauty is an abandoned countryhouse located in France with quite a lot of elegant details. No background information is available at the moment, so simply enjoy the images!

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Usine De La Justice

This abandoned hangar was part of an old company built around 1910. After WWI it was sold a few times after takeovers, liquidation, owner deceased… The last activities as a company were in the fifties, after this most machines were removed and the buildings were used only as warehouses. Today the buildings are protected heritage (even with it’s bad state) due to the old architecture and materials used. We didn’t go for the buildings itself but for the old vehicles in one hangar. The roof was partly gone so rain, mold, moss and pigeonshit painted them naturally into decay. In the end we said goodbye to the steam-generator robot, the only witness of the many changes & secrets since more than a century…

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Farm B&J

This old abandoned farm is located in the middle of a busy crossroad in a residential area in Belgium. The door was gone, but the tricky part was to get in without getting spotted. Just when we arrived an old lady started wiping the street and saw us approaching. We returned to the car and ate a sandwich while watching her in the rear mirrors, it felt like the swiping was neverending… Suddenly she finished and we quickly jumped over the fence. Inside this farm had some serious decay but still a lot of details to see. We saw papers and telephone books dated between 1975-1985. Nature was claiming back it’s place and it was slowly taking over again…

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Château Alkohol

This impressive mansion is located in an idyllic area in Germany, it’s surrounded by rivers and ponds, an old farm with water mill (built in 1370 and restored in the 80s) was next to it. We knew in advance the mansion was empty, but we came only for the highlight : the ancient chapel inside the castle which was built in the 17th century (1666!). It has a special atmosphere and felt like a step into the timemachine waaaay back in time. First it was used as a monastery around 1310, but later it got sold to a German Count and it was expanded to a real castle around 1450. The relics and the wallpaper in the hall made us think this mansion could have been a hunting lodge in past. The castle was inhabited until the year 2007. Nevermind the urbexname, it just refers to all the bottles of liquor that were present in the basement 🙂

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Manoir Marghareta

This nice manoir doesn’t look abandoned at first sight, but it really is if you look closer to the decay on the wall in the hall, the bedroom and if you see the arid plants in the living room… This was the property of a millionaires family who lived here up till their thirties, they had 2 boys, unfortunately they died in a car accident in 2005…. Electricity still hasn’t been cut off, we totally have no idea why this house has been abandoned. This manoir has lots of nice classical elements.

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Farm Rémy

This simple farm was owned by an old couple of farmers. They were real doglovers seen the statues around the house. The rooms were full of old pictures and religious objects. No history is available, so simply enjoy the pics.

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Space Pool

This flying saucer is actually a sunflower pool that has been abandoned about a year ago. For the French swimmers this is real nostalgia to the 70’s 80’s. It’s part of their national architecture, some are even classified as heritage of the 20th century. Today they still look very futuristic, some even had the possibility to open the roof, during summer they were used as open air pools. We still found some nice details refering to the activities of the past. I would love to have a swim there if I could turn back time 5y ago, and you?

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Théatre Des Reines

This impressive abandoned “Theatre Of The Queens” was named after it’s majestic architecture. It was built in the 17th century in France. Formerly it was used as a school with a chapel. During WWI it got partly destroyed, after the war it got a new destination as a ballroom and theatre. The building is completely in art deco style with impressive wallpaintings and staircases. At the moment it’s under renovation, my friend lost the courage as we didn’t find any entrance. But I insisted not to give up too early, after some searching we finally found the entrance to this magnificent piece of history.

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Viva Lancia

A collection of classic Lancia’s and other retro cars dumped in a garden in Belgium and taken over by nature. Probably someone had plans with them as he collected so many, but for one or another reason he left his house with cars abandoned. My thought was how much more impressive cars where back in the days, they deserve more respect. This was the last location of our long urbextrip and it was getting dark allready, so I had to take my camera to the extreme to still to be able to get the shots.

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Mold House

Hold your breath and enter mold house! This small house was built in 1964 and is abandoned since 2004, it’s situated in a neighbourhood full of villas, so it doesn’t really fit there anymore. After a storm the roof was gone and mold started to expand very quickly. So the house is in very bad state and it’s rotting away, even the drapes are getting green. A family of 5 lived here in the past. The most important part was the livingroom with 3 seats full of mold, the hallway and the bathroom, mother nature is doing it’s job here slowly.

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Disco Inferno II

The party is over… 3 years ago a disaster happened to this former blooming disco. This place was an established value during many years where also famous artists came to party. Later it got less crowded, the owner tried to resurrect the disco but eventually he had to put it for sale. 6 months later suddenly people where walking down the street and saw the disco was on fire. The fire expert didn’t find the cause and classified as unknown, the electricity and gas were closed down so a short circuit couldn’t be the reason. It almost burnt down completely. The owner owned this place for 35 years and he was very sad about losing his lifework. The nice facade of the entrance is protected heritage since the year 1738. The entrance hall was still in good condition, the rest of the disco was a post-apocalyptic scene. The red couches, mirrors and dj booth and a tray of coke still survived, it was the first time we saw decay because of a disaster and it was quit impressive. This year it will be demolished completely to make space for a new project.

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Villa Delsaerd

We walked in a residential area and suddenly disappeared in the bushes of an old abandoned house. The couple that lived here was at least 60 years married, we saw a certificate of their diamond aniversary. The husband was born in 1909, they survived both World Wars and experienced the lack of food. To prevent this in future they filled their basement full of jars with beans, carots, tuna, pineapple,… Reserves for months in case of a new WWIII. Meanwhile everything was expired since +-1992… My friend wound up the old turntable manually and played a classic record next to the empty birdcage. (see short movie on my page). The neighbours must have thought that it spooked in that old abandoned house 🙂 In one of the rooms there was a closet full of pigeon sports trophies. Since their decease everything is left abandoned… Pickup the vintage atmosphere and enjoy!

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Manoir De L’Instituteur

This nice manoir of a teach Pierre has been abandoned since 1984. He was already in a retirement home and died at the age of 82. We spoke to a friendly neighbour and he said lots of cars with unwanted visitors stopped (even at night when you can’t take pictures) and his collection of nice shotguns and paintings was stolen. Seen the details that he left behind, next to playing piano he also liked chasing and voluptuous women.

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A Bug’s Life

We did a healthy forestwalk in a tiny village in Belgium and saw some great winter scenery. Ofcourse we were looking for something more : a collection of abandoned VW Beetles. We found them in state of hibernation, mother nature took care of them. No history is known about this location, possibly they were from a collector who didn’t have the funds to finish his project of restoring them.

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Lost In The Woods 6

At dawn, in the middle of nowhere, we photographed a collection of abandoned cars. They are rusting away and falling apart, some are in a really disastrous state of decay. The post-apocalyptic scene had a cinematic feel. The VW Beetle with the tree growing through it is something unique, but we also enjoyed the other cars. No history is known about this place, nevertheless enjoy the pictures!

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Hôpital Plaza

Hôpital Plaza was built in the early 1800s, originally it was a French school incorporating an impressive chapel. During WWI, the Belgian army used this building as a medical centre for their soldiers to recover. The area was heavily bombarded during WWII, so a lot of locals took shelter for many months here, until the country was finally freed by the allied forces. The hospital function remained until 2010, then the facility closed down.

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Château De l’Etoile

The magnificent Château de l’étoile is located in the center of a small French village. After placing our first foot on the terrain we heard dogs from the neighbours barking loudly. We decided to enter the castle anyway, as we drove many kms and daylight is limited during wintertime. The remains of the last owner, Marcel, were still present, we found old papers, written notes, invoices… Apparantly he had a large family seeing the many photo albums. Even his old piano, an old pram, typewriters, armchairs,… where still present. Pity enough the castle suffers a lot from vandalism, plunderings and graffiti. In one of the rooms we heard a strange whispering, maybe Marcel’s ghost was still present to ban foreigners out of his castle. The locals adore their château and want to preserve it, the mayor planned to protect it with camera’s, motion dectors,… but this never happened, so the castle is declining day by day…

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Château Des Bustes

We visited this impressive abandoned Château Des Bustes on an extremely misty day. It’s completely cut off from the world in a tiny French village. The building was enormous, each room was full of details so we spent a few hours submerging in the vintage atmosphere. One floor was completely collapsed, this is probably one of the reasons why it took so long to get sold. We were just on time as recently the castle has been sold, now it’s emptied and under renovation. Enjoy the pastel colors, the smell of old books, the nice paintings and rustic furniture.

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Pool Of The Lost Souls

This pool was built in the 19th century before WWI, it consisted of a deep and shallow swimmingpool. At that time women were only allowed to swim limited due to Catholic restrictions. After a bunch of people drowned, lifeguards were finally recruited. During WWII the pool got heavily damaged, after the war it was renovated. The pool was used for recreative swimming, schools gave swimming lessons and there were also waterpolo games. At the beginning of this century it didn’t reach the strict environmental standards anymore, renovation got too expensive so it got closed. Some years later new owners made a recreation domain of it. The shallow pool was transformed to a big sandbox for the children, the old wooden cabines got renovated and the pool was transformed to a pond with a fountain and fish. This recreational project wasn’t a success so it got closed again. The nice thing is that the style of the old architecture was respected during both renovations. I loved the authentic locker boxes with curtains above the doors, the old tribune and old walls.The last guests left their parasols, chairs, toys,… like they left in a hurry. Even a banner of the last party of a 16 yo birthday still hung in the bar. Today there are new plans for reconversion. Pity enough the swimming pool itself will not be renovated again, this domain seems to be in a vicious circle. In the end a lost white cat watched me at the bridge, this was maybe a good sign for it’s future…

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Lost In The Pine Cones

This abandoned mechanics house is situated in the middle of nowhere between the pine trees. The garden is full of wrecked trucks, cars, buldozers, tractors,.. . They all have the same fate : rusting away and taken over by nature. The roof of the house had collapsed, but it was still worth a visit for some nice details. For the rest no further info what happened here.

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Papier Mache

This fabulous staircase is part a 144 yo paper factory in Belgium where 1200 people worked in past, it closed down in 2004 and the rest of the company is almost completely demolished.

