41 Abandoned Places: Where Eerie and Beautiful Overlap

Abandoned places around the world make for some of the most stunning pictures, but they also have an eerie quality about them. These photos from DashBurst and the popular Twitter account Abandoned Places lead you to wonder about what the place was once like. Kings, queens, empires, cities and even architecture and infrastructure can fade from fame and glory as the years pass.

These photos of abandoned places remind us that nothing is everlasting or indestructible. They are proof that deserted buildings break down, and unused roads vanish as the earth reclaims what was once hers. So much of what’s man-made will eventually surrender to the greatest force around us, the force of nature.

1. Ta Prohm Temple. Angkor, Cambodia

Image credit: amontei / CC BY-ND 2.0

Image credit: Staffan Scherz / CC BY 2.0

2. Ferris Wheel in Chernobyl

3. Schule Hitler, Jugend, Poland

4. Bokor Casino, Cambodia

5. Ivy Covered Train Tracks, Japan

6. Abandoned Crystal Mine

7. Tunnel of Love, Ukraine

Image credit: Kashif Pathan / CC BY-SA 2.0

8. Dunluce Castle, Northern Ireland

9. Old Abandoned Barn House

10. Abandoned Church in Snow

11. The Last Lighthouse, Alcatraz

Image credit: James Cridland / CC BY 2.0

12. Abandoned Piano, Pripyat

13. Abandoned Hospital

Image credit: Forsaken Fotos / CC BY 2.0

14. Mossy Staircase, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan

Image credit: Guwashi999 / CC BY 2.0

15. Abandoned Car in Desert, Australia

Image credit: Mark Roy / CC BY 2.0

16. Emerson House, Dufur Oregon

17. Abandoned Cottage, Norway

18. Abandoned City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana

19. Abandoned Roller Coaster “Jet Sky,” New Jersey

20. Abandoned Fighter Jet

21. Abandoned Church, Portugal

Image credit: Céline Colin / CC BY-ND 2.0

22. The Paris Inner City Little Belt Railway, Abandoned Since 1934

Image credit: Pedro / CC BY 2.0

23. Abandoned Hotel del Salto, Tuquendama Falls area of Colombia

24. Abandoned Mansion, Italy

25. Kinsol Trestle

26. Abandoned U.S. Servicemen WWII Cars, Ardennes

27. Abandoned Church, Bodie, CA

28. Abandoned Railway, France

29. Abandoned Psych War

30. Abandoned Shipwreck, Bermuda Triangle

31. Quinta da Regaleira Well

32. Abandoned Hospital, Pripyat

33. Goodnoe School House

34. Abandoned Staircase

35. Abandoned Mill

36. Abandoned Roller Coaster

37. Abandoned Church

38. Abandoned TV Repair Shop – Georgia

39. Old Abandoned Rusted Grainer in Macon Ga.

40. Control panel – Abandoned Factory

https://dashburst.com/skadario/50

41. Abandoned Mental Hospital

Topics: Designers Photographers

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Martin Mroz

not all of these photos are real, some are photo-shops or artwork... a bit misleading

Reply just now

Elie Ramos

NO PICTURE OF AL CAPONE'S CELL AT EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY IN P.A

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Kathleen Conod-Jenkins

Oh my gosh. I would love to go into those huge castles, churches, homes and the little cabins too. Heck, I would like to nose around in every one shown. How awesome.

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Kimberly Nicole Kerpan

wow the castle on the side of the mountain and the cottage. i'd give anything to have lived there. they really knew how to build "back in the day" .. which was a wednesday.

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Diana Blevins

I love every single picture!!! Nature is always more beautiful when left to its own will!!!

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Nancye Miller

I think it's waverly hills in louisville kentucky

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Bri Vet Guy

That abandoned mental hospital was right out of a horror movie. Would not be surprised if that was an actual place The Ghost Hunters visited

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Maygan Salisbury

Pretty sure the hospital is a painting not an actual photo

Reply 51 years ago

Shannon Wagner Della Fortuna

The Jersey Roller Coaster is called the Jet Star

Reply 51 years ago

Kayla Kehres

The abandoned castle in poland looks like a jungle setting. Lol

Reply 51 years ago

Olibia Rachelle Lynn

The hospital one is completely fake. I can to this page to see stunning photography, NOT FAKE PHOTOSHOP BULLSHIT. Utterly disappointed.

Reply 51 years ago

Dusty Cassidy

The MAJORITY of these are edited, Photoshopped, etc. For instance, that church was abandoned and now there is a rocky stream running through the place where the sanctuary stood? Riiiiight.

Reply 51 years ago

Ravi Khuman

awesome...

Reply 51 years ago

Nicola Denman

Too photoshopped some of them but still beautiful!

Reply 51 years ago

Steve Daveluy

"Abandoned Church is artwork, not a photograph... Still cool though

Reply 51 years ago

Claudia DeMagistris Calcaterra

the hospital? blood on the floor and walls? like from when? the zombie apocalypse?

Reply 51 years ago

Courtney A. Redding

Check out the transalighainy mental hospital in weston, wv

Reply 51 years ago

Chris Rosson

Two pictures of Alcatraz and looks like veruckt insane asylum also... Nazi Zombies FTW!

Reply 51 years ago

Matthew Kidomen

Very "end of the world-ish" pictures. I could see any of these as the setting for a post apocalyptic movie. I think my favorite for that look is the one titled, "Abandoned Church." Just spectacular.

