Germany | Dusky's Wonders

A whole world opened up once I started exploring images of abandoned places. As in so many wonder posts, it’s hard to pick and choose–and to stop because there seem to be endless amazing photographs. Some of the pictures that follow are the remains of man-made beauty, some are of nature reclaiming what humans have abandoned. And of course, as always, there are the artists who capture the perfect light, have an eye for the best angle, the exact right setting to give us the best of what they see.

If you recognize anything unlabeled, please let us know.

NYC’s City Hall Subway Station was first constructed over 100 years ago, a part of New York’s earliest underground transport network. It has been shut down and untouched since 1945.

Lee Plaza Hotel, once one of the most luxurious residential hotels in Detroit, closed in the 1990s. By Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.

Bowling Alley

Castle from 15 Century, Black Forest, Germany

House in Namibia Desert

Greenhouse

Mill from 1866, Sorento, Italy

NSA listening station, Berlin, Germany by Jeremy Pierce-Mayer

Ascending stairs

Bannerman Castle, Pollepel Island, New York

Asunción, Paraguay

Russian Railway Station

Boat from 2nd World War, Homebush, Australia

Bulgarian Communist Party House–I think those are ceiling lights.

Ferris Wheel

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Abandoned Village in Russia

“El Hotel del Salto”, Columbia

Abandoned City Near Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine

Safe deposit boxes in bank vault, Detroit, Michigan

Railway Station in Poland

Kalavantin Durg, India

Drowned Yacht, Antarctica

Distillary, Barbados

Fishermen House at Lake, Germany

Detroit Spanish Gothic theater, United Artists, built in 1928, closed in the 1970s. By Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

Mysterious Road Kerry Way, Ireland

Ruin in Detroit by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

Abandoned Factory for Rockets in Russia

Ruins, Craco, Italy

North Brother Island, New York

Church, Detroit, Michigan

Ghost Town Keelung, Taiwan

Bodiam Castle, East Sussex, England

Airplane “graveyard” in Tucson, Arizona

Farm of the Heinen family, spiral staircase by MMG Zegwaard

Italy

Main staircase of Old Hall, England

Sea Supervisory Houses in England

Streetcars of L.A. waiting for demolition after it was decided that the car was the future!

Small gothic chapel

Theme park submerged by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans

Holland Island in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA

Abandoned Tunnel of Love in Ukraine

Russia, I think.

Underwater Bronze Statue of Jesus Christ, Mediterranean Sea, Italy. Notice the size of the diver.

Theme Park, Nora, Japan

Thanks to: Mike Hill on pinterest, Your Amazing Places,

to French photographers, Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre for Detroit images and to Lauren Riley for correcting labeling of Angkor Wat and Holland Island on the Chesapeake Bay.

THE IDEAL PALACE

Ferdinan Cheval was delivering mail in April, 1879. He tripped on a stone and inspired by its shape, he started collecting stones. For the next 33 years, Cheval carried stones from his delivery rounds and at home used them to build his Palais idéal, the Ideal Palace. First he carried the stones in his pockets, then a basket and eventually a wheelbarrow.

Cheval spent the first two decades building the outer walls. The Palace is a mix of different styles with inspirations from the Bible to Hindu mythology. The stones are bound together with lime, mortar and cement. Cheval also wanted to be buried in his palace. However, since that is illegal in France, he proceeded to spend eight more years building a mausoleum for himself in the cemetery of Hauterives. Cheval died on August 19, 1924, around a year after he had finished building it, and is buried there.

For more info and photos go to oddity.

ELEPHANTE

Everything in Eliphante, a property in Cornville, AZ, USA is made from found materials. The three acre site was created over 28 years by Michael Kahn and his wife, Leda Livant and includes a residence, Hippodome, which has 25-foot ceilings and incorporates rocks and scraps from construction sites and a studio, one wall of which is the Ford pickup that brought the couple west.

Hippodome has electricity, heat, a phone line and water, but no bathroom or toilet. To wash, one goes across the property to the bathhouse, where the solar-heated shower is a length of chopped hose but the windows are stained glass.

Hippodome

Ceiling fan

The kitchen

For more info on Elephante follow this link to the New York Times.

The Mushroom House, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Another unique home made with found and used materials of wood, glass, tiles, and shells selected to make the building “look like it belonged in nature. Terry Brown spent over 14 years building this home with the help of his architecture students.

The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea

NO, THIS IS NOT PHOTOSHOPPED.

This monstrosity is a testament to North Korea’s bizarre totalitarian leadership. Construction began in 1987 and was designed to be 105 stories, have 3000 rooms, 7 revolving restaurants, casinos, nightclubs and Japanese lounges. Originally scheduled to be completed in 1989, by 1992 construction was completely halted due to funding problems amid electricity shortages and famine.
Japanese newspapers estimated the cost was US $750 million, consuming 2% of North Korea’s GDP.

Even more strange, the North Korean government denied the building’s existence for many years! Though mocked-up images of the completed hotel had once appeared on North Korean stamps, the government manipulated official photographs in order to remove the structure, and excluded it from printed maps of Pyongyang. Imagine denying this!

Stone House-Guimarães,Portugal

The Crooked House-Sopot, Poland

Low impact woodland house (Wales, UK)

Boeing-727 house in Benoit,Mississippi

This house cost Joanne Ussary $2,000, cost $4,000 to move and $24,000 to renovate. The stairs open with a garage door remote and one of the bathrooms is still intact. Check out the jacuzzi in the cockpit.