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Usine S

Usine S is a big textile factory situated in Belgium. It was built in 1899 and it was specialised in the treatment of cotton, wool and textiles. About 100 years later business was not competitive enough in a newly globalized world and production ended. Today it’s abandoned for about 20 years and nature is taking over. Some machines were still in place, slowly rusting, but luckily most of them got placed in a warehouse to be put in a museum in near future. Some looked very old, we even saw steam machines! Seen the size, this factory must have employed lots of workers. In a warehouse we found a crate full of workers hats just like they just left. The site has been sold recently but the municipality doesn’t seem to know where to start and slow progress is being made. Luckily there is no vandalism or graffiti. I don’t visit much factories, but this was one of the most beautiful that I have ever explored.

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Lycée V

Lycee V has been constructed in 1865 in Belgium. In 1943 the buildins housed a nursing high school for girls. Later it became a secondary school for girls. The school has great architecture. Not only the facade, but the inner court covered under a glass roof is a highlight of this location, it has been abandoned since the mid 90s.

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Maison Du Lieutenant

This small abandoned house has some serious decay over the years, the corridor and attice are full of trash. Only the small livingroom and old bedroom are photographically interesting. The bigger livingroom was too dark to take decent pics, but we managed to get some shots with ledlight so that you have an impression.

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Château Glück

This château is the first casino that was opened in Europe, dating from 1770! Later this building was used as a ballroom. It was first under renovation, but suddenly plans stopped, probably due to a lack of funds. It is well known for it’s magnificent frescos, statues and nice stairs.The château is located in a very busy area, there was even a fancy fair with children riding on pony’s, but we managed to get in unseen.

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Alien Church

Let’s talk to God in another dimension… less people visit churches, also in France this one got abandoned. The futuristic architecture looks like it’s part of a sci-fi movie or owned by a sect.

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Château Sécession

Discovering abandoned castles, usually hidden behind high walls in a castleparc (or jungle after many years) is always fascinating. In a small pitoresque village in France we visited this authentic château, built in 1750 by a rich merchant. At first it was a house with only 1 floor. Around 1850 his son added pavilions at both sides, changed the facade and built extra floors. Unfortunately the castle didn’t escape WWII and it was occupied and bombarded by the Germans, a side pavilion still remains a ruin. In the 80s the château was sold to an experienced lawyer which allready abandoned it in 1985, apparantly he didn’t have the courage to start the renovation works. After an early jungle tour we entered the livingroom with American & New-Zealand flags and big canon threatening intruders. The remains of the last occupiers, furniture and personal belongings where left to rot. Further we walked up the impressive wrought iron staircase, a painting of the lawyer hung in the middle on the wall. In the hall of the second floor we saw beautifull wallpaintings and a decayed piano with carpets on the wall. The bedroom on the ground floor had a nice vintage lamp, fireplace and a massive bookshelf. This was one of the nicest abandoned castles we ever visited.

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Pensionnat Catholique

This large boarding school is situated in a pittoresque village in France. It was built just before WWII for catholic girls with integrated chapel on the 3rd floor. During the war it was occupied by the German army, until the American allied forces took the building. After the war the school reopened and it was expanded many times, at it’s peak there where 600 students present. The number of students started to decline as they became more interested in science & technology. The school finally closed around the year 2000. The real gem was the chapel still in good condition with it’s huge stained glass windows, the coloured lightbeams entering the building where amazing.

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Hotel Myst

In past this building was a Kürklinik, later on it was transformed to a hotel. The groundfloor was vandalised, the upper floor was in dramatic state of decay, nature was taking over here. Half of our team didn’t even start the shoot, but as I like dramatic decay I made a small report.

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Hunter’s Hotel

We dropped ourselves in a timecapsule back to the 70’s. This Jägerhotel is situated high in the mountains of Germany and is left abandoned for about 40 years. It’s main revenue came from skiers, but the owners didn’t earn enough money to continue business. Instead of selling they decided to leave the hotel abandoned with it’s rustic interior and rent it as a film & photography location. We had an appointment with a friendly bearded old man who looked like he was teleported from a fairytale. For a small fee we could could make a full report, more that 500 photographers have allready visited this place, even princess Juliana stayed here once upon a time for a week. We started at the restaurant with it’s cosy corners, ideal to have a chat with your friends while another plays the guitar. The main attraction was the big dining room full of stuffed animals. The ideal setting to have a hunter’s menu during cold winterdays and socialize with your friends with some background music, it must have been a great atmosphere here back in the days. The vintage bedrooms where like the setups they make in the fairytale part of attraction parks nowadays. We discovered a room full of vintage Apple pc’s and I met again with my first computer ever : a Commodore Amiga 500, nostalgia! We finished with a groupshot with the old man, as a present he gave us some expired seaweed salades (a not so typical product of the region 🙂

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Green Valley

This five star hotel is situated in the mountains of Germany and it is surrounded by an immense valley of pine trees, we drove 6 hours to reach it. This hotel was built in the 19th century, the majestic setting and pure air & water of the region attracted the rich and famous, like royalty’s, moviestars and the local jetset. When entering the bar we could imagine jazz bands playing live music here… the ballroom was the place to be for dancing ballads. The luxury bedrooms had fairytale like four poster beds, every couple would feel king and queen here. The hotel was like a palace with it’s 140 rooms with breathtaking panorama’s. The owners left the original furniture unchanged so that photographers & moviemakers could hire the location, a few years ago a B-movie was made here. End of the 20th century the hotel got abandoned, maybe because of the competitor Kürhotels in the neighbourhood. No more bottles of champagne or bling bling… this hotel is for sale now…

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Lost In The Woods

Slowly it was getting dark but still we had some time left for a walk in the woods…. Suddenly we saw an old car wreck in front of us with some unexpected things behind… This place made me think of a mixture of the 70’s cultmovies the Hills Have Eyes & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Further we saw an old Lada with a big tree that had grown through the bumper, seen the height of the tree this Lada must have stood there for many years! What a creepy adventure this was!

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Expédition Antarctique

In 1966 these abandoned snowcats were used for oceanographic & hydrographic observatory and also geological mapping of the Arctic coastal and mountain areas. After the closure of the base in 1967 three further summer expeditions were sent in cooperation with South Africa. In 1971 all governmental support for Antarctic research was halted. The Belgian-Dutch expedition team consisted of 18 men, 8 of them where military support personnel. It was difficult to take pics in this barn due to the lack of space and due to their extent…

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Biofuel Farm

This creepy old abandoned garage consists of a bunch of nice classic cars, some will possibly be restored. Others, like the first one with the tree that grew through the bumper probably not 😀

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Wrong Turn

During an early morning walk we found a junkyard full of wrecked cars dumped in the woods. Classic cars, tractors, an army truck and even an old bus. Mother nature is taking care over them now as no one cares anymore…

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Ferme De Maraichage

This 15th century farm is situated in Belgium, it has been preserved well since WW I. Some authentic elements are still present which bring back the atmosphere of the past.

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Usine N

The headoffice of a Belgian company that got bankrupt and abandoned since 2007, now it’s demolished…

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Hotel Au Paradis

This starred restaurant was built in the early 80s, it was combined with a hotel, wellness and vineyard. This place was real luxury, there was even a helicopter landing spot for the the well settled customers. After a lifework of more than 30 years the owner got into serious financial problems and tried to sell his business, but it was too late allready.

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Maison Perdu

From the outside this house doesn’t seem abandoned. The owner made the interior very cosy, wallpaper with colourful paterns, nice furniture,… this combination gives the interior an authentic retrofeel.

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Huize Goddelieve

The calendar stood still in the year 2006, the roof of the bedroom is collapsed… this place has been in decay since 10 years today! From the outside you can’t tell that this house is abandoned. This was a nice house still full of details.

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Grand Hotel Regnier

This luxury hotel has been built around 1904 and was really majestic in its time. The main attraction is the old piano in the big reception room. On the upper floors it has a “Stanley Kubrick’s feel of the movie “The Shining”. The hotel closed because it went bankrupt. The owner still lives in a house behind the hotel, he’s very sad about it as this was his lifework. Today the Grand Hotel is rotting away and the floor is like cardboard. Grand Hotel Regnier is for sale now, but seen the state of decay it will probably be demolished and replaced with a new building.

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Traction Sud

Deep in the misty woods we visited this great location full of hidden military vehicles from the DDR area, old fire-engines, VW Beetles used by the red cross, 50’s American trucks and some Sovjet boats. They all have the same fate : rusting away & taken over by nature. Even the pine-trees are taking them into hostage. Some old army jeeps where still smiling while suffering from the freezing cold. Luckily we didn’t see the owner as he’s not happy with photographers, if you get caught the pictures need to be deleted. We saw his footprints and traces of dogpaws in the snow, apparently he just patrolled. This makes part of urbexphotography, living the adventure.

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Tour De La Famenne / Bowling M

Bowling M is a bowling/biljartclub built in the early nineties, 5 years later it has been sold to a new owner. Since 2013 Bowling M is abandoned, probably after some financial problems. The double outdoor waterslide was part of a hotel which has been demolished allready.

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Filature Impressionante

This abandoned weaving mill was founded in the 1920’s, it produced high quality carpets for the national & international market. After almost a century of production it suddenly suffered from the worldwide economic crisis. Due to significant less export it got bankrupt. The site will be renewed with a new project in near future. Visited on 2/1/16.

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Oldtimer Folies

In a small village in France some oldtimers are taken over by the forest. Some where still parked in a hangar with a collapsed roof, we had to climb over the scraps, but we managed to get some shots.
Today 90% of the vehicles have been removed, as so many photographers passed by the local villagers informed the goverment…

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Music Was My First Love

Step into the time machine and flashback! This gorgeous castle is an incredible journey into time, the former artistic owner was passionate (or better obsessed) with music! We bought a pair of rubber boots as this location was only accessible through mud. In the middle of nowhere we arrived at the castle, it had been abandoned for about 20 years. This castle was full of treasures, 3 pianos, all sorts of vintage recording equipment, old radios, turntables, paintings and photography equipment. We even found old newspapers of 1971. Now it has been locked and securely protected, we were just in time.

