Anthology

Memento
Mori

To notice the beauty in things
left behind is to see the soul of
the life it once lived
Heather Durren

Anderlecht
Veterinary
school
The Neo-Renaissance
facade of this building is enough to
deter most people. The veterinary school
was in operation in the late 20th century
and has been abandoned for many years.
Brussels

Once inside,
the feeling is cold and
desolate. Even though it has
been abandoned for a long
time, the sense of something
lurking can be felt. The rooms
and the hallways are falling
a part at a rapid rate. It’s
quite a creepy sight but the real
horrors lie beneath the floors. As
you make their way closer to the
bowels of the old school, a pungent
smell appears and pierces the nose.
A smell like no other. . .

When you
start to head downstairs, the smell
becomes so bad that explorers struggle to
continue. It was the smell of old formaldehyde,
like that in your high school science class. Take
that smell and times it by ten. When the few
that could bear the smell made it downstairs,
their jaws hit the floor when they saw nearly
100-year-old containers full of dead animals.
Some recognizable and others just grotesque
organs sealed in a jar of thin delicate
glass.

“The head of a
calf joined with the leg of a cat,” was
reported by one explorer. There were brains
and different animals everywhere. Hundreds of
them. The smell was worse than anything they
could describe. It took everything for them not
to vomit during the exploration. The containers
and jars of animals and animal organs were
hidden in the basement of this school for almost
100 years sitting in the dark waiting to be
discovered again.
The school was moved and this location
was shut down in 1991 but, most of these
are the original specimens the scientists would
study and teach with when the school opened
nearly 100 years ago. You can see that a lot
of the formaldehyde has either evaporated or
leaked out. Formaldehyde is said to cause cancer
and the smell is atrocious. Breathing in here would
be near impossible. There were hundreds of old
jars full of the most random and terrifying things
you can think of. Many had even broken open
or leaked out causing the most putrid smell you
could imagine. Death, decay, and formaldehyde
everywhere . . .

Bodie
California

Yesterday’s Bodie was a
true boomtown filled with a
couple thousand wooden buildings
and as many as 10,000 people
milling through its bustling
streets. Today’s Bodie is a state
historic park, a gaunt skeleton
of what once was: the bestknown,
most-written about, and
most-photographed ghost town in
America.

Killings were a daily occurrence, and “The
Bad Man from Bodie” became legend. Waterman
S. (Bill) Bodey discovered gold east of the Sierras
and north of Mono Lake in 1859. He perished in a
snowstorm that winter, but a small, quiet mining
camp named after him developed at the
discovery site.
The peacefulness changed in 1875,
however, with the exposure of a massive,
rich pocket of gold deep in one of the
mines. Bodie became the place to be and
went from quiet to rough, uncultured, and
uncivilized overnight.

By 1877 the mile-long main street was
solidly lined with businesses, including 65
saloons. In 1881, a local pastor called Bodie
“a sea of sin, lashed by the tempests of
lust and passion.” But even before then,
the glitter was fading. The mine had only
so much gold, and when it was all
extracted, Bodie languished and died.
Two fires, in 1892 and 1932, left charred
memories of any “excess” buildings that
had remained after the people left.
Since then, there has been no rebuilding
and little restoration. What remains
is lovingly maintained in a state of
“arrested decay.” If you listen quietly,
you can almost hear the ghosts. ..
“And now my comrades all are gone;
Naught remains to toast. They have
left me here in my misery, Like some
poor wandering ghost.”

Great Train
Graveyard
Bolivia

IT’S A CEMETERY FOR TRAINS, for
locomotives. And it’s so big that it looks
as though all of the trains in South
America were moved to Uyuni, Bolivia, to
chug their last chug. It’s only about 3 km
away from the Uyuni train station.
Filled with hollowed
out bodies that have
completely rusted over
and other remains, the
“Great Train Graveyard”
(also known as Train
Cemetery or ‘Cemeterio de
Trenes’ in Spanish) can
be found on the otherwise
deserted outskirts of Uyuni,
a small trading region high
in the Andean plain.

