As urban explorers, the former Eastern Bloc is a popular destination for our road trips.
During the most golden autumn, we were targeting Poland as the next post-Soviet republic we had to explore.
So, in a group of five, we set out on a multi-day adventure to find the extremes of urbex:
The pristine and decayed.
Rural and urban.
Forbidden and legal.
And the industrial and palatial.
We traveled more than 1,000 km to film spectacular structures with haunting histories.
At first light, we were waking up to deserted sights.
And by day, we were blending in to successfully infiltrate restricted areas.
This is our journey to Poland’s undisclosed landmarks.
If you enjoy our videos make sure to hit the subscribe button and click the bell to get notified when we upload new content.
One short announcement before the video starts.
Apparently, a lot of you missed this but we have released our very own urbex calendar for 2020.
We picked our best shots from the previous year, printed them on high-quality and thick photographic paper
and added stories about every showcased exploration.
You can purchase one of our calendars for 20€ or 22 USD per piece plus shipping charges.
And we also add free stickers to every order.
We don’t have a shop, so if you’re interested, just send us an email or private message on social media.
You will find all the info in the video description down below.
We put so much work in the calendar and we’re super proud how it has turned out.
Around 200 of them are sold already.
We’re glad that so many of you guys tell us how much you love it.
So, if you haven’t ordered one yet, send us a text and we ship it right over.
But first of all, enjoy the pilot episode of our new series.
Let’s kick off this series with one of the many power plants we were exploring on our adventure.
On a lonely island in the middle of a large Polish city, this defunct but not yet completely abandoned facility is located.
We gathered intel on how to infiltrate this massive structure and learned about CCTV on the property.
So, to get on the site, we needed to be creative.
We needed to be subtle and we needed good timing.
The red and white chimney was like a beacon showing which direction to head.
We were lucky to have found a path just before the next train was passing by.
Now, we needed to get an overview because we didn’t know how to get inside.
We want to introduce the crew first before we start with this adventure.
For five days, we have been traveling in Poland, venturing into different kinds of places.
Some of them were guarded really well, so we needed a good team to deal with different challenges.
Of course, there is us, Till
and Marco.
As always, we had a group of friends joining us.
We were accompanied by two trusted urbex photographers who we have known for some time now.
One of them is Tobi.
We met him two years ago when we were on a road trip in Italy together with The Proper People.
As a local, Tobi knew the best spots.
The other one is our anonymous friend who you might also know from our other videos.
This was our biggest trip yet with him.
And last but not least, there is Sascha who was totally new to urbex.
But she was ready for adventure and she could not wait to get into the first spot.
It took us a moment to find a broken window which invited us to climb inside.
And then, we immediately found the centerpiece of the powerhouse:
This is the turbine hall with two historical generators;
one from the late 1920s and the other one from the 1940s.
We were delighted to see those machines in such pristine condition with barely any vandalism.
The room with its very high ceiling resembles a concert hall,
or maybe an industrial dance floor so to say.
When this power station was constructed it served as a symbol for the modern age.
It was one of the most beautiful buildings in the whole town and it is said that people came only to see this structure.
Well, as it seems nothing has changed. Because here we are just to see this fine colossus.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the city got its first power plant.
But soon after, it became insufficient already because demand for electricity was increasing fast.
So, in the 1920s it was decided to build this new, much bigger facility.
It was designed to be easily extended.
In 1929, energy production started here.
In our drone footage, you could already see that the powerhouse
was constructed on an island in the middle of the city.
The surrounding river was used for cooling and the adjacent railroad line was making supply really easy.
While climbing the crane we made an unexpected discovery:
A swastika.
Was this power plant connected to the Third Reich?
No, this is just the logo of a Swedish electrical engineering company
that focused on building powerhouses among others.
After the Nazis' seizure of power in 1933, the company changed its emblem.
During the Second World War, the German Wehrmacht actually occupied the city
and during heavy clashes the structure was damaged.
It took some years until the power plant had reached its full capacities again.
We spent quite some time in the impressive turbine hall but this was only one part of the huge building complex.
We only had around two hours in total.
This was for sure not enough time to explore all those detailed spaces
like the laboratory for example where everything was left behind.
After World War Two, the power plant was extended.
Amongst other things, these offices were built.
But the most comprehensive change happened in 1965
when the facility was turned into a combined heat and power station.
Now, the residents of this town not only got electricity but also their hot water from this place.
However, since the demand was growing a more powerful plant was needed.
And because it is that close to the city center, it had to be modernized in order to match new environmental regulations.
But there wasn’t any space left to expand this facility.
So, as it happened before, it was decided to build a new powerhouse.
In the 1990s, this place was shut down gradually.
2015 was the final year of operation.
Then, the remaining offices were cleared step-by-step.
Since then, the whole place is defunct.
Now, we are in the boiler house.
And we were actually surprised that the power was still on.
In an active power plant, it is important to monitor the water level in the boiler.
If there is not enough water, the pipes will start burning.
But if it is too much, it will destroy the turbines.
On every occasion, it is impressive to see such boiler houses with their merged designs.
However, the other thing we love to see in old power plants are the control rooms.
And as it seems, we just found a small one.
But this was not the main one.
Back in the turbine hall, we could see the master control room with its countless switchboards all intact.
There were two doors.
But both were locked.
We could only catch a glimpse.
We also tried another way in but this one as well was sealed.
But to be honest: We were already pretty lucky to have found a historical power plant
in an almost untouched condition with that many amazing things to see.
We could not ask for more.
After the site was shut down, both the company and the city wanted to sell the premises.
Several project developers were interested and created redevelopment plans.
Then, in the beginning of 2019, one of the biggest Polish building contractors finally purchased the ten-hectare big property.
Now, a whole new city district is supposed to emerge here.
Already this year, they want to start with construction works.
For that, most building parts need to be knocked down.
But the one that was built almost one hundred years ago will be preserved as a monument.
So, before rust and nature get a chance to conquer the spacious halls, the place will become a new home for hundreds of people.
What was forgotten for a while will be once again a symbol for the modern age.
We were lucky that two urbex photographers joined us on this road trip.
Make sure to check out Tobi and the anonymous snapshooter on Instagram.
You find the links to their profiles in the video description down below.
Next time on Broken Window Theory:
We look back at the beginning of this road trip.
On our first morning in Poland, we woke up next to these eerie shells of former war machines.
Like ghosts, they appeared in wafts of mist.
Unfortunately, we did not have much time to film because we were trespassing active military training grounds
and we got quite some troubles because of this.
So, we ended up in prison.
But that is a story for the next episode.
Prepare for a double feature of Poland’s undisclosed landmarks.
This was the first video of our Poland adventure.
We’re planning to do a six-part series featuring several incredible places you have not seen before on YouTube.
Don’t forget to grab one of our urbex calendars as long as they are in stock.
You get high-quality pictures for a super fair price in our opinion.
Thanks for your support and keep exploring.