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Manoir Colimaçon

This fairytale mansion was built around the year 1900 in France. Some say Art Nouveau, others say Gregorian or Victorian style, I leave it in the middle, the most important thing is that it’s breathtaking. This mansion has been abandoned since 1999. It has 3 floors and it covers a cave below the mansion. The staircase in the hall is authentic carven out of wood. The manoir is full of nice mosaics, even on the terrace outside. The staircase is the most famous one in a very modern spiral concept which covers all 3 floors including the closed cave. The reason that it has been abandoned is because of a dispute between the old and the current owner, they where both neighbours. The manoir is in ‘slow state of renovation” at the moment, it is NOT for sale. If you check the middle of the spiral stairs you see 2 small eyes watching you…

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Château Royaliste

This ancient majestic castle is situated in the middle of nowhere, Kings & Queens could have lived in this luxurious castle. It was built in the 17th century, in the 19th century the interior was renovated, but the outside still reflects the grandeur of the 17th Century. The garden park was gigantic with nice trees. The castle had many different owners in past. I shot some extra details and pictures so that you get drowned into the authentic atmosphere of that time. After many years of battles between the heirs for Inheritance rights, finally some family members returned and the castle is inhabited again.

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La Grotte Des Ermites

The Cave Of The Hermit…. the former owner smoked a pipe daily, the nicotine painted the walls brown & black. In a corner we saw a huge amount of empty alcohol bottles. The stairs were full of empty Eau de Cologne bottles. This man deceased in his small claustrofobic bedroom without windows. He was a big fan of retro Mayfair magazines. His old – prison striped – pyjamas were still hanging on the hat rack.

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Maison Le Grand Georges

This house is abandoned for around 30 years since 1987, the family doesn’t want to pay anymore vacancy taxes, the demolition licence is in front of the house, but for one or another reason there’s a delay. We visited this well known spot a few years ago but we didn’t make any shots. The livingroom was full of mud and the house was too messy to get ourselves motivated. As we only had time for a small trip we made a revisit for the archives.

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Cemetary Of The Skull

The skull and cross bones signify mortality and death, something very common during this time period.
Grave of Antoine Michel Wemaer & Marie-Alide Heene
Birth: 1768 Bruges
Death: 1837

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Farm 1881

Hidden between the trees it was hard to find this abandoned farm at first. The livingroom had Chinese furniture with hand crafted wooden animal sculptures. This couple farmers had special interest in foreign cultures and dolls. Even their own face sculptures were left behind. We spent a few hours here, it was well worth the stop.

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Pool E

After the disastrous summer of 2011 this Art Deco pool had to close. In it’s glory days the pool had about 5 times more visitors during summer season so a gigantic difference. Problems started with security, hygiene, pipelines got rusted and rotten, so costs elevated too fast. Mysteriously 4 years later, used swimming clothes are still ‘drying’ in the fitting rooms, suncream, magazines, towels, chairs, drinks… are still present just like the last visitors had to leave in a hurry. The pool will be renovated in future.

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Prison XI

Not much too see here but empty halls, but this location has a history. The barracks date back to the late 1800s, with great emphasis placed on the architectural beauty and form of the buildings. The man who designed and oversaw the building works later became chief engineer for the whole city. The barracks were extended in the 1930s, during WW II they were occupied by the German army, and later by the US Army (the 11 cells housed white soldiers in the barracks, and black soldiers in the nearby stables). They were closed in the early 1990s, following a restructuring of the Belgian army when military service was abolished. Plans to use the barracks as a prison were opposed by the local community, who were opposed to such a development as there is a school and nursery nearby. The site was sold in 2005 and is being developed into a large housing development of over 100 flats respecting the architectural heritage of the site. Development of the first and second blocks were completed in 2008 and 2011 respectively. We visited this last stripped block, it’s still stripped due to the slow sales in those blocks.

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Blue Christ Church

Blue Christ Church is an impressive abandoned church built between 1878-1880. It was named after the neo-gothic wooden cross that hangs above the altar with the wooden blue Jezus. The organ is an ancient piece built in 1785, almost 100 years older than the church itself. The neo-gothic preacherchair built in 1898 is also impressive. After each shot a pigeon departed, it was like clay pigeon shooting 🙂

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Return Of The King

After a small jungle trip we arrived at this castle ruin, with some fantasy you can imagine it must have been really impressive in it’s glorydays. If you look closer you can still see a lot of details, the staircase is fenomenal and “the lift to hell” is still present. It must have been a dream to dive in the big pool in front of the castle, in the middle of nature. We didn’t find any information who actually inhabited the castle, but it’s a shame to leave it in this state of decay.

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Exodus Hospital

Seeing the pictures gives you the impression hospital Exodus is still active, but it’s completely abandoned. Wandering though the empty hospital – with all lights & operating lamps turned on – gives a freaky feeling. Most abandoned hospitals are trashed and full of tags, I don’t even get my camera out, but Exodus is as new. First we were not motivated as there is no decay yet, but eventually we started and spent a few hours.

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Eagle Church

We arrived at an abandoned church, but it was closed down… a bit further we entered another church, this one was nice too.

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PO Factory

Graffiti artist Pete One had to look for a new base to expose his artworks as School of Art is demolished. This abandoned factory has a few nice artworks, School of Art had more rooms & better lightning, but Po Factory aka Factory 2601 is a start.

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Jungle School

Nature is completely taking over this abandoned school. Plants are wrestling through the classrooms and rusty pipes everywhere. Mother nature painted the blackboards herself with different types of mold and colours. It was not healthy being down there but was worth a visit, now it’s demolished.

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Château Hohner

This château is situated in a fancy neighbourhood and is well known for it’s garden full of wrecked cars, boats, .. In the bedrooms we saw pictures, statues, sewing machines, vintage radios, frames with quotes… In the garage a nice oldtimer was parked, the garage was a working space full of car accessories.

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Maison Radio

This small house was owned by an old man who repaired vintage radios. The “radio room” was extremely dark so had to do an extra effort to shine indirect LED light to get acceptable lightning. In the livigingroom his wheelchair is still waiting for him while nature takes over slowly and fungus is growing through the walls…

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Château Sous Les Nuages

In a charming village full of rivers, flowers, horses and panoramic views this majestic castle stands out impressively like the king of the hill. Sous les nuages means “under the clouds”. Urbexing is not only visiting locations, the adventure, atmosphere and vacation feeling also makes a trip to remember. In the past an old rich lord owned this castle, his pets were Walaby’s jumping on the immense domain. We were just on time, the castle and domain got sold for 2 Million Euros (!) to a producer who will renovate the castle. The luxury of the living rooms and classic bedrooms were breathtakingly beautiful and the staircase was impressive. Toys and letters of the children were still present. We could experience for a few hours how it felt to live as a millionaire 🙂

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Garage Duke

We found this place by coincidence, the terrain consists of an old abandoned house with garage and a classic Dodge Charger coming right of a 70s Dukes of Hazzard movie. The garden is full of wrecked cars, boats, cranes and a small office. The overall & gloves of the former garage owner were still present as if he just left, the last calendar date was 1996. inside the house it was a bit messy with all the trash around, so I had to isolate the details. The former owner was obsessed with everything about automotives, miniature cars,…. After some research we found out he passed away at the early age of 52. Instead of getting repaired all vehicles are rusting in nature…

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Lost Lummerland

Somewhere offroad in Germany we visited this depot with a huge collection of nostalgic locomotives and trains used around the 50s-70s. Some classic fire wagons were also being restored. They don’t make ’em like this anymore….

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Refugium Pompos

This abandoned Neo-Renaissance villa in Germany is also known as “Villa Woodstock” It was built in 1883 by two German architects for a German laywer. This clever piece of architecture is named after the beautiful wooden details inside the old building. By 1976, it was threathened to be demolished, but the city saved it by adding the building to the monument list. Originally this was a residential dwelling but from the mid 1980’s became a care facility and since 1990 a retirement home for the elderly. Villa Woodstock closed down in 2012 and it was left abandoned since then. Inside there is a spacious entrance hallway with a nice staircase, some call it the little sister of Chateau Lumière. It’s future is another uncertainty. The neighbours keep a very close eye on the place, as a result the building has remained free from vandalism.

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Courthouse

Germany’s most impressive justice complex was built around 1910. Imagine yourself being in court here with the judge & lawyers, this must have been very impressive back in the days! The building originally served as a justice complex for the internal affairs agency and the district court. The building has been extensively extended over the years and was abandoned in 2009. The architecture is a real piece of artwork, Egyptian style carved figures look over the main hall, beautiful carved blocks built into the stairs and ceiling. The building has one of the most beautiful staircases ever made. Behind the old building a gigantic new complex is built. The courthouse room will be kept as main feature for the new project as luxury flats, the staircase and ornate ceiling will be retained, today restoration of this beautiful monument is busy. There are many things in the cities around us which are abandoned and unseen by the general public, this is what makes Urban Exploration so exciting. This place is under renovation now, a big project with shoppingmall, apartments,…

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Prison H19

Prison H19 was built in the end of the 19th century with a capacity of 600 prisoners. About 8 prisoners who were charged for murder have been executed here. All prisoners were moved to a new bigger prison elsewhere in the city….

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Meyers Mühle

Somewhere in far Luxemburg we visited this charmful old millerhouse, possibly it will be renovated to a guesthouse in future. As the house is so distant it has been preserved very well after many years, there was no vandalism. We found of lot of old papers and magazines dated around 1974.

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Maison Anna

We couldn’t believe this house was actually what we were looking for as it was so small. There were lots of houses in the neighbourhood but strange enough not a single person outside during the middle of the day… Luxemburg is extremely calm. This house must have been built for dwarfs… I bumped a few times with my tripod against the ceiling but we managed to take some nice shots. Mrs. Anna was some kind of missionary as you can see on the picture in the livingroom. The house was full of religious symbols. Not much is known what actually happened here.

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Château Deluge

The château was built in the 1800’s and served at some point as a care home for children as classrooms being present here. The classrooms are in a state of heavy decay lots of water on the floor feeding the overgrowth and the walls have peeling paint in abundance. The highlights are the two stunning staircases at the end of each wing. Sadly one has suffered rather bad fire damage. Intricate carvings cover the wooden stairs which double back on themselves. Great architecture and extreme decay, we felt as we arrived in a sci-fi movieset. The decay was like a picasso from mother nature, this was one of the nicest locations I visited so far this year.

