The saddest places in the world. Houses from which people have disappeared forever

It took me a long time to get here. Crawling under barbed wire, climbing walls. All this as little as possible, quietly. "Hide!" Lucie says, and Matyáš and I crouch immediately. Down on the path among the blooming anemones, Sunday visitors to the park walk.

Nobody is looking in our direction. It certainly wouldn't have occurred to anyone that he might think of climbing into an old dilapidated barabizna. But certainty is certainty. We'll wait for visitors to cross and head for the window.

"Hold it for me." Matthias stretches in like a weasel as I stand on the roof, feeling like an elephant in a tree. "Come! Do it! ”Lucie urges me. I hand her the camera and tripod carefully and go for it.

"Look, how do we get back?" I wonder as I evaluate the height of the window above the floor of the bathroom we're about to enter. "You're not solving it now. I'll get to. ”“ And which way? ”My question fades into the warmth of the tar roof. Because Lucie and Matyáš have been inside for a long time. "Okay." Zuch! I'm down. The cold and smell of old plaster and stale blow over me. Bathroom. The tiles remained almost intact, even with pictures of boats stuck on them.

"I'm upstairs!" I hear Matthias from the first floor as Lucie heads for the patrol. I tread carefully on shards and fragments of walls. And I'll look at the ceiling in disbelief. What if one of those beams is loose? Or the one below me?

"It's better to stay by the walls," Lucie warns me, peeking out of one of the rooms. I'm almost scared. "Come look back, it's a bomb!"

We are probably standing in one of the former guest rooms. The curtain is swaying on the window in the spring breeze. Sends, dirty, but gives the room a touch of mystery. Who hung her here? What did the rooms look like when this spa was in operation?

A little further on, we discover an almost intact kitchen unit. Retro lockers are dusty, but the colors still shine through. And when the whole intact wall of luxfers emerges from around the corner, I exhale with excitement. "That's beautiful ..." "See."

Leave only traces

I'm toying with the idea of ​​where to place those shining pieces of glass at home. Bathroom, um ... But I also know that's exactly what no real urbexer would do. Everything we find here will stay here as well. "Leave only traces, take only photos." That's the basic rule of urbexers. We will find some treasures in other rooms as well. Conference table. Lights. Great photo of the spa from the time of its fame. In the upper corner, I recognize a figure of a boy sitting in a window. Is he still alive?

While Lucie and Matyáš move around the premises with the obviousness of the experienced, I tread carefully and I'm a little narrow. It's hard to define that feeling. It was as if the deserted spaces breathed stories, memories, destinies that took place here.

Why did it all end? Where are all those who have spent spring days like today? "Come on, let's go upstairs."

"Sorry, I probably won't," I say honestly. "Look, I don't want to go there either, go alone," Lucie supports me. "Okay," Matthias doesn't hold back, and disappears into the alcove. What if it crashes somewhere - it runs through my head and I'm watching for any sound that would deviate from normal. "Peace. He is experienced. And he has a cell phone. "

"Good!" Matthias announces after a moment as he appears back in the alcove. "Look what it looks like there," he shows us photos of the domes lit by the sun. They look beautiful. I take a breath and for a while I enjoy the feeling that I'm somewhere I can't be officially. The joy of that daring piece is only thwarted by the prospect of the return journey.

"It simply came to our notice then. Let's go. ”And here it is. Here's peace, here's luxfery, hop, hop. And we're at the window. Matthias rests his feet on the bathtub and swings up. Lucie repeats everything after him.

"Come on then!" I realize I'm all alone in that abandoned house now. And that is ample for me as a motivation to perform. I snuggle out into the light, even at the cost of a few small scratches on my hands. Crawling along the barbed wire now seems to me like a small diversification of the final straight. And we're back. The waves of adrenaline are still buzzing in my ears. The mind is sharpened. And excited. "Let's try the hotel now, okay?" "Sure!"

Quality photographic capture of the atmosphere and spirit of the place is a pleasant bonus of the entire documentation. View of Milovice.

My favorite bunkers

"It simply came to our notice then. I've been climbing abandoned barracks since I was fifteen. Getting somewhere you can't go, that's every teenager's dream, isn't it? ”Martin Barry Bareš's resounding voice comes from the phone. Well, like which one, I say to myself.