Reply 51 years ago

Tara Starfire

Taken in Saskatchewan, Canada

Reply 51 years ago

Hypatia Pickens

This are wonderful.

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Matthew Kidomen

Thomas Speck said "Abandoned Church" was fantasy art. I am a little surprised I didn't notice it myself. When I watch a movie, I wait to the credits and write down the names of the matte artists, such as Kino Scialabba, Sven Sauer, or Frank Hong. My Second Life friends know I have a passion for creativity. Even though "Abandoned Church" is fantasy art, it still captures the imagination.

Reply 51 years ago

Harold Gardner

Beauty and tragedy together

Reply 51 years ago

Originales by Carole

You can actually get lost in those picture's. I love them

Reply 51 years ago

Marc Gethen

I wish you included more about these ghostly relics. They are incredible. Perhaps the lack of additional information and adds to the mystery

Reply 51 years ago

Graham Ciraulo

No pictures of the West End?

Reply 51 years ago

Diana harvey

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Reply 51 years ago

Vicki Irving

Diana harvey who give's ah rat's Ass !!!

Reply 51 years ago

Jacob Rubnitz

I believe that the hospital one is either VERY edited in Photoshop, or is completely CGI. Anybody see "redrum" written on the right wall?

Reply 51 years ago

Austin Traylor

Really? More than likely some stupid teenagers went up in there and "decorated" the place to scare people for fun or for some amatuer movie why would someone go through the trouble of photoshopping this stuff?

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Jacob Rubnitz

Austin Traylor I have seen PLENTY of work where this has been done. PLENTY. A lot of people.

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Jacob Rubnitz

Austin Traylor It seems that it would take a lot more trouble to Find a place like this, somehow get to the right room, "decorate it", than to take one second, choose a paintbrush tool in photoshop, and write it on the photo.

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Austin Traylor

Jacob Rubnitz Well now that I'm looking at the photo closer you can see the source and it is completely CGI, but I still feel like if the photo were a real place I don't see someone editing a real photo to do all that on there, more likely someone would go in there and do it in real life imo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq3C7RDU1Bc

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Erik Anderson

light source is what gave it away for me. blacked out windows, up and down shadows, no lights on the ceiling.

Reply 1601 years ago

Jacob Rubnitz

Austin Traylor Not surprised. Maybe for someone who doesn't know much about CGI and all that it seems less likely, but I've been into this stuff my whole life. It's not that complicated and it takes a lot less time and energy to do it than actually going somewhere and doing that.

Reply 82 years ago

Austin Traylor

Jacob Rubnitz Well yeah of course it takes a lot less energy etc, but for someone with my tastes I'd prefer to take the extra time to make it more real, that's just how I am lol.

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Jacob Rubnitz

Austin Traylor makes sense. I would too. In the original comment, though, you responded talking about what actually happened in this particular photo...not what you would do. Any who, I would love to find a place like that and do write Redrum on the wall lol.

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Kristin Crofford

Jacob Rubnitz Actually it's quite common. I've shot a music video for my band in the abandoned Linda Vista hospital in Los Angeles. There are rooms VERY similar to this. Tons of them. Lots of music videos and movies have been filmed in these hospitals. And the people who rent them are able to decorate however they would like. We had fake blood that we had thrown around a few rooms. That room looks much like the rooms in Linda Vista. Definitely not photoshopped.

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Jacob Rubnitz

Kristin Crofford Awesome. I didn't know it was that common. Well, this particular photo is CGI (see link above that Austin Taylor posted), but I'll have to go out and do that stuff on my own lol.

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Kristin Crofford

Jacob Rubnitz Yeah I can tell now looking at it closer. And as it turns out, that "abandoned asylum in texas" picture is actually a room in Linda Vista. Upon looking at it closer, I can tell by the fetus drawing at the top. These photos are very misinformative is seems.

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Jacob Rubnitz

Kristin Crofford interesting. yeah at least that one is :/. must have been fascinating to go to linda vista

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Morgan Thibeault

"Made with Softimage XSI 6.5, Global illumination and Final Gathering and retouched in Adobe Photoshop CS3." I don't know HOW people think it's a photograph. http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=61596

Reply 51 years ago

Jacob Rubnitz

Hehe I don't either.

Reply 51 years ago

Ember Thompson

Austin Traylor He is 100 percent correct this image was created with pixeltale studio which is comparable to maya. For those who are unfamiliar these are game design and animation platforms. It even says in the left hand corner of the pixelimage studio. The animation is okay but the blood looks horrendously fake. No abandon building is going to have that fresh of blood.

Reply 51 years ago

Hannah Marr

Ember Thompson Thank you for mentioning that. Blood turns brown as it ages. The look of this place is that of a long-abandoned building. That, along with the lighting, the blurriness of a couple spots, the perfect wrinkles of that hanging cloth, the only words being "REDRUM"... this only looks real at first glance. I don't know how it's fooling anyone, either.

Reply 51 years ago

Michelle Maninger

It was probably used as a haunted house at Halloween. They did that with one of the "asylums" in St. Louis. Made a lot of money on it too.

Reply 51 years ago

Austin Traylor

Hannah Marr I figured it was paint not real blood.

Reply 51 years ago

LeeAnna Millican

A lot of these are fake.

Reply 388 years ago

Donna Harrison Williamson

I think that the roller coasters were once part of Six Flags New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the park back in 2005. It was a shame that no one wanted to put the park back in running order. I didn't see it the last time I went to New Orleans so it may have been torn down.

Reply 597 years ago