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Château Congo

Chateau Congo is a huge Chateau of Royal class situated in a tiny village in deepest darkest Belgium, it has been built in the 19th century by a Count and Countess who lived there until the mid of the 20th century. It’s abandoned since a long time, trees are growing inside and decay is everywhere. The Chateau is in a seriously bad state, the only floor that is properly accessible is the ground floor and even that has some totally impassable parts. Half of the upstairs floors of the chateau have totally collapsed inside. It’s really a shame this place is in such a bad state, you can sense how amazing the interiors must have been when it was all intact 20 years ago when it was first abandoned. Not only the history of this place has vanished, but even the local government cannot trace the current owners to discuss demolition of the remains.

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The Lime Factory

Early in the morning we warmed up with a few shots at this old factory which was built in the end of the 19th century. Not much to see here, but It was nice to see the famous Pinocchiohead in reality. It’s purpose was to crush zinc for another factory down the road. In the end of the 20th century the machines stopped and have not been started since then. Part of it is now a museum.

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Green School

We ended our trip with a short stop at this old highschool, it was built in the late 1800’s as a mental asylum. The building has been abandoned for over a decade and was the target of arsonists a few years ago. Just before dark, we ended in the famous ‘green room’.

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Lily’s Bird

If you never dream of flying, then you’ll never wake up with wing. This warbird/skymaster was built in Chicago and operated as a transportplane around WWII, later it was used as a passenger & cargo plane. It operated in the USA, UK, Afghanistan, India,… finally a Belgian company bought it to prevent it’s demolition.

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Pornhouse

This house was inhabited by a strange old man who drunk large amounts of beers a day, smoked a lot and was obsessed by porn. We were told his head was extremely swollen due to a big tumor ball. In past he was married and as a cyclist he won many trophies. The master bedroom was his “working place”, full of vintage posters, magazines and movies. He was also keen on making drawings, playing cards,… I guess he got a loner when he lost his wife and his obsession got out of proportion. The decay on the attic is really sweet. It was located in a fancy villa district so it didn’t fit there anymore after many years, it’s demolished now and replaced with a another fancy villa.

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Maison Seule

3 years since someone stepped in…. we arrived on a cold early morning and stepped into a real time capsule. Several clocks were still ticking on that fatal summerhour of 2012. It was cosy and hot inside as the gas stove was still working. Strange that no relatives came emptying the house after so many years and that the gas company still didn’t turn off the gas. Maison Seule is like stepping into a fairytale, every girls dream to have such a 60s styled bedroom. There was no decay, only some spiderwebs, scorched plants and humid spots on the ceiling of the bedrooms due to a roof leakage.This was a great explore to remember.

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Alla Germanica

This majestic building was built in Bourgondic style, it has been a famous restaurant for many years. The last years it served as a boarding school, today it’s empty and the future of it is incertain, a pity cause the nice architecture deserves renovation. The building has nice doors with special wooden structures, some parts of the walls are in marble, and there is also a great staircaise and awesome ceiling.

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The Morgue

Your soul has just withdrawn from your body… Time to wander around the morgue…. And let your spirit watch how the forensic examiner dissects your body… The first abandoned morgue I visited after all the years of urban exploring, the final destination when your last minutes are counted… it’s part of a large hospital which is still active, it’s demolished now.

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Fernand, l’Arracheur De Dents

This abandoned dentist villa is empty, except for the two practice rooms which have been left intact. One them is “a room with a view”. One of the most beautiful views a dentist practice can have, ideal for those who don’t like dentists and want to oppose ideas while he’s at work. Something must have happened with the dentist or his family. Who would leave a beautiful place like this behind…

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Piscine De Mosque

A classic in urbexworld. This abandonned building was built 1937, it was a swimmingpool with theatre and restaurant. The entrance hall and it’s staircase in mosaic are absolutely an eye catcher.We passed there about 3 years ago but we were stopped by an illegal inhabitant, he told us it would be transformed to a mosque. We don’t know if it’s true or if it was just his dream, but later we heard that the man left. The architecture of this building was well worth the short stop, you never know when urbex locations disappear…

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Château Honoré

This beautiful castle was built around 1930 in art deco style by a famous architect. It had a romantic history and belonged to a couple Belgian-British artistocrates. The last usuage was as a small charm hotel with wellness, sauna and a swimming pool. Now this castle is full of graffiti and vandalised, the building is scheduled for demolition and planning for 3 small blocks of flats are to sit in its place.

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Château Venetia

Chateau Venetia has been built late in the 18th century by a noble family of the city, this stunning mansion has been left abandoned for sometime. it’s last use was as a hotel. Around 1930 it was split into seperate properties but was later on combined back to one building. It had been purchased around ten years ago by a group of French business men who even had the furniture ready. Renovation started, but for an unclear reason it stopped again. We found a letter stating that the owners received a fine of €3000 for the poor maintenance of the building. There were some small grafitti tags (fixed in Lightroom) but the most important thing : the castle was no ruin but decay at it’s best !

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The Wellness Farm

The Wellnessfarm closed it doors in 2002 after 22 years being active, it was a hotel with restaurant, festivity room, fitness and wellness but eventually it turned into a failure. The site was built in the 17th century and is protected heritage, now it’s finally sold.

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Parkplatz

We found about 50 oldtimers from the 50’s somewhere in the woods of Germany and brought new life to them… that were real cars back in the days, they don’t make them like this anymore…

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Dr. Mucor

Nature is claiming back it’s place in this typical German 80s hospital, it’s a long time under the influence of mold. Books, decay and medical stuff are the keywords here.

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Hotel L

Hotel L was built in 1920, once it was a fine piece of art-deco architecture, you can still see the blankets on the ceiling from the Belle Epoque area. Today it’s state is extremely in decay, pity enough only half the hotel was accessible, the wooden stairs were completely rotten. The future of this – once magnificent hotel – isn’t very bright…

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Ferme A La Noix

Ferme à la Noix has been abandoned since 2010, the farmhouse is full of family pictures, probably the last inhabitants passed away and the children didn’t care to empty the farm and continue the work. It’s still full of old furniture, agricultural machinery.

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Château Zakspeed

This is a recently abandoned castle, it has a great entrance hall with classic staircase, the furniture is a mix of retro/minimalistic design, the castle is full of pictures of African kids, toys, media… we found even a PS4 box and Far Cry II game which shows it’s really recent. The house is full of payment reminders and courthouse papers. The couple that lived there was very rich, they had one or more companies with lots of personnel. Possibly they had to leave the castle due to a expropriation. Serious vandalism has taken place, it has been twice or more on fire, the nice stairs are history…

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Villa Klodderkes

Villa Klodderkes was build in 1830 and was used as a police office, the villa is now abandoned for more than 10 years. It’s completely empty but the nice architecture, cells and interrogation rooms still remain intact.

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Orient Express

This abandoned dieselelectric train was built in the 1930’s together with 2 other ones,this is the last one left. They don’t make trains like these anymore, big sofa’s inside and a lot of space, made to travel the most convenient way. A big dieselmachine behind the steering weel and long pipes through the room filled with hot fumes or liquids when it was operational.

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Manoir Viron

This former country residence was built in the 1920’s by a noble Belgian family… All ancestors live in France now, except the old baroness who lives next to it. It’s abandoned for almost 20 years now, day by day the beauty faded away in natural decay by the weather, this emerges into mystery. By entering the nostalgia takes you by the hand and never leave you during the whole visit. Personally I was under the spell of the old pictures, the bed in decay, the vintage buggy and the great sight from the terrace.The harmony of colors and atmosphere was amazing. It was already in the blue hour when we left. This was an exploration full of history, memories and emotions.

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Monastery César

This old monastery will be demolished in near future as all Holy Sisters left. Service flats will be built on the terrain, only the chapel will be left untouched. For some years the monastery was used as an art academy where local youth was free to express their creativity. It was a nice visit, artwork between heaven and hell and some thoughtful quotes noted on the walls.

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Hôpital Du Bébé Qui Pleure

This French hospital got it’s name from the old alarm in past which sounded like a crying baby. When we arrived we walked twice around the building but found no entrance, everything was sealed with fences, we thought it was unaccesible but suddenly we found an entrance. In 2010 there were about 425 births, after the last birth the hospital closed as it was too small with only +-25 beds, all people and machines were moved to a new hospital. Extra space was needed for expansion and new projects. Actually the hospital was in reasonable state with still some surgery lamps (I saw a lot worse hospitals where I even didn’t take any pics).

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Château Sanglier

Château Sanglier was our last location of the one-day trip to France. The castle was built in 1902 and named to the boarhead attached to the wall. I didn’t take pics of the livingroom as a squater made a mess there…

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Fillature Dollhouse

This textile factory used to produce dolls next to the jute and hemp textiles. Today it looks like a bomb exploded. It was built in the end of the 19th century and around 2000 employees worked in the 20 buildings on the terrain. The owner was generous to the local community by building hospitals, orphanages and child services. He lived in a manor in the woods which is totally taken over by nature now as you can see further in the picture in the woods. Business stopped in 2008 and the newest machines were shipped to Italy, the company had some fires recently so not much detail left…

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Château Des Signes

Château des Signes was built in the 17th century and the architecture is breathtaking. The exterior is done in fine ashlar using stone and limestone and is designed in a plane symmetrical style. The interior was spared no expense with fine detail and is one of the most wondrous looking homes to date. The last true owner remained in the home until 1976, which is the last time the home was surveyed. Currently, it seems as if a squatter or 2 or maybe even the owner takes up residence in the attic according to many online forums on the chateau. Unfortunately the castle does not seem to be protected as a historical monument but it really should be.