"And what are you most interested in?" Abandoned mining works, military facilities, shelters, places to which you often have to dig hard. I don't like walking like a donkey on a marked route. For me, the greatest experience is when I find such an object myself and I know that no one has been there before me. "

Martin Bareš is one of the urbexers, ie those people who enjoy looking for and crawling over abandoned places. Unlike the "normal" ones, he prefers to go with a pickaxe and a shovel. He is looking for abandoned military areas, underground antennas, bunkers. Those after the CGV, or the Soviet Central and Northern Army Group and the former East German army, are his favorites.

Sometimes he encounters unexploded ordnance, but like a former red beret, he can deal with such small obstacles on the route. The greatest valuables for him are personal records, letters fifty years old, relics of individual soldiers.

"In the past, soldiers wrote on the walls or wherever they were, where they were from and how much they had left until the end of the war. I'm looking for that purposefully. When I get to the building, I immediately look at the table from below. "" And your biggest catch? "" About one bunker in northern Bohemia so far, which was said to be inaccessible. I did it. "

While most urbexers "hunt" for photos on their expeditions, which they then boast on the Internet, the most valuable experience for Martin Bareš is the experience itself. "I want to see it, to experience it, to feel like I've gotten somewhere. And also enjoy the adrenaline when you have to avoid your eyes or when you hear the voices of security guards next door, without realizing that you are taking pictures here. I have a lot of photos, but I haven't published some anywhere. And sometimes I even leave the camera at home. "

"What if you find something interesting? Will you take it? ”“ These are the complete exceptions, when I see that there is such a place in decay and things are systematically stolen. Then, for example, I will take an item, but I will not put it on the shelf at home, but I will display it in the shelter where my company is located, so that visitors can see it. I know people who are looking for abandoned objects to steal them, but I don't want anything to do with them. "

Over time, Martin Bareš has also turned his hobby into a profession, and those interested drive around legally accessible abandoned places in northern Bohemia as part of his Offroadsafari.cz. This is the company that is based, as usual, in a shelter originally from World War II.

"Has anything happened to you over the years?" These are often complex underground systems with many floors, where you climb tens of meters down or up and you never know what can happen. We did it in seconds. ”“ And that didn't deter you. ”“ No way. ”

Can't it fall?

On the way to the next location I get a little training. For next time, it would take the place of those white sneakers shoes with soles that do not pierce the glass. Old pants, and when there is a lot of dust and dirt, a hoodie is suitable. And gloves. I will remember them several more times during the day.

We arrive in the village just outside Mělník shortly after noon. I know the abandoned hotel here well. We have a cottage not far from here and I have been able to watch its golden times and fall since childhood. The hotel was opened in 1912 by Prince Bedřich Lobkowicz. Praguers and residents of Mělník used to come here.

In the times I remember, the employees of the Prague Energy Company were recreational here. After the revolution, it was returned to its owners, and since then I have been watching its slow decay year after year. I remember a time when guests were walking on the picturesque balconies and when there was a lunch ring on the small beach here. I always envied the guests and imagined what it must look like inside the hotel. Now I'll finally look there.

"We can go this way." This time it's not necessary to crawl under the barbed wire or look for a hole in the fence. Half of the wire fence lies overgrown with grass. Just a few steps and I'm inside. While on the outside the hotel still looked partly mysterious, on the inside there is almost nothing. Only load-bearing walls, beams and stairs.

"Can't it fall?" I watch Lucia go after him without hesitation. "It's concrete, it's fine." Sounds like one of the last sentences before he died, I object. "Then you better stay by the wall."

I take a breath, go upstairs, and look around the empty rooms. Only the walls remained. Everything that could be stolen, taken away, is gone. Including power lines. Wires. Switches. Even the atmosphere and memories. This is exactly what most abandoned places that are in sight or known to be accessible end up.

And that's exactly why urbexers don't reveal their locations. While in the previous building the ideas of visitors and life appeared on their own, here it is difficult to remember the summer afternoon on the balcony, which still looks down on the surface of the Harasov pond. The only poetics have been preserved by the back staircase, which leads directly to the sandstone rocks.

"Let's go. There's nothing here anymore, "Matyáš reports as he takes a picture of the stairs. And I just nod in disappointment. "So where next?"

