11.
ALBANIAN BUNKERS
Cold War era bunkers are a pretty common sight in Albania.
That’s because thousands of them were built between 1968 and 1983 under the radical communist
leader Enver Hoxha, who was convinced that an attack was imminent.
Hoxha was extreme in his ways.
To give you an idea, he believed that Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong were “too soft.”
So he’s clearly a mad man.
Fearing an invasion from both the west and the Soviet Union, he adhered to an isolationist
policy.
The paranoid leader wanted a bunker built for every four of the country’s residents.
Although he never achieved this goal, over 173,000 concrete bunkers were built during
his 20-year rule.
The dome-shaped structures were manufactured at a factory and delivered by truck.
Albania’s resources were already scarce when Hoxha embarked on his so-called “bunkerization”
project.
The massive endeavor stretched the country’s resources to their limit, and they were never
even used for their intended purpose.
Nobody had a reason to use them until the Kosovo War and the Albanian Civil War during
the 1990s, and even then, their use was limited.
A few of the bunkers have been removed, but many still dot the landscape today.
Some have been converted into hostels, homes, and museums, while the rest are simply rotting
in place.
10.
LVIVSKA BRAMA
The Ukrainian capital of Kiev (Kyiv) is the country’s most populated city.
It’s seen steady growth for more than a century, and it’s projected to grow even
more in the coming years.
Naturally, the city’s subway system has expanded to accommodate more people.
But not everything has gone according to plan, and sometimes, entire projects were left unfinished,
leaving behind deserted pathways and platforms that were never used.
Take, for example, the ghost station Lvivska Brama.
Construction began during the early 1990s, but funds began to run low.
On top of that, developers couldn’t agree on where to place the entrance, so they decided
to simply abandon the project.
There’s a metro line running through Lvivska Brama, and passengers can see the mysterious
incomplete structure as their train passes through.
There have been numerous proposals to finish building the station, but it hasn’t happened
yet, and nobody knows if it ever will.
9.
RUBJERG KNUDE LIGHTHOUSE
When you think of Denmark, you probably don’t think of the desert.
But shifting sands along the country’s coastline are swallowing up an old lighthouse in North
Jutland that’s been abandoned since 2002.
Known as the Rubjerg Knude lighthouse, the deserted 75-foot-tall (23 meters) structure
sits roughly 200 feet (60 meters) above the water on a cliff, overlooking the sea.
It was built in 1899 and operated until 1968.
For several decades afterward, the lighthouse housed a museum and coffee shop.
But sand kept accumulating around the building, and it became a problem.
While North Sea winds blow sand toward the lighthouse, the coast erodes by five feet
(1.5 meters) every year.
As a result, the structure’s surroundings have changed dramatically.
Several buildings nearby were damaged beyond repair and were removed in 2009, but the lighthouse
still stands for now.
In 2019, it was moved inland in a bid to preserve it for as long as possible.
By then, erosion had brought the lighthouse just feet away from the cliff’s edge, and
the elements threatened to topple it into the sea.
In fact, this is precisely what would have happened if it had stayed where it was.
Experts estimate that the lighthouse will remain safely in its current position until
around 2060, at which point officials will have to make yet another decision about what
to do with it.
8.
PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE
When it opened in 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was nicknamed the “Tunnel Highway” because
it passed through seven tunnels.
It wasn’t very efficiently designed, however.
In both directions, the highway was reduced to a single lane through each tunnel.
Within a decade, the turnpike was chronically congested, and there were frequent traffic
jams at the entrances to the tunnels.
In late 1968, the problematic 13-mile (21 km) stretch of road was abandoned in favor
of a newly built bypass.
It’s been closed to vehicle traffic ever since, and nature has reclaimed the surrounding
area.
In what looks like a scene from a post-apocalyptic film, the once-bustling road and tunnels run
straight through the middle of the woods.
Plans have been in the works for several years to turn the disused highway into a bike path.
Whether or not it’ll actually happen remains to be seen.
But even in its dilapidated state, the road is open to the public for those who want to
take their chances on cracked pavement that hasn’t been maintained in over 50 years.
Would you take your chances?!
7.