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Château Verdure

In the middle of a posh neighbourhood we found the beautiful abandoned Château Verdure aka Manoir Pavlovich. The people who live in this neighborhood live in fancy villas on neverending domains and drive with ultra expensive cars. This mansion was built in 1935 and it got abandoned around 1998. A company started renovating but they stopped as it was in a very bad state. I’ve seen several piano’s in abandoned places but this has to be my favorite so far in combination with the beautiful staircase. Since the 70’s many past owners died due to a deadly curse, they all died in their sleep and got to ashes by self-combustion. Paranormal investigators investigated those inexplicable phenomena and found the origin of it. Edgard and his wife where married for 20 years and lived there. Edgard was a renowned doctor and Lucie was a seamstress. They lived in the manoir very happy untill she had a terrible accident. The morning of 8 may 1941, Lucie drove with her husbands car to the market in the village. She slipped with her car, bumped on a tree and her Citroën got on fire. Lucie got trapped inside and almost burnt alive crying. A brave man defied the fire, people around her started to extinguish the flames on her body. They brought Lucie to the hospital and she was comatose for many months. Suddenly she woke up, distressed she saw her new face and body with it’s never ending pain. She was a living carbonised woman, with face with no nose, no ears, no hair, nothing, only a burnt body. It took long weeks to let her walk again with a wheelchair and eating alone. Nobody was waiting, her husband disappeared, he decided to flee and gave her the Pavlovich manor. Her life was staying at home and looking through the livingroom window, watching how her garden got absorbed by weed and blackberries. Lonely she could only wait till a male nurse brought her food and helped her. His health deteriorated and Lucy got isolated, she lost all power and desire and died. Since then all new owners that died from self-combustion could smell as strong fire odor a few hours before the tragedy. It was the odor of the spirti of Lucy returning to the manoir, the mystery stayed unsolved…

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Villa SS

Somewhere in the bushes we visited an old abandoned landhouse becoming one with nature : Villa SS. The staircase and architecture are very nice, there are some holes in the roof, nature enters back the house to reclaim it’s position.

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Villa SC

This abandoned villa was formerly inhabited by a very noble familly, it’s also connected to the history of a city and is seen as very important heritage. The villa is not protected and the heritants want to demolish the villa and sell the ground to a project leader who wants to build apartment blocks on it. The project is constantly blocked by petitions of neighbours and politicians. We were impressed of the size of the villa and the state of decay, although it was a bit messy with lots of vandalism, still a lot of details were present to make a decent shoot.

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Farm Paternoster

Farm Paternoster is an old farm, built in 1906, where time stood still. The farmers couple had 2 children, a boy and a girl. The farm was left behind around 1994. For the rest we don’t much about the history. It was a nice warming up visit of the day, lots of details, when we left we bumped against some Dutch explorers.

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Eglise Du Solitaire

Eglise du Solitaire (du Misanthrope) is a beautiful church located in a small village left abandoned because there were too few people getting to this church. The last church service was held in 1980. In 1990, this old church has acquired a protected status. There were plans to make a cultural space out of it, but it looks like it will never be done… The only inhabitants are the pigeons as usual. It’s a real shame to let this church rotten in decay.

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Church Of The Raven

Church of the Raven was built in the beginning of the 20th century, it got the same fate as many other churches : getting abandoned…
It was called after the raven that lays dead in the church.

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Hotel Du Vatican

This small hotel has been abandoned since 2010, the former owner possibly had a connection with the Vatican according to some paperwork….

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Maison Theo

Maison Theo is a nice hunters house situated in Luxemburg. The livingroom has a wall full of animal skulls & skins. The skulls are real, some are dated on the date that the hunter shot them. In some rooms we found stuffed animals, African statues and many other interesting things. The furniture with wooden carved figures is also great. The hunter had a company in past, no idea why he left everything behind, but we enjoyed the visit.

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Alla Italia

This is the most impressive abandoned bathouse in Belgium, it was built in the 19th century by a famous Belgian architect.
The entrance hall has an impressive ceiling with Italian-like fresco’s, staircases with nice paintings,… this was a top location!
In near future this building will be renovated to a luxury hotel.

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School Of Art | Pete One

In an abandonned nursing school (which is demolished now) we discovered the graffiti work of Pete One. Pete started in 1999 and developed his artistic skills and graduated in what we can call the Urban Academy, the streets! Pete unchains his artistic devils onto canvases as well as walls. He fulfills projects on demand. His ultimate goals are travelling through graffiti-art, spraying on outsized objects as windmills, watertowers and big buildings. Clothing design of T-shirts & hoodies is also a field of interest. Check out his work!

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Schola XCLVII

Schola XCLVII is an abandoned monastery with attached school and a stunning chapel which was well hidden. The school part would be demolished while the chapel was hopefully going to be saved from demolition. The chapel had very little decay or damage as it has been abandoned last year.

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Manoir Aux Statues

Manoir aux Statues is situated in one of the most beautifull parts in Belgium which gives you a holiday feeling. When arrived we noticed a wrecked car with a new car parked next to it. Further we noticed the manoir being taken over by nature. Suddenly at the back we bumped against an old hermit who sat on a chair wearing one sandal and one shoe. The old friendly man told us his life story and guided us through his manoir. In past he worked in real estate property and knew a lot of languages, actually he was no poor man at all. Incredible how he can sleep in this state of decay, due to his age he didn’t care much about anything. We felt like we were TV reporters performing an interview, anyway, this place left us a unique impression 🙂

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Château d’Ah

Chateau d’Ah is nice abandoned castle situated in a small village, In past there was a printing company next to the castle, which closed in 2008, the owner died the same year. The castle is completely empty but the impressive staircase & wallpaintings still show it’s glory from the past, so it’s worth a visit.

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Maison Rouf Rouf

Merry Christmas!!! Maison Rouf Rouf is the only place in Belgium where you can celebrate Christmas the whole year through. This small cosy house is packed with stuff that makes it even more smaller. Probably the owner passed away in December 2013. Back outside we enjoyed the fresh air again, but it was worth a visit.

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Manoir Du Directeur

Manoir du directeur is a old manor situated on the terrain of a derelict company. The director’s office is still in good condition, his old laptop, Belgian Francs, pictures and paintings are still present. We even found maps with Generale Bank documents and a Commodore 64, so visiting this place is a flashback to the 80’s 🙂 The most impressive part is the stylish entrance hall completely in decay.

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Dr. Gentil

Dr. Gentil died about 10 years ago, since then his home & practice are left abandoned. He had a complete pharmacy room stuffed with old medicins and pills which have been removed recently. There are stories that Dr. Gentil performed illegal experiments which caused death to numberous patients. Since the doctor’s death the spirits of the victims would wander around the house. We had one strange experience, two of our camera’s fell out a few times with full battery…

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DDR Hörsaal

Somewhere hidden in the woods lays this former gigantic complex built in the 1930’s during the Third Reich period in Nazi Germany. Until 1945 about 350 students were educated to consent Nazis – for service to the people and state. After the fall of the Third Reich the buildings remained in use as a school, to house a Ministery and boarding school which closed in 2005. When you wander through the corridors of this building you can still feel the spirit of it’s use while the Third Reich was on the rise. The SS buildings are now frequently used by an ultra National Party group, skinheads with rascist thoughts are still a big movement within Germany…

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Berghotel Deluxe

What once was a tragic accident, is now a beauty of a location. Some years later everything is still as it was left behind. The fire and water damage, the doors smashed with an axe to free people. A little nature taking over and even a part that hasn’t seen any fire at all. This hotel used to be very populair in it’s glory days. It is located in cosy small little town well known for it’s fresh mountain air and Spa hotels, a lot of people visit this region for their winterholidays. The hotel changed owner in 2008, due to a technical defect Berghotel almost burnt down completely in 2009. The most famous shot of this location is the room with the bed covered in moss.

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Dr. Anna L

Finally I had the chance to visit Dr. Anna L’s house. I was surprised about the amount of details still present as for many years this is a well known location. Dr. Anna L was the home and practice of urology specialist Dr. K and his wife. The doctor was born in 1910 and died in 1988 at the age of 78 in a car accident. After his death, his wife went to a nursing home. Their son is also a doctor in Berlin, he never cleared the house so now it is a true time capsule. The building oozes a macabre atmosphere, on the ground floor there are 2 consulting/operating rooms with surgical instruments, drugs, operating chairs with leg stirrups and disturbingly a fluid catch tray beneath the seat. Operating lights, test tube centrifuges, catheters and jars with human kidneys and other organs preserved in formaldehyde. On the ground floor there is a waiting area and a library full of Urology literature. This was a wealthy and very well educated couple. The doctor was innovative as he also had a laboratory for testings. The upper floors were the couples’ personal living space although still with plenty of medical books and photographs. Next to the grand curved staircase there is a large lounge area with an authentic Steinway piano. The doctor seemed to be a keen hunter as there were numberous animal skins around the house. The wardrobes were full of stylish ladies and gents clothing. For a couple living life in the 50’s and 60’s, they travelled a lot, Madeira, the UK,… This particular home is sad, all the stuff moved around for urbex pictures, nothing is really as it was, laying out clothes, moving shoes, picking up that fox, all to look artsy or creepy. Hopefully this home will soon get the attention to be restored but the menace of demolition is never far away…

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Villa Lambin

This house is built like a “gingerbread house” from a fairytale, in past it was the house of a music teacher. We knew in advance this house was completely empty, so we only did a short stop to take some outside shots. Now it’s demolished…

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Piscine Art Deco

This nice abandoned swimming pool in Art Deco style was part of a school complex which has completely been demolished. Fortunately the swimming pool won’t be demolished.

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Préventorium Dolhain

Preventorium D is a fantastic art deco style building that was built to accommodate children who were infected with tuberculosis. Work on the building started in the 1950′s and completion is recorded in 1955 when the hospital was in full operation. It continued to act as a sanatorium until the mid 1980′s. Preventorium’s differed slightly from sanatoriums in that they catered more specifically to patients with an early state of infection. The building had a brief history closing only 30 years later when it became uneconomical to maintain the 150 bed capacity preventorium. Following the closure of the hospital the property was sold to a businessman, the hospital would be stripped and converted into high end loft apartments. We knew in advance there wasn’t much to see, but the nice vintage firebrigade truck was worth a short stop.

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Lost Tanks

Somewhere in Germany on a sunny day we made a walk in an abandoned military zone. There we found some lost tanks, mostly M47 Patton’s that were built around 1951. In total 8500 of these types were built, 1100 were delivered to Germany.

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Mansion Of The Bride

Mansion of the bride is actually more a large city farm, still authentic with lots of personal belongings of the former occupants and where time stood still. The showpiece is the wedding dress, where the location its named after. 2 car wrecks are parked in the garden. The house is for sale now, but there isn’t much interest.