The images that urbexists take have a high dynamic range and often capture fascinating details from abandoned factories or family homes. Many of them do not reveal where the photos come from.

Find for yourself

When I meet the author of Abandoned Places and also the book Abandoned Places in the Czech Republic a few days later, I feel a bit like one of the "parties". I'm waiting for a seasoned tough guy, but an inconspicuous long-haired girl is coming, which I would rather bet on as a philosophy student. But this impression will disappear in a moment (see the article Abandoned houses are my escape from worries, says the first lady of Czech urbex).

Bára Faiglová discovered urbex while studying photography and looking for interesting spaces. And so she went to the place where every beginning urbexer used to go, to the former military area of ​​Milovice.

"I enjoyed the dilapidated blocks of flats. We crawled there all day. And I wondered if more such spaces were needed. I started searching, discovering and moving on and on. First only for Prague. And gradually beyond the borders. "

Dozens, hundreds have visited abandoned places since 2012, when she first looked at Milovice. Photos from his travels are published on the website of the left. cz and on Facebook. And some of them are breathtaking.

You can find, for example, a villa in which it looks as if the owners just went on vacation, doctor's surgeries with equipment and patient records, castles, churches with the original organ and benches, hotels that look like the guests have just left in the photos just smoke on the terrace. They left furniture, personal belongings, books, clothes, photos, paintings, correspondence and even unopened bottles of wine.

Bára tries to find his story for each abandoned place. For example, a young doctor and his housekeeper lived in Dr. K.'s German villa, which he later married. They had a son who also became a doctor. The continuation of the story then has several variants.

One speaks of a car accident in which the whole family died. Another claims that Dr. K. and his wife lived to a very old age, while the wife lived in a retirement home and no longer had the strength to take care of the villa. But why hasn't anyone bought the villa to this day and is still falling into disrepair? It is said that the villa is cursed and that people from the surrounding area see a doctor walking around the rooms at night. But apparently it will be more thieves and vandals who are gradually destroying and stealing the once magnificent villa.

"How do you find a place like that?" "Sometimes it works out at first, sometimes it takes half a year." "And what are you looking for?" I once found an abandoned hotel on some sites. And she found that they were tapping a non-traditional brand of beer there. I found where this beer was tapped in the area, so I gradually found the hotel. "" And isn't it easier to just ask the urbexers who have already visited the hotel? "" We know each other, but we don't say everything. It's probably a matter of honor not to ask where the place is and to find it yourself. "

"So a colleague will tell you," I found a nice church, but I won't tell you where it is. " But I can take you there. "" I don't understand. It'll show you where he is. "" I honestly never fully understood these relationships, but I myself have a bunch of people to give me a location. I know I can trust them. It is important to treat such information wisely. "

Although it is a good urbexer etiquette not to reveal the location, most of the abandoned sites still quickly turn into a ruin. Bára Faiglová sees this with her own eyes when she returns to "her" places.

"You can see how things move according to how they fit in the picture, but also how they disappear when the place is revealed. This was exactly seen at the German doctoral villa Dr. Anny L. I'll understand that more valuable things will disappear, but when I went back recently and saw that someone had taken the cans with the organs, I no longer understand. "

I'll deal with that later

Adventure, art, recording history. But also illegal intrusion into buildings. Urbex is balancing on this thin line. A real urbexer must follow unwritten rules so that he does not cross this thin line. It just needs good character.

"We are ignoring the signs. Try windows or climb to higher floors, where windows are needed. But we can't beat them. That would be a forcible intrusion into the building. We must not harm anything. Don't make a new entry. We're photographers, not thieves. ”“ What about the guards? ”“ When we run into her, it depends on how the security guard is. Someone will call the police. We have a good chat with someone. "

"Did they catch you?" "Countless times." "Are you disguised?" The most important thing is to be fast and unobtrusive. The guards don't go inside, so when you walk through the grounds and get into the building, you're out of water. "" What are you most afraid of? "" If they wanted us to delete the photos. But it hasn't happened yet. "" Injuries? "" Sometimes blood from minor injuries, but not serious ones. We are careful. It's not funny, flimsy floors, falling ceilings ... But no photo is so valuable that you risk your life for it. "

"Do you meet other visitors from time to time? Homeless ... "" Of course. But we respect each other. Both groups know they have nothing to do there. We leave, they stay there. "

I look at Bara with a new look. An inconspicuous longhair is obviously an adventurous soul with a great deal of courage. "Are you ever scared?" But I like it. Maybe when we go somewhere at night, the place has a completely different atmosphere. "" Do you go there at night ?! "" Sometimes we take a trip, we don't even take cameras and we just walk through the place. "But you probably can't." "But you're right, sometimes I wonder when we climb to the second floor and a security guard walks around to see if I need a better stamp, but he won't give it to me."