THE MAKEDONIUM
In the year 1903, a group of Macedonian revolutionaries led an uprising against the Ottoman Empire
in a bid for their independence.
They had some initial success and established a local administration called the Kruševo
Republic.
But the Ottomans fought back with overwhelming force and quelled the rebellion.
Afterward, they punished the dissenters by destroying their homes and executing people
en masse.
Historians estimate that at least 9,000 homes were ruined, as many as 4,600 people were
killed, and thousands more became homeless.
71 years later in 1974, a memorial to the uprising opened in North Macedonia.
Nicknamed the Makedonium, the bizarre round structure is covered in protruding oval windows.
It somewhat resembles a giant virus and bears no obvious connection to the rebellion at
first glance.
The memorial sits atop a hill overlooking the city of Krusevo from 4,000 feet (1,219
meters) above.
It houses the tomb of Nikola Karev, the president of the short-lived Kruševo Republic.
Outside, there’s a series of sculptures called “Breaking the Chains,” which symbolize
the freedom that Macedonians eventually achieved.
On that note, the Makedonium is fascinating for its uniqueness, but it would admittedly
be impossible to know what the strange site is about just by looking at it.
6.
OLD CAR CITY
A 32-acre (13 hectares) property in White, Georgia is home to one of the world’s biggest
car junkyards.
Known as “Old Car City,” it’s filled with abandoned vintage cars covered in overgrowth.
The Lewis family has owned the site since 1931.
It originally consisted of a general store, and then became a used car parts dealer.
Over time, the land became wildly overrun with cars and car parts -- to the tune of
4,000 vehicles, most of which date back between the 1950s and the 1980s.
There are cars, trucks, and even school buses.
As the cars rusted out, nature took over, and the plant life became entangled with the
colossal collection of clunkers.
In what most people might regard as a heaping sea of junk, the original owners’ son, Dean
Lewis, saw a unique opportunity.
He turned the property into an attraction for photographers, and welcomes both seasoned
professionals and enthusiasts to come and explore.
Lewis created six miles (10 km) of trails and put up signs for visitors to follow, and
thousands of people have come to see the sprawling scrapyard for themselves.
Old Car City’s fame and its status as a museum may make it seem commercialized, but
the vehicles have sat frozen in time for decades.
One of the most popular displays at the site is the “two-ton flowerpot,” a 1939 Chevy
with tree branches sprouting through its busted-out windshield from inside.
5.
MCNAB’S ISLAND
Off the coast of Nova Scotia in Halifax Harbour, Canada there’s an island filled with abandoned
modern-era structures and military installations.
Known as McNab’s Island, its history goes at least as far back as the 18th century,
when it was used by fishermen and went by the name Cornwallis Island.
A man named Peter McNab settled there during the 1780s, and his family lived on the island
until 1934.
No major settlements were built there after they left.
Since World War II, McNab Island has remained mostly abandoned.
The ruins there today consist of several military forts, the foundations of houses built by
early settlers, and a cemetery that contains the remains of some of the island’s first
inhabitants.
There’s also an old soda factory, disused gun batteries, the ruins of a large Victorian
garden, a lighthouse, and more.
McNab Island spans roughly 980 acres (395 hectares), making it the biggest island in
Halifax Harbour.
Most of it is owned by the federal government and the province of Nova Scotia, and several
of its historic structures are protected landmarks.
Only three percent of McNab Island is privately owned.
You may be surprised to learn that there are still a handful of permanent residents there,
but for the most part, it’s filled with reminders of how much more populated it used
to be.
4.
DAMEN SILOS
Chicago was once home to the country’s largest grain storage center.
Known as the Damen Silos, the site is made up of a network of interlocking 15-story silos
that were built in 1906.
They were owned by the Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and had enough room to store 400,000 bushels
of grain.
The Damen Silos closed after a massive explosion and fire in 1977 damaged them beyond repair.
Since then, they’ve become an attraction for urban explorers, graffiti artists, and
troublesome teens.
In the basement beneath the silos, there’s a series of dark rooms and tunnels -- thousands
of square feet of them, according to photographer Mike Kinsch, whose images were published in
Block Club Chicago.
Speaking with the news outlet, he explained that the tunnels run beneath half the 24-acre
(10 hectares) site and that someone could easily get lost in them.
