bygoneplaces.

Left and forgotten to be found again.

[bygoneplaces]

Monastere Antoinette.

After what must have been about 6 months of not exploring any abandoned places I finally went out again. These pictures show Monastere Antoinette, an abandoned monastere in the heart of Wallonia that was built in the 1780s and abandoned in 2008. The estate as well as the building are gigantic and look like a setting that could very well be used in a Dracula movie, sadly most of the interior is already pretty destroyed. I will definitely come back to this location later this summer, as the yard is even more beautiful when it is in full bloom. 

[bygoneplaces]

The Train Storage.

This abandoned train storage was a really special location for me to explore. Not only had I always wanted to explore a place with intact trains, I also randomly stumbled across an urbex friend of mine I have been in contact with for nearly a year now. The building itself still had working electricity and lights turned on, which gave the place a really strange atmosphere and less of the feeling that abandoned places tend to usually give me. Sadly we had to leave the building in the middle of our exploration due to me accidently activating the security system (I have no idea how I did that though). 

[bygoneplaces]

The Mold House. 

This small house surely was the highlight of my last trip to Belgium. Abandonded since ca. 2006, mold and decay have spread widely across the building making it look like it has been abandoned for much longer. 2 other urbexers who entered the building just shortly after us actually had the nerves to enter this building without a fine particle mask, but they left after just 10 minutes because of the insanely bad air inside. 

[bygoneplaces]

Mission To Mars. 

Originally used as greenhouses, these domes got their name from the similiarities they have with colonies on foreign planets as seen in Sci-Fi movies.  We were quite lucky with our timing, as we arrived at the place just when the sun was going down, which led to a really beautiful light situation.

[bygoneplaces]

Hotel 1999.

This place, located in the same town as the budget hotel, once served as a luxury hotel containing a small cafe as well as a restaurant on the ground floor. It is said to be abandoned since 1999, and what is left of the furnishing definitely appears to be quite old (look at that ugly yellow carpet). The first picture allows for an easy comparison of how the hotel looked back when it was still in use (left side, taken from a postcard we found inside) and how it looks now, approximately 20 years after its abandonment (right side). Exploring this really huge building with over 25 rooms was great fun, especially since decay seemed to have spread completely random across the building, once again making it completely impossible to predict what is waiting behind the next door. 

[bygoneplaces]

Villa Beemwee.

This abandoned mansion, known as "Villa Beemwee" in the urbex scene, like so often was named after the location’s most remarkable detail- An old BMW rotting in a garage at the estate’s side. Sadly, the BMW is gone by now, but nevertheless the places morbid beauty is stunning. What once might have been a beautiful site is now slowly becoming a forest, former paths are long gone and one has to find his own way through the sunless woods. It took us a while to spot the house as it is slowly adapting to nature’s colours, making it kind of difficult to recognize from distance. The building itself majestically enthrones a glade in the middle of the area, overgrown and slowly suffering from decay. Upon entering through the main door it gets clear how much time has really spoiled the building- Huge parts of the upper floors and the roof have collapsed, creating a debris field in most of the rooms. It’s safe to say that this mansion will sooner than later fully collapse, leaving only stones and dust behind. Its hard to find any information about the places history, but a grave just next to the house suggests that the owner might have died. Newspapers from 1994 also make it seem likely that it was abandoned about that time. Pretty intimidating to see what nature can do to such a house in just about 24 years.

[bygoneplaces]

Swamp Chalet.

This very small abandoned cabin was used as a holiday home until approximately 2009. It’s built right into a small lake, surrounded by a forestlike rural area next to a small belgian town. Upon entering the house over the little bridge, one immediately gets a feel of peacefulness as the surrounding nature, beautiful and calm, has a really soothing atmosphere. It must have been great to sit on the wooden bench after a stressful week and closely listen to the sound of singing birds and rustling leafs. 

[bygoneplaces]

The New World Mall.