"Um ... when you go inside, do you know where to get back?" I'll deal with that later. "" Yeah. That's how it agrees. ”After a brief debate about the meaning of the urbex, we get the best catch we can get. Maybe it was when Bara's colleagues discovered the entrance to an abandoned church.

"They found it fully equipped, took a picture of the place, and when they climbed out, they were caught by the police. The church has again secured itself against theft and they are the only ones who have photos. And peace of mind that no one can steal the church from them. "" Do you have any professional deformity after all these years? Do you automatically look at abandoned buildings? ”“ I have it further. I was in a nice hotel in Austria recently and thought I had to find out once he had to be abandoned. "

Urbexors guard their locations. The more people visit the place, the worse.

Torture and the occult

We're heading to the last place on my Urbex expedition. Villa Pfaffenhof near Litoměřice. "The magnificent villa was built in the 19th century by the wealthy Pfaff family. During World War II, the SS headquarters was based here. It is said that prisoners were tortured in the basements of the villa, and it is said that occultists performed their rituals here. "

"That's interesting," I say, but at the same time I'm watching the sun move rapidly to the west. The thought of walking through such a haunted place in the twilight doesn't fill me with much enthusiasm. We turn off the main road and approach our destination. I have a strange impression that fog is rising around the road. "It's weird here, isn't it?" Torture. Occultists. ”The outlines of a majestic building emerge from the thickets. And also two parked cars. I notice a few figures walking along the remains of the upper floors. Apparently the occultists.

I don't know if it's the story I knew before, but the atmosphere around the villa is really weird. The surrounding trees with drooping branches further enhance the impression. If I found myself here in the evening and without other visitors, the impression would probably be even stronger.

Now it's a bit spoiled by a bunch of teenagers who have something to do with the occult, just that there's a lot of smoke around them. But this one clearly smells like marjoram. The interior of the villa is perfectly disassembled. Again, a well-known place to withstand visitors.

"Come on, there are stairs to the basement," Matthias calls. The sight of a narrow shaft into the underground discourages me for a while, but in the end I go down there. It's not hard to imagine that various ugly things could have happened here. Even though there are a lot of ugly things here today.

The upper floors can only be reached at the cost of the monkey track. Climb the rest of the stairs, stop on the old beam and hope he doesn't fall. Matyáš considers this for a while, but at first glance it is clear that it would be worth the nice view of the surroundings. Of the facilities and equipment of the villa, only the skeleton remained. On the way home, I find myself automatically looking for buildings that could be abandoned. Here it comes.

"What about the farm over there?" "It's too close to the road, there would be nothing there anyway," Lucie said immediately, her thoughts running in the same direction. Abandoned places disappear, but new ones also emerge. It's an infinite amount, Bara told me. In the meantime, I am thinking of an abandoned villa in Smíchov, around which I drive to work. I only noticed her now. And maybe I'll go exploring there someday.

Urbex design

Urbexists guard their locations carefully. The more people visit the place, the greater the risk that it will be destroyed and stolen. Urbex therefore also follows unwritten rules, such as not creating inputs, not taking away equipment, not publishing locations. That is why nicknames are often used for the places visited. Lucie and Matyáš and I visited relatively well-known places that are easy to find. And in that, that's why there was not much left.

What is urbex?

Philibert Aspairt is considered to be the first modern urbexer to get lost in the Paris catacombs in 1793 while conducting a candlelight survey. People have always climbed abandoned buildings, but while everyone used to try it on their own, today they discover together and systematically. The new phenomenon is called urbex, which stands for Urban Exploration. Groups, communities are formed that document abandoned places and publish photos. The most famous sites include urbex.cz, departenamista.cz, kafelanka.cz, ohrozenestavby.wz.cz, fabriky.cz and others.