It’s actually illegal to explore this seemingly post-apocalyptic landmark, but plenty of people
are curious enough to take their chances on getting caught.
Those who are determined enough to explore the Damen Silos can find instructions on how
to access the site if they look hard enough.
3.
BUZLUDZHA MONUMENT
Back in 1891, a group of socialists in Bulgaria met in secret to form an organized movement
called the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party.
The organization paved the way for what would eventually become the Bulgarian Communist
Party.
Nearly a century later in 1974, construction began on a monument dedicated to that first
meeting.
Known as the Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party or the Buzludzha Monument,
the futuristic structure stands on a remote peak in the Central Balkan Mountains.
In order to build it, engineers had to create a level foundation.
They did this by using TNT to blast away nearly 530,000 cubic feet (15,000 meters3) of rock
and reducing the mountain’s height by 30 feet (9.1 meters).
Building the actual monument cost the equivalent of $35 million (USD) today.
Like many state-sponsored communist buildings, the Buzludzha Monument has a paradoxically
vintagey yet “space age” feel to it.
It’s visibly outdated and decaying, but contains elements of what its designers envisioned
as the architecture of the future.
Inside, there’s a collection of mosaics commemorating the Bulgarian Communist Party’s
history.
Sadly, one-fifth of the artwork has been destroyed by vandalism, time, and the elements.
The monument wasn’t open for very long.
It was finished being built in 1981 and closed when communism fell in 1989.
All maintenance of the site ended there, and the building has since fallen into disrepair.
Its structural integrity is compromised, and visitors aren’t allowed because it’s dangerous
to go inside.
2.
HISTORIC CEMETERY III & CREMATORIUM
There’s a road in the German town of Dessau that runs through an old and mostly abandoned
cemetery.
Known simply as Cemetery III, it’s filled with fallen tombstones and urns.
Some of the statues are rather beautiful, while others contain disturbing inscriptions.
There are monuments to soldiers who died in both World Wars, as well as a memorial dedicated
to 56 workers who perished in a factory explosion in 1918.
Most of them were women and girls.
The most shocking feature of Historic Cemetery III is a domed building that looks like a
chapel from the outside.
Once you enter the deceptively quaint structure, however, it immediately becomes clear that
it once functioned as a crematorium.
Between 1910 and the late 1980s, an estimated 100,000 bodies were burned there.
At one point, a new wing was added onto the busy crematorium, and that also remains at
the site today.
The buildings are still filled with paperwork, old telephones, and the equipment that was
used for burning human remains.
Entering the crematorium has been likened to stepping into a horror film.
But if you’re into that sort of thing, you may want to visit this protected historic
landmark.
1.
STRATISTE MEMORIAL COMPLEX
In rural Serbia northease of Belgrade, there’s a long road leading past farming communities
to an abandoned bronze and concrete monument situated along the Tamiš River.
Known as the Stratište Memorial Complex, it was built to commemorate an event known
as the Pančevo Holocaust or the Jabuka Massacre.
Between 1941 and 1945, fascists executed an estimated 10,000 Serbs, Jews, and Roma people
(also known as gypsies) near the site.
The memorial opened in 1981 in what was then Yugoslavia.
At the time, it consisted of a small museum, an amphitheater, numerous plaques and sculptures,
and several other structures.
Today, the site is in poor condition, neglected and covered in overgrowth.
Sadly, the derelict complex has been vandalized and robbed nearly a dozen times since 2013.
Two three-ton (2.7 tonnes) bronze decorations were stolen, along with all the site’s electrical
parts and wiring.
The museum’s artifacts and displays are all gone, and its features were covered in
graffiti.
The criminals responsible for these acts were never caught.
Nature and time seem to have made up for anything that deviants haven’t had the opportunity
to destroy.
Anyone who wants to visit the memorial will have to find it on their own, because there’s
no signage to guide people there.
And visitors will also have to rely on their Google skills to learn about and interpret
the site, because there is certainly no information available there.
In 2018, the memorial was cleaned up and fixed to the extent that it realistically could
be.
But it’s nowhere near as nice as it was before it became an afterthought and fell
into disrepair.
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