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Gravestone Church

We thought we arrived at the wrong church, the front side was totally not in decay. One tricky thing is that we had to walk through the parking of the local police office, situated 50 meters from Gravestone Church. The backside of the church was totally in decay, inside it was dark and difficult to take pics, we were welcomed by hundreds of pigeons. The gravestone was opened by some amateur archeologists and left behind like this. Inhabitants of the village tried to convince the government that this church needed to have an important role in their community. End of 2012 the restoration started slowly…

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Hasard De Cheratte

The coalmine is composed of four mine shafts. The first well was dug in 1850 to extract dice coal and closed for the first time in 1877 following an accident. It re-opened thirty years later in 1907 and operated until 1977. In the early twenty-first century, the mine is now known as an urban ruin. Remediation of the site and the demolition of several buildings are planned between 2014 and 2015.

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Old Iron

Six oldtimers sleeping in an old barn, frozen in time, a 1959 Chevrolet Deluxe, a Citroën Traction, Mercedes,… only urbexers bring new life to them. The winking Renault is real, no photoshop 😉

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Château Nottebohm

On a windy day we made a 20min walk deep in the woods, suddenly we spotted Chateau Nottebohm, a spooky castle in Belgium that can come right out of a fairytale. It was built in 1908, the Belle Epoque era, by a rich German family who got famous for their initiatives in skin diseases. The architect combined Neo-Flemish Renaissance, Neo-Classicism and cottage style. The family used the castle as a holiday manor up till 1943. During WWII the castle was inhabited by the German army. After the war the family visited it only very sporadic. In 1950 the castle was rented as a hotel/restaurant. Later it was left to rotten, since 1980 it’s for sale without success. Tim Burton planned to use the castle for a new movie, but he changed his mind as inside the location is dark and rotten…

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Skibaan Casablanca

Some years ago the government gave permission to expand and renovate Skibaan Casablanca. In 2010 the works started but immediately had to stop. One neighbour and a few organisations protested and started legal procedures as it was situated in an official nature domain. The fun for thousands of ski-lovers was over. The company got bankrupt and today Skibaan Casablanca is left behind in decay.

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Sauna Jee

This abandoned sauna & wellnesscenter was located in Herselt, Belgium. It was closed in 2011 by the mayor after a negative advice of the fire brigade and health security service. Before in 1997 there was a fire and the owner also got problems with building violations, so he got aimed by the inspectors. He invested thousands of Euros to renovate this into a luxurous sauna. The popularitiy of Sauna Jee was thanks to the cheap prices, cosiness and social contact. Regular customers visited it for 15-20 years and made a lot of friends. A lot of people miss Sauna Jee and would love to see it re-opened. A democratic price of 8 euro per person for a full day sauna & swimmingpool was inexpensive seen the prices of the competition. The owner had 200.000 € debts allready and was looking for a new investor. There were rumours that the complex would re-open in summer 2013 but in September 2015 Sauna J got demolished…

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Monastère Mont G

This impressive abandoned monastery was built around 1914 in neo-gothic style. Recently it was sold to a project developer who will renovate the site but keep it as original as possible. When arriving the lights in the basement were on, we met a photographer with model and makeup-artist who had the keys and permission to take pictures. He guided us with a small tour and we did our thing. It was a difficult shoot seen the height of the church to have some symmetry in the lines.

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Zone Braams

Short visit to this abandonned military communication centre built in 1969 by the Nato with a multi-antenna satellite. As communication technology evolves quickly, a lot of the outdated centres are closed. The Nato invested more than 37 million Euros for new technology, the site will be renewed in 2014.

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Villa Heil

Villa Heil is a stunning abandoned notary villa built in 1895 in Erpe Mere Belgium. The staircase is mindblowing and the villa is full of memories. In front of the stained glass windows we saw stuffed birds and also a fish. The notary was a passionate hunter, he even put the dates on the wooden panels when he had shot the birds. We saw lots of books about laws, duties, even a notebook from school dated 1969. The suitcase with Sabena flight label was really nostalgic. The notary was also interested in religion, royalty and travelling,, he had a whole collection of national geographic magazines. The villa had a room with a nice exposition of child drawings from their grandchild. The wine rack in the cellar was worth a fortune. Visited in September 2013. This historic villa was demolished in August 2016.

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Theatre Jeusette

This beautiful theatre is hidden in a ghetto style neighbourhood surrounded by industry. The whole block is actually abandonned, this was no public spot but it was owned by a large industrial company, when the company went down the theatre closed also in the 90s… It’s a small location with theater, conference room and foyer, used as entertainment for the workers, this was often the case in that era. Some time ago there was a small fire in the theatre, but it’s still in good condition. Today it’s seriously trashed and it’s full of graffiti tags.

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Hotel Du Bus Bleu

This is my first visit to an abandoned hotel, it’s situated on a very busy road somewhere in Luxemburg. It has about 20 rooms but pity enough they were too trashed so it wasn’t worth taking pictures of them. The restaurant however still had all documents of the trade management, as well as furniture, money galore, wine cellar and a professional coffee machine.

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Maison Kirsch

Maison Kirsch is a lovely farmhouse in a small town in Luxemburg, pity enough a lot disappeared over the years but it was still worth a visit. The Name Kirsch (Cherry) comes from all the fruit jars (most filled with cherries) inside the house. It could be that this house was used as a distillery. The couple died around 1945 and this farmhouse is abandonned since the late 60’s. Everything is still present like clothes, documents, a bicycle, even some garlic…

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Château Lumière

Château Lumiere was the family home of a wealthy Swiss tobacco industrial. The stunning chateau hidden away in a quiet town in Alsace, France. It was built in a Neo-Baroque style in the early 1900s. They spent too much money, couldn’t afford to keep the castle anymore and left it behind in the 50’s. The castle was used for business purposes after the owner left the town. It was sold numerous times, however it stood empty and abandoned since then. Our trip in 2013 : we drove all night to France, but it was worth the extreme early departure hour. This is one of the nicest castles we ever visited! We sneaked around the back, walk up a steep hill and came down again steep through the garden. Our first impression was a majestic château, what an entry! The architect of this place had a great vision of perspective and depth. Lines that intertwine, light that follows the curves of the building and mirrors that create a parallel world. Lumière, light, is something that immediately catches the eye in the hall thanks to the massive light dome on the roof, a lot of light shines through it and it makes the castle very special. Today the mirror is broken and the castle is full of grafitti tags 🙁

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Château De La Forêt

The legendary Château De La Foret was built in 1860 and it has been abandoned since 2007. In past it was well guarded and locked down even better than a prison. Today it’s finally sold for 1.4 Million Euros, not much as the decay was getting worser day by day. The new owner promised to renovate the castle, despite of the high renovation cost of 7 Million Euros. We visited the castle already in 2013 the urbex way, it was one of the most impressive adventures to remember…

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Manoir De La Fleur

Manoir De La Fleur was built in 1838 at the Belgian coast and protected heritage. In 1910 the mayor expanded the manoir and it got a special “sgraffito” technique treatment to create fresco details on the tiles. This special manoir had been abandoned for many years. The neverending stairs and the impressive hall with rocks and plants and stained glass is really unique. The lions in the garden are guarding this place loyally, now it’s finally sold.

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Manoir Des Peintures

Manoir Des Peintures was formerly owned by a rich painter – it’s a real pearl that was left behind with all it’s memories. I have never seen so much beauty concentrated in one place. The immense domain is situated in an extremely fancy neighbourhood, the garden was as big as a parc! We met some fellow explorers having an early breakfast, but that was not all… later on several explorers from Holland, Italy, Germany… arrived, suddenly we where with +-16! This location was internationally hot for a short time, we were just in time as the domain is sold now. The day after our visit we heard 2 Porches of the new owner were spotted on the domain, so this is no urbex anymore.

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Maison Dr. Pepito

In past this abandoned house was inhabited by a doctor and his family. There isn’t much known about this place pity enough, so I can’t tell you why everyone suddenly dissapeared and left everything behind. Entering this house is like entering a movie scene, is has a dark sinister atmosphere.

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Crypte L – City Of The Dead

This crypte was built in 1875 and has been expanded many times through out the years. It’s a humid, sinister place where the most wealthy people were laid to rest. It was built under a graveyard due to the shortage of space. The Crypte has place for about 4000 corpses, mostly citizens of the 19th and 20th century. For about 20 years it’s forbidden area for the population as it can collapse due to the humidity.

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Piscine Du Mai

Somewhere in France we visited this unique UFO-shaped swimming pool. It was built in 1980, at that time it was hi-tech (back to the future area). It has been closed for about 22 years now because of the lack of interest. This pool had some specialities : there were no showers and no dressing rooms, in summertime the roof could be opened and it became an open air swimming pool.

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Prison 15H

We where excited for this adventurous France trip to Prison 15H (built in the 18th century).We had to pass a massive parking confiscated by 200 Roma gypsies. As soon as we arrived we could smell the gypsies roasting chestnuts. Most people take effort to stay out prison, we took effort to get in…You don’t get the chance much to take a look inside a place like this, we visited the male & female division. Prison 15H was closed as it got outdated and decayed, +- 1000 prisoners where transmitted to a new prison. The pics contain 2 sets, the male division and female division (the last one was closed the first time we visited 15H). Today the prison is demolished.

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Château Zufall

This mysterious abandoned castle had been a long time on our todo list as we heard about some haunting experiences, so we where curious if the rumours where true or not. Before we visited some other locations, we where late and it was dark allready, normally we would have driven home. We walked on the domain and saw that some lights where turned on (like we where told), our hearts began to beat faster and faster… We took the risk, entered and heard music playing softly… In the livingroom we turned on the lights and the old lustre with candles made some spooky shadows across the livingroom… This place scared the shit out of us. My urbexpartner was sweating like hell of the unbelievable tension, I was reasonable relaxed but I was also sweating as the heater was burning like hell. The castle had numberous living rooms and each one was very impressive with nice Chesterfields sofas,… Being there in real life is like in a dream, We heard the old wooden stairs cracking… then we decided to take the final shots outside, my urbexpartner thought he saw an appearance near a window but I guess he was in overdrive, it was a haunting adrenaline experience to remember…

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Schollaert Monastery

This small monastery was built by the family Schollaert. It was inherited by the Sisters in 1916 and used to house the less fortunate people of the community who received food, drinks, clothes,… In 2007 the Sisters left but it never got a new destination, today it’s in a very bad state as you witness.

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Premetro

Deep underground we found a gigantic contruction, a pre-metro is a tunnel created for metrotrains in future. There is more than 5 km unused premetro in the city and 8km used! Maintenanc costs the city yearly €150.000! There are about 8 unused metrostations, also called ‘sleeping stations”.

