The 40 Most Breathtaking Abandoned Places In The World

What happens to “abandoned places” buildings or theme parks after people stop using them and maintaining them? When a structure becomes abandoned, nature takes over, and most often, it becomes whatever the wild around it decides it to be.

The list below of 42 abandoned places around the world shows what happens when nature takes over. Some of these are just breathtaking while others just a pile of garbage, I guess it’s a matter of opinion.

01. A Tree Growing Through An Abandoned Piano

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02. Overgrown Palace, Poland

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In 1910, this grand palace was built as a home for Polish Royalty. The rest of the century proved uncertain for the country. Under communist rule, the castle became an agricultural school home for mentally disabled adults and children. The former palace was deserted following the fall of the USSR.

03. Jet Star Rollercoaster, Seaside Heights, New Jersey

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The Jet Star Rollercoaster was left submerged in the Atlantic Ocean after Superstorm Sandy in 2013. It stood rusting for six months until it was plucked from the sea.

04. Abandoned House In The Woods

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05. Church In St. Etienne, France

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06. An Abandoned Church With A Few Lingering Parishioners, Netherlands

07. Doll Factory, Spain

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08. Tree Growing Around An Abandoned Bicycle

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09. Shipwrecks In A Sandbar, Bermuda Triangle

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10. Floating Forest, Sydney, Australia

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11. Movie Theater In Detroit, Michigan

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With Detroit’s decline, many of its historic buildings have fallen into disuse. This movie theater is both a fascinating and sad example.

12. Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California

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The Mare Island Naval Shipyard acted as a submarine port during both the World Wars. In the 1990s, the building was abandoned, and flooding created a fantastic mirror effect.

13. Victorian-Style Tree House, Florida, USA

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14. Forgotten Bugatti’s – Abandoned Places

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15. The Titanic Wreck

The titanic took its first and last voyage in April 1912. It was not until 73 years later that the decaying wreck of what was once the grandest ship in the world was discovered. The 1,500 souls lost with the vessel had been devoured by sea life, leaving behind a ghost ship.

16. Chemin De Fer De Petite Ceinture, France

The “little belt railway” was a circular railway built in 1852 to supply Paris’ fortifications. When the city outgrew its defenses in 1934, the railway system was also left to run wild.

17. Spreepark, Berlin, Germany

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Spreepark opened in 1969 and was the only amusement park in East Berlin during Soviet rule. When the wall fell, bigger and better parks opened, leading to Spreeparks’ closure in 2001.

18. Library, Russia – Abandoned Places

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19. Island Home, Finland

20. Chris McCandless’ Magic Bus, Stampede Trail, Alaska

Bus 142 was left behind by the workers who built the railway at Stampede Trail. Christopher McCandless, an American hitchhiker whose story was told through the movie “Into The Wild, lived and died in what he called the “magic bus” during the summer of 1992.

21. Turquoise Canal, Venice, Italy.

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Like any other city, areas of Venice are boarded up and abandoned.

22. Staircase To Nowhere, Pismo Beach, California

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Once giving access to the beach, the walkway that connected this staircase to the bluffs has long since rotted away.

23. Nara Dreamland, Japan

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Nara Dreamland was built in 1961 after Disneyland took the world by storm. The entrance to the park was almost identical to Disneyland and included its version of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. The park closed in 2006 because of low visitor numbers.

24. Abandoned Mining Track, Taiwan

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25. Abandoned Jetty

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26. Bare Footprints In An Abandoned Nuclear Reactor

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27. An Abandoned Waterpark

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28. Boathouse, Obersee Lake, Germany

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29. Abandoned Hallway

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30. Methodist Church, Gary, Indiana

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Gary, Indiana, was founded in 1905 during the boom of US steel. During the 1950s, more than 200,000 people worked in the bustling city. As the

31. Church In The Snow, Canada

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32. Blue Spiral Staircase In A European Castle

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33. Soviet Naval Testing Station In Makhachkala, Russia

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34. Church Steeple Peeking Out Of A Frozen Lake, Reschen, Italy

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Lake Reschen is an artificial reservoir that submerged several villages and a 14th-century church.

35. Glenwood Power Station, New York

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The Glenwood Power Station, built in 1906, has long been obsolete. After closing in 1968, the sight was used as a backdrop for creepy thrillers and zombie movies.

36. Flooded Mall

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37. Abandoned Theater – Abandoned Places

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38. Car Graveyard, Ardennes, Belgium

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Many American soldiers on the Western Front during World War 2 purchased cars for personal use. When the war ended, they proved too expensive to ship home, and many were abandoned in this eerie graveyard.

39. Driverless Bumper Cars, Chernobyl, Ukraine

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The city of Chernobyl was abandoned after the nearby nuclear disaster in 1986. Due to radiation, it has been left untouched ever since the incident and will be for many thousands of years into the future. Nature now rules the city in what resembles an apocalyptic movie.

40. Abandoned Sanatorium, Berlin, Germany

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41. Abandoned House In Virginia

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42. Poveglia Island, Italy – Abandoned Places

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Poveglia is an island in the Venetian Lagoon that, under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte, became a dumping ground for plague victims and later an asylum for the mentally ill.

See part 1 of the series “abandoned places” here.

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