36 Photographs of 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 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. Abandoned Church in Snow
10. The Last Lighthouse, Alcatraz
Image credit: James Cridland / CC BY 2.0
11. Abandoned Piano, Pripyat
12. Abandoned Hospital
Image credit: Forsaken Fotos / CC BY 2.0
13. Mossy Staircase, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
Image credit: Guwashi999 / CC BY 2.0
14. Abandoned Car in Desert, Australia
Image credit: Mark Roy / CC BY 2.0
15. Emerson House, Dufur Oregon
16. Abandoned Cottage, Norway
17. Abandoned City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana
18. Abandoned Roller Coaster “Jet Sky,” New Jersey
19. Abandoned Fighter Jet
20. Abandoned Church, Portugal
Image credit: Céline Colin / CC BY-ND 2.0
21. The Paris Inner City Little Belt Railway, Abandoned Since 1934
Image credit: Pedro / CC BY 2.0
22. Abandoned Hotel del Salto, Tuquendama Falls area of Colombia
23. Abandoned Mansion, Italy
24. Kinsol Trestle
25. Abandoned U.S. Servicemen WWII Cars, Ardennes
26. Abandoned Church, Bodie, CA
27. Abandoned Railway, France
28. Abandoned Psych War
29. Abandoned Shipwreck, Bermuda Triangle
30. Quinta da Regaleira Well
31. Abandoned Hospital, Pripyat
32. Goodnoe School House
33. Abandoned Staircase
34. Abandoned Roller Coaster
35. Abandoned Church
36. Abandoned Mental Hospital
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
Reply
just now
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.
Reply
just now
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.
Reply
just now
Diana Blevins
I love every single picture!!! Nature is always more beautiful when left to its own will!!!
Reply
just now
Nancye Miller
I think it's waverly hills in louisville kentucky
Reply
just now
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
Reply
just now
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
46 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?
Reply
just now
Jacob Rubnitz
Austin Traylor I have seen PLENTY of work where this has been done. PLENTY. A lot of people.
Reply
just now
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.
Reply
just now
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
Reply
just now
Erik Anderson
light source is what gave it away for me. blacked out windows, up and down shadows, no lights on the ceiling.
Reply
1596 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
77 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.
Reply
just now
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.
Reply
just now
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.
Reply
just now
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.
Reply
just now
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.
Reply
just now
Jacob Rubnitz
Kristin Crofford interesting. yeah at least that one is :/. must have been fascinating to go to linda vista
Reply
just now
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
46 years ago
Jacob Rubnitz
Hehe I don't either.
Reply
46 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
46 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
46 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
46 years ago
Austin Traylor
Hannah Marr I figured it was paint not real blood.
Reply
46 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
46 years ago
Graham Ciraulo
No pictures of the West End?
Reply
46 years ago
Diana harvey
My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can't believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do,
www．zizzjob．com
Reply
46 years ago
Vicki Irving
Diana harvey who give's ah rat's Ass !!!
Reply
46 years ago
Originales by Carole
You can actually get lost in those picture's. I love them
Reply
46 years ago
Harold Gardner
Beauty and tragedy together
Reply
46 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
46 years ago
Tara Starfire
Taken in Saskatchewan, Canada
Reply
46 years ago
Hypatia Pickens
This are wonderful.
Reply
just now
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
46 years ago
Chris Rosson
Two pictures of Alcatraz and looks like veruckt insane asylum also... Nazi Zombies FTW!
Reply
46 years ago
Courtney A. Redding
Check out the transalighainy mental hospital in weston, wv
Reply
46 years ago
Steve Daveluy
"Abandoned Church is artwork, not a photograph... Still cool though
Reply
46 years ago
Claudia DeMagistris Calcaterra
the hospital? blood on the floor and walls? like from when? the zombie apocalypse?
Reply
46 years ago
Nicola Denman
Too photoshopped some of them but still beautiful!
Reply
46 years ago
Ravi Khuman
awesome...
Reply
46 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
46 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
46 years ago
Kayla Kehres
The abandoned castle in poland looks like a jungle setting. Lol
Reply
46 years ago
Shannon Wagner Della Fortuna
The Jersey Roller Coaster is called the Jet Star
Reply
46 years ago
Maygan Salisbury
Pretty sure the hospital is a painting not an actual photo
Reply
46 years ago
LeeAnna Millican
A lot of these are fake.
Reply
382 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
591 years ago
Sandra Sormanti Zuccarelli
They are fantastic,all of them..
Reply
1315 years ago