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Chapelle Des Anciens

Chapelle Des Anciens aka hospice des veillards was built in 1872 in Nivelles. In 2005 the inhabitants were moved to a new nursing home, pity enough this fantastic chapel didn’t have any usuage anymore. The owner wanted to sell it, but first a remediation of the soil was needed to prevent an oil leak in the late 80s. Luckily the previous inhabitants saved all religious objects. The chapel was abandoned for many years and in 2015 it was demolished.

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Château De La Chapelle

This castle has a small chapel, later it was used for weddingparty’s and other festivities, renovation is busy, soon this building will get a new destination.

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Monastère Des 3 Croix

Monastère des 3 croix aka “Hof van L” is an abandoned monastery which was used as a holiday centre aftwards. The city urgently needs studentrooms so demolition can be expected anytime. As you can see the toilet was busy and when leaving a dog guarded the place 🙂

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The Bowling Mill

This mill was built in 1920 to gain electricity. In the 60s – 70s it was a successful disco/bar, a lot of famous Belgian and international artists performed there. Later it was transformed into a sauna and Thai restaurant. In 2005 there were plans to exploit it as a gambling area with slots, but the politcal parties protested as there was a school, graveyard, church and library close to it. The final destination was a bowling alley. In 1994 the mill was protected and listed as national heritage and in 2009 would be renovated soon awaiting it’s next destination.Today it’s totally abandonned and wrecked. I t has a hole in the roof, the bowling lanes are completely wet. They better hurry with the renovation as the decay is getting worser day by day..

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Maison L’Oiseau Bleu

This abandoned house is situated on a very busy road, it was inhabited by an old couple. The woman was well known in the entertainment sector and got celebrated for her 50 years of dedication, she passed away at the respectable age of 88. Probably her husband died earlier. There isn’t much known about the history and why this house is left behind since 14 years now.

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Villa Vital

The villa was packed full of boxes, like everything is going to move anyday. It’s a very nice location, full of 50’s – 70’s retro stuff. We found the mourning card of Mr. Vital who died in 1989 at the age of 77. The house was full of pictures, never seen so many in a house honestly. We found some open hearted letters of the widow stating she always lead an honest life but lived in fear that she could get killed anyday and that this was possibly her last letter. This was a wealthy couple who enjoyed family life with lots of (grand)children. We even found a chocolate oyster box containing the first curls of one of the children and on the stairs we found the first shoes… but also a yachtgun and a wine vault with bottles of wine of 1966.

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Dentaurum

We waited for a dental checkup but no one to see…. This old dentist practice was a long time on our list, we doubted it still existed or if it was accesible. But as we live in Belgium, ‘the country of slow decay’ we were lucky. There isn’t much known about this villa, it’s built in old cottage style, inside it’s really nice. We only know that the couple had 3 kids as there were 3 children towelhooks in the bathroom. The place still had enough details and worth a visit.

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Château Henri

This castle and fabulous domain were built around 1930 by the owner of a nearby textile company. Around 1990 it was sold to a wealthy couple bank clerks who completely redecorated it. They lead a jetset life, owning yachts, villa’s… they put millions in football clubs until their corruptness came to daylight. It was one of the biggest cases of bankfraude in Belgian history. The castle has been for sale for several years, the domain is still maintained by the gardener to be able to sell it for a small 2-3 million euros, anyone interested ?

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Villa Albert

When we arrived the first thing we noticed in the garden was a small tricycle packed in tape left behind. The villa was in excellent state, just like the owners could return any minute. The husband was Polish and born in 1915. He had a serious health problems seen the number of medicines and x-ray pictures. The last signs of life were in 1996 so he definitely got to the respectable age of 81. We couldn’t figure out if he passed away or went to a resting home, but apparantly they didn’t have any family to take further care of the villa. There was a special automatic chair at the staircase so that the old man could get to get to his bedroom on the first floor. He had a lot of interest in WWII, tennis and art. At first sight it seemed a spooky villa painted in ughly green, but inside it gave a warm feeling due to the wood and rich colours. Nice last visit of the day to end our urbextrip. The villa is demolished now.

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The War Farm

This small farm got it’s name from the authentic historical picture of the farmer at the time he was a soldier in 1914-1915. His wife was a real fashionfreak seen the number of clothes that were spread around the farm. The bedroom window was full of dead beas who got attracted to the jars of marmelade. For the rest there isn’t much known about the history of this place.

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Maison Pierre

There is not much known about this place, our first impression was that a bomb exploded seen that half of the roof came down. We could feel the spirit of the former family come alive. Lots of details, pictures… possibly the husband passed away earlier and the woman raised her only daughter alone. The living room was full of mourning announcement cards, religious books,… pure decay, this house was really worth the visit.

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Villa BR

This maffioso villa is situated in a fancy neighbourhood and seems to have been abandoned in a hurry, it was owned by a millionaire who was active in illegal weapon traffic. When his construction came to daylight he left asap. We were really impressed by the architecture, fabulous kitchen and heavenly staircase.

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Agnus Dei

Urbexphotography during winter can be freezing cold, but we sometimes pass fairylike winterscapes like this visit here. Agnus Dei is a beautiful chapel, built in 1910 in a tiny village in Belgium. First it was combined with a catholic school. After WWI the dormitories were tranformed into comfortable rooms for elderly couples or single people with a nursing home. Gensterbloem housed about 38 residents. In 2002 the sisters moved to a bigger and more modern building and it was for sale. Pity enough there was a fire and the building didn’t get sold, the church was luckily still intact. Inside it was as usual a bizarre moment , knowing that all people had to leave and left everything behind.

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Université L

Université L was built in 1817, since 1967 the decline started, end of the 90s everything moved to a new location. In 2005 the building got abandoned, now 12 years later it’s still abandoned. We expected that we wouldn’t be able to get in, as security was constantly patrolling with their car around the campus. Unexpectedly we could simply walk on the terrain through the snow and saw nobody. Suddenly 5 minutes later we heard a car driving around. We saw tire tracks next to our footsteps in the snow! Luckily they didn’t enter, so we had our adrenalline kick to start our shoot. Almost all entrances were blocked except one, we took pics for 3 hours in the old labs and the impressive auditoriums.

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Château Le Lièvre

On an early wintermorning we walked through the nice snowy landscapes.
We passed horses, orchards and suddenly we saw Chateau Le Lievre between the trees. This charming small castle almost collapsed, parts of the roof were gone.
Our first impression was that it wasn’t anything spectacular, but eventually we could make some nice pictures of the pure decay. The history of this castle goes back to the 13th century. The estate consisted of a brewery and a yard, this was given to an abbey. Later the mayor bought this estate for this nephew and a musician.
They removed the yard, the cowshed and the brewery in order to build a nice courtyard with this castle. Still some details were present like a jar of Jenever, on the wall we saw old newspapers with publicity about the first soft erotic movies of the 70’s.

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The Convent Of Redemption

The Convent Of Redemption is a church with a big monastery in Bruges. It had an important art-historical role in the development of neo-Gothic in Belgium. In 1841 a redemptorist brother from Vienna built this first neo-Gothic church. It brings over a romantic evocation and a heavenly atmosphere. The zenital lightning and statues bring this place to life. The nuns had red clothing and were called the “red nuns” popularly. In the end only 7 nuns were still alive, 5 stayed in a resting home and the last 2 nuns left the monastery. This was the end of half a century of redemption and everything was for sale. The monastery is demolished now and replaced with studenthomes and a public parc.

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The Tree Mansion

The Tree Mansion is a charming cosy farm that is abandoned since long time. We found a simple handwritten declaration that brother & sister lived here together. Josefus was born in 1891 and deceased in on11/4/1958 at the age of 67. His elder sister Katharina, born in 1897, still continued the work on the farm.. Her monthly activities where writting precisely on paper and her brothers & sisters helped her with the heavy work. The maize and potatoes where sprayed now and then. In 1994 the meadow got 4 ten barrels of dung… On op 9/4/1997 the orchard was sprayed for the last time, since then all activities where ceased. Probably after that the farmer’s wife deceased.at the age of 97. It’s a mystery why the inheritants didn’t do anything more with the farm. The highlight of this farm is the bedroom full of stray and the soulless skeleton of their cat, laying peacefully on a stray basket. Waiting in all quietness and serenity on the diggers to clear up the farm, just like the the farming equipment that is out of usage forever.

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Cemetary Of The Insane

Cemetery of the insane is situated somewhere in the middle of the woods in Belgium. It’s surrounded by pinetrees and it has a mystical atmosphere. In past it was part of a psychiatric asylum that was built in 1921. In that period psychiatric patients where banned out of society and stayed for the rest of their lives in the asylum. The patients were exclusively men which came from over whole Belgium. Between 1921-1981 about 1750 people were buried on this cemetery. The sinister thing is that there was a period with a new decease each month, those patients were buried next to each other. The cemetery was property of the asylum in past and the patients maintained it themselves. Today the cemetery is property of a nature foundation and mother nature is doing the maintenance… We visited the cemetery during All Hollows weekend, only 1 patient of the whole cemetery received flowers (!)… All patients got literally one with nature…

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Huize Vanneste

Huize Vanneste is a small decayed house in a tiny village in West Flanders, Belgium. Robert was a bank clerk at “De Generale Bank”, he lived together with his brother until his pension in 1999. Later he got in a resting home and his brother deceased. Since then their house is decaying, even today, almost 20 years later it still exists! All original items are still in the house, books, bills, clothes, furniture, a videoplayer, old stove, even the washing up is still in the kitchen. It was striking that we saw so many religious statues, in contrast with the many erotic magazines, even under the bible!

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C Center

This centre was a big succes in the 90s, after the famous café closed, the fitness and other commercial enterprises closed one by one. The terrain was sold to build appartments but this got blocked by the government due to the soil pollution from a previous fabric. The centre has been sold several times, hopefully project developpers will finally have a chance to make something of this. Meanwhile nature is claiming the centre back quietly…

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Villa Hector

Villa Hector… one of the nicest villa’s we have ever visited. Step into the timemachine and enter a 50’s interior! We entered and had a feeling the owner could return any moment. Clothes and hats still hung on the coat racks, a piece of soap on a washcloth, tooth brushes ready to use… But reality was different, this house dates from the beginning of the 20th century. The farm at the back was used to make products of animalskins. We even found documents dated 1827! This was a sad story : the owner commited suicide after his company got bankrupt. He left his wife & daughter behind. His wife got crazy and deceased later. The calendar was stil on Juli 1995, the date when time stood still here… Meanwhile the villa has been demolished…

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Hof Van B

This magnificent staircase is part of a transport company that was abandoned in 2008, it was demolished in 2015.