The story of this place goes back to the early 80s, when its construction began. The owner made an agreement with Bangkok‘s local authorities to build a four-story mall, but ended up building 11-stories instead (Don‘t ask me how anyone could think it’s possible to get away with something that obvious). After 15 years, neighbors eventually informed the government about the illegal stories, saying that it was an insult to build higher than the king’s palace (pretty funny if you think about modern Bangkok’s skyline). The owner was ordered to remove the unlawful stories and so he did, but after the roof was taken off rain got into the building, leading to complications in the renewing process, and in the end the owner left the building to rot. As time went on, more and more water flooded the lower levels of the building, creating a huge pond inside of a mall in one of the world‘s biggest cities. Quite strange already, but it‘s getting even better. The water and the house surrounding it, completely free of predators, functioned as a perfect breeding ground for mosquito populations, and soon the whole district faced a huge mosquito invasion. The local Thais however had a pretty good idea to solve the problem: They took some fishes and released them into the water to eat the annoying insects. It worked well, and caused by the perfect habitat the mall provided for the fishes the population grew rapidly, with over 3000 kois, carps and other species at its peak. A huge urban aquarium was created in the inside of a 464 square-metres per story mall. Around 2008, the location started to grow in fame, and people from all around the world came to visit this truly unique place. It didnt take long until the government realised that tourists running around in a highly dilapidated building are in a huge risk, and they soon started to close all entrances to the building. Few years later, after a new period of hype, they decided to remove the fishes once and for all and walled up all doors and other possible entrances. Getting in nowadays is quite a climb, but for me it was well worth it. When I just started to explore abandoned places, this was one of the buildings I instantly fell in love with after seeing pictures of it online. In fact, it was actually my wallpaper at some point. When I finally got to explore it, I didn’t feel like I was entering an abandoned building, but as if I was entering an entirely different world. Out of the roaring metropole and right into the post-apocalypse, where the drip of water and the sound of my steps were the only things that I could hear. Jungle plants growing where escalators once buzzed, and even venus flytraps found a way to inhabit the isolated, manmade biotope. Sadly, I only had 15 minutes due to circumstances beyond my control, and fully documenting the place in 2 hours would already be pretty problematic. Especially since the whole building has a small layer of water and seaweed on it, making it impossible to walk through it in a normal pace without slipping. After leaving, I was completely out of breath. My excitement, paired with the tropic climate inside the building made my heart go extremely fast, even minutes after leaving. What a wonderful place, and I actually even saw some remaining fishes!

[bygoneplaces]

The Budget Hotel.

Very insignificant from the outside, this abandoned hotel surely was one of the most beautiful places I have yet seen. Mold and plants are spread around the building, while some rooms have been spared from any kind of decay at all, leading to a very strange atmosphere inside. While exploring room after room, it almost felt like anything could wait for you after the next door. The last date we found on newspapers was 2003, so its likely that the hotel was abandoned around that time. The Cause for its closing probably was the high density of hotels in the area, which leads to a very tough competition situation.

[bygoneplaces]

Psychiatry Shutter Island.

This beautiful abandoned psychiatry goes by the name of “Shutter Island” in the urbex scene. Its part of a huge, active psychiatry which indeed has some similarities with the main building in the movie Shutter Island. The building is abandoned for almost 30 years now, and first signs of natural decay are slowly getting visible. Nevertheless the location was stuffed with personal belongings and furnishings, creating a really unique atmosphere while exploring. Especially photo albums, diaries and letters we found made me shudder a bit, as they immediately got me thinking about what stories they might once have told...

[bygoneplaces]

Maison Boon.

A small farmhouse in Belgium that is abandoned for many years now. Appearently we were the first visitors this house had seen in a long time, huge spiderwebs dragged through the whole house. One thing I will never forget was the fridges content. After opening it for just a split second, the whole house filled with the smell of rotting meat, causing several of my friends to nearly throw up. It makes me happy to see a location that is known for so long now being completely spared by any kind of vandalism. We couldnt find any sign of people who explored the place before us, exactly how it should be. 

[bygoneplaces]

Psychiatry Salve Mater.

Abandoned psychiatries are something special, I guess we can all agree on that. Whether it is the often times stunning architecture, the very unique atmosphere or the stories that might or might not have taken place in them. They just have it all. This building of the partially abandoned psychiatry which goes by the name “Salve Mater” was abandoned about 10 years ago. Even though vandalism already took place, the atmosphere is still amazing. Surrounded by trees that slowly overgrow the area, it almost has some kind of mysterious forested feeling to it. I can only hope that this location will last a bit, as it is truly a special place...

[bygoneplaces]

Chapelle Henri.

A window in an abandoned chapel in Belgium, quite close to the german border. The place is quite famous, in the just 40 minutes we spent there we met four other groups of urbexers. 

[bygoneplaces]

The directors villa.

This villa once belonged to Thyssenkrupp Rheinhausen`s director. According to newspapers and calendars we found it was abandoned in 1986, and even after such a long time lots of documents and furnishings were still intact. The location grew in fame over the duration of the last year, causing more and more people to explore the place. In the night of the 24th of may fame had its price as someone most probably commited arson to the building. The roof and the upper floor burned all night long and could only finally be extinguished in the morning hours.

[bygoneplaces]

The directors villa.

A record player in an abandoned villa that once belonged to Thyssenkrupp Rheinhausen’s director. We found it in a small bureau that was completely overgrown with mold. Again, many bills and even whole files lay around, most of which were impossible to read due to mold and decay. 

[bygoneplaces]

The directors villa.

The living room of an abandoned villa that once belonged to Thyssenkrupp Rheinhausen’s director. A lot of the furnishings were still intact, even though the upper floor burned just recently. The whole house was stuffed with paychecks, accountings and bills, some of which inluded exorbitant sums of multiple hundred thousand euros. As the last date that we found in calendars and newspapers was 1986, its likely that this is the year the villa was abandoned. 

[bygoneplaces]

The inside of an abandoned powerplant I visited last summer. Hopefully I will be able to post a little more again soon, my current inactivity is caused by some kind of bad luck streak. The last ~4 trips we made all failed due to buildings being renewed, demolished or just simply not being accessable.