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Farm Tapioca

This abandoned farm was abandoned in 1995, it’s situated in a busy neighbourhood in Belgium. The soup with spoon was still on the table just like they had to leave in a hurry, all the windows were thick with cobwebs.

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Powerplant IM

This powerstation was built in 1920 and worked on coal. Greenpeace had put pressure on the government to close down all coal plants to reduce the emission of greenhouse gas in Belgium and it closed down in 2006. In the fifties the plant expanded and in the 60’s it was one of the biggest powerplants in the region. It’s still in good condition and can be started up immediately, there is no vandalism as there still is security and everything is locked up well. The terrain consited of two parts : on one side of the short there is a cooling tower (see my album “Cooling Tower IM”, on the other side the big powerplant itself full of pipes and many floors. Coals were burnt and extinguished the whole year, 24h a day, the energy was no clean and quiet energy like we have nowdays of solar panels or windmills, but energy that had to be raised with force from deep underground. We were lucky we found an entrance and could visit this place.

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X-Press

This big abandoned printing factory (with living space) was built in 1922, it was expanded in 1936 with workingrooms next to it. In 2004 the factory got bankrupt. In 2012, 8 years later, the printing press and many other machines were still present next to the printing orders of customers still packed and old books. There was a lot of vandalism here and it was also set on fire many times…

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Château Grammaire

This castle was built in 1928 by a noble family that had a company next door and it was close to a park. The villa almost had to make place for a shoppingmall with big parking, but luckily there were people that bought the castle to maintain the heritage value, now the new owners are renovating it.

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Château Amon Re

The small Chateau Amon-Re was built in 1810 as hunting pavillion. The crown juwel is the unique Egyptian hall, that was handpainted by the owner between 1870 and 1881 with Egyptian scenes. The owner even ordered customised furniture to create a total image. Chairs painted with Egyptian prints, a colourful luster, copper door- and window handles with pharao’s as handles, …. Also the floor was painted in the past, but it got replaced afterwards. A few years ago the widow deceased. The children decided to sell the castle in the end.

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Chambre Du Commerce

Chambre de Commerce is a breathtaking stock exchange building in Antwerp, a reconstruction built in 1872. The original building, the mother of all stock exchanges was built in 1531 in late gothic style by Joseph Schadde for emperor Karel. Fires in 1583 & 1858 destroyed the original building twice. Trading was mainly with Spanish and Portugese merchants. In 1585 it was reconstructed as a theatre house, between 1661-1810 it was used as a drawing academy, stock exchange, trading marineschool and a courthouse. In 1830 it was even a prison temporary, after the fire of 1958 a circus performed at the ruin. Between 1868-1872 the current dome was built. Since 2003 this building got closed cause of fire safety and it got abandoned and neglected for about 20 years. In 2016 renovation started finally, it will be transformed to a luxury hotel with restaurant and parking underground.

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The Cookie Factory

This impressive German industrial bakery was built in 1912 and started small. Later the bakery had 2 enourmous buildings on both sides of the road linked by bridges. The owner even made a trainconnection to bring over the workers from one side of the company to the other side of the street and to distribute the pasta over whole Germany. Year by year this company expanded to a big cookie imperium.
90 years later this company got too big and left the city and left some buildings abandoned…

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Hugo Zeche

The last mine that closed it’s doors was Zeche Hugo in Germany. On 28 April 2000 the mineworkers left the mine for the last time and the city suddenly got 3000 new unemployed people… The last years almost all buildings on the terrain were demolished except this protected building. The dressing room is very special to see, hundreds of steel baskets, named “kauen” hung with chains high on the ceiling. The mineworkers used this to preserve their shoes, clothes, personal belongings so that they were safe against theft. With a chain they lifted up their basket, meters high up till the roof. Every worker had it’s own numbered chain with basket.

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Cristalleries Du VSL

The crystal factory Val Saint Lambert was built in 1826 and is known worldwide. It’s famous because of the 2 meters high cristal vase that consisted of 82 pieces that was made for the world exhibition in Antwerp in 1894. Around 1926, when the fabric existed 100 years, about 5.000 people worked at the crystal factory. Almost 4 years later (black tuesday in the US) a worldwide crisis started and the fabric suffered a lot of this. 90% of the revenue came from export. Even worse : after the financial uncertainty the fabric got bombarded heavily during WWI by the Germans. This brought structural and financial problems. In 2008 Val Saint Lambert was taken over by the family Onclin. In 2010 the brand was launched again and placed on the map under a new entity. Today the factory still exists, 60 people work in the new fabric, the brand is operational in more then 40 countries worldwide.. 7 days a week and 24h a day the production is still active as the ovens need to stay on constant temperature to deliver the best quality crystal. It stays a company secret how they make that perfect quality crystal for more than 2 centureies now. Also the special formulas to give the crystal a colour. The old fabric is totally in decay, new visitors don’t know about this.

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Forest View

Forest View aka ‘Home Sweet Home’ was a big old hospital/restinghome combination, it got abandoned in 2008. For many of us getting in a restinghome is the end… This location is known for it’s numberous chairs and beautiful roof terrace. The elderly had an idyllic view over the forest and could relax in their old days. Parts of the building were demolished by fires & waterdamage (the building was used by the local firebrigade for exercises), but also vandals and graffiti taggers often passed by. Today the elderly are moved to a nearby new big building behind this old building.

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Villa Wallfahrt

We arrived at this exciting villa, a classic in urbexworld aka Manoir de la Chapelle and Villa Das. It was built in 1897 by the vicar of Elsene. Once inside you can’t imagine that this still exists, a complete villa full of furniture and details with a lovely chapel, it feels like the inhabitans are out for a walk and can return any moment. The villa was left behind after the lord passed away, his wife lived further away. There was a family dispute about the heritage between the family members, as a result the villa was never sold. Once there has been an offer for an amount that was way higher than the real value but it was refused. Suddenly unknown people stood behind us, luckily it were other urbexers. The villa is registered as protected heritage and in 2011 it’s finally sold!

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Piscine Crachoir

This classic swimming pool was built during WWI 1914-1918 in Neo-Renaissance style to keep the ordinary people out of the German factories. The amazing pool has 2 entrances for men & women seperately as cleanness was the norm. The standard worker family was so poor they couldn’t even afford to buy soap. From 1927 there was finally a watervalve, before everyone washed hands and face under the pipe. The church hammered on the fact that nudity is impurity, ordinary people where forbidden to stand in front of the waiting rows. To prevent cholera the city started a puritycampaign. For a few cents they could take a shower, not so luxurous as for the rich people. They needed to enter the pool via the back entrance with unheated facilities. Still nice details are present like the spitbins (crachoirs) on the beautiful painted tiles, the rescuer statue (made in 1919) and many wood sculpture works. In the 50’s, due to a lack of maintenance, the impressive metallic structure of the ceiling had to be demolished. By this the building lost it’s magnificence. The pool closed in 2001 due to safety standards being outdated and fell into oblivion. One of the most beautiful parts is the long green Art Nouveau hall. The doors are incredible and the hallway is lit by skylight in the ceiling. Surprisingly this place is quite well preserved, maybe because of it’s beauty that gained respect… The city is renovating this beauty at the moment, so it will be saved for the future.

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The Horrorlabs

The Horror Labs aka Vet School was founded between 1903-1909 in a suburb of Brussels in Flemish neorenaissance style. Veterinaryologie was taught here. Since 1969 the university of Liege took over the formation and in 1991 activities were taken over completely. In 1990 the building became protected heritage. Today it’s emptied and partly renovated with appartments and offices. Down the cellar it got clear why this was called the Horror Labs. In a dark place we found racks full of jars containing animalparts preserved in formaldehyde. A few jars where open, so the rottening process started on the parts that got in contact with the air. Some jars had a discription on them how organs evolved during diseases. We found bundled notes from international cooperations between students, up till Buenos Aires! Old Italian newspapers where the proof that also Italian students were here in the past.

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Cinéma Théatre Varia

Cinéma-Théatre Varia was built in 1910 in Belgium by the famous architect E.Claes in Art Nouveau style. This is the only cinema built before WWI that still exists, in 1986 the cinema was closed down. In 1992 the government registered this historical monument as protected heritage. Since then it has been abandoned. In 2004 restauration of the roof and windows started, but stopped again due to the lack of funds.

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Château Noisy

Chateau Noisy was built in 1866 in a small village called “Celles” in Belgium, by the English architect Edward Milner. The Count of Liedekerke-Beaufort was the first owner between 1816-1890. During the French revolution the family left their other Château Vêves (see my 3 panoramap pictures with a view over the woods, this castle still exists and can be visited) to hide themselves on a farm outside the village. After the revolution the farm was expanded to a gigantic house. In 1907 the construction finished after the clocktower was built. During WWII (Battle of the Bulge) the castle was occupied by the nazis. In 1950 the castle of Miranda was named “Home de Noisy”, after the national railway company took this over as a boarding school and vacation centre for children who where ill. In the 70’s the castle was used for sports camps and outside activities for children. In 1991 the castle got abandoned, it was left empty as the costs where too high.The family searched for an investor without luck. Part of the structure was heavily damaged due to a fire and parts of the roof collapsed. We visited the castle in 2011 and revisited it in January 2016.
Five years later we revisited this classic, it was about time seen that the demolition license has been issued recently. As expected heavy decay, some ceilings and floors where almost gone. Despite many protests and petitions, renovating the castle is impossible seen the state of decay. Today it’s demolished and you are looking at past glory…

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Dadipark

Dadipark was built in 1950 in Belgium by the local vicar for people that came on pilgrimage, it was expanded from a simple playground to an attractionpark. In 2000 a boy lost his arm on the Nautic Jet attraction, followed by many other incidents. In 2002 the parc was closed for renovation but it never reopened and it got abandoned for 10 years. Ghosthunters claim to have picked up signals and voices of the children that suffered there and posted them on Youtube. In 2012 Dadipark has been demolished…