Uyuni has long
been known as an important
transportation hub in South
America and it connects several
major cities. In the early 19th
century, big plans were made to build
an even bigger network of trains
out of Uyuni, but the project was
abandoned because of a combination
of technical difficulties and tension
with neighboring countries. The trains
and other equipment were left to rust
and fade out of memory. There are
no restrictions in approaching the
trains, so visitors often climb atop
or go inside the train cars for
taking pictures.
Most of the trains that can be found in the
Graveyard date back to the early 20th century
and were imported from Britain. There are over 100
train cars with unique structure and occasional
graffitis. In other places in the world, the mighty
steel trains would have held up better. The salt
winds that blow over Uyuni, which hosts the
world’s largest salt plain, have corroded all
of the metal. Without guards or even a
fence, these pieces were picked over and
vandalized long ago.

Hashima
Island
Japan

Known as Midori Nashi Shima (“the Island
Without Green”), Hashima is a 16-acre
landmass off Japan’s Nagasaki coast.
Now an abandoned ruin, it was for a
time the most densely populated area in
the world - thanks to the discovery of
subterranean coal beds in 1810.
The Mitsubishi Corporation
turned it into a mining
operation and built a network
of concrete structures that
housed up to 5,250 workers,
giving the site a forbidding,
fortresslike appearance
and leading to yet another
nickname: Gunkanjima, or
“Battleship Island.” By 1941,
Hashima was producing 400,000
tons of coal a year, but when
the fuel finally ran out, in
1974, the island was abandoned
to the typhoons of the
surrounding sea.

In 2009, after some of its structures were
reinforced, Hashima reopened as a tourist
destination. Six years later, it became a
UNESCO World Heritage site - a controversial
designation, since so many of the miners on the
island had been Korean laborers forced to work
during Japan’s colonial rule. During World War II,
they were joined by captive Chinese. “The common
stories I heard... was that they were miserable,
and when they could not go to work they were
tortured, punched, and kicked.”
More common deprivations prevailed, too.
“There were no bushes, no flowers, we didn’t even
know what the cherry blossom was,” said one
former resident. “We told the seasons from one
another by listening to the wind or looking at
the color of the ocean and the sky.” Over time,
of course, nature had its way: The forlorn ruins
of the Island Without Green are now overrun with
vegetation.

Houtouwan
Shengshan
Island
This fishing village in the
Shengsi Islands of China has
been abandoned for years, but
it is anything but decrepit. On
the contrary, Houtouwan may
well be the most verdant and
stunningly green village the world
over, as nearly every building
is overgrown with ivy and other
lush vegetation.
This green gem, situated
about 40 miles from Shanghai,
was once an active settlement,
inhabited by around 2,000 fishermen
and their families. In the early
1990s, when the small bay became
increasingly unable to meet the
growing fish industry’s needs, residents
began migrating to the mainland
in search of other employment and
a better life, a pattern that was
common in many small Chinese
villages.
China

Slowly, nearly every house was
abandoned, and only a handful of
residents now remain. Over the past two
decades, the forces of green took over,
plastering nearly every surface of the
settlement with dense overgrown foliage.
Adding to the otherworldliness, a peek
inside the deserted houses reveals decaying
household items and pieces of furniture
frozen exactly as they were placed years
ago before the inhabitants left.
Now, some villagers who used to live in
Houtouwan have found another form
of income in tourism, showing an everincreasing
stream of visitors the lush
landscape, and selling them water, the
only item on offer on the island. The
scenery is green as far as the eye can
see, making this a wondrous sight, and a
photographer’s paradise.

Kennecott
Mine
In the late 1990s, construction
workers building government
housing in a remote corner
of Alaska, 300 miles east of
Anchorage, started hearing
strange sounds. Then they
spotted strange shapes.
Suddenly, tools they knew
had been affixed to their
belts disappeared. “It was
enough to frighten off even
the boldest and bravest
public servant,” the
Anchorage Daily News
reported,”and the whole
project is said to have
been canceled.”
United States

The bizarre activity took place on the old
railroad grade leading to Kennecott, a copperminning
town established in the early 1900s. The
mineral dug out of the cliffs that had turned
green from oxidation was more valuable than
gold in those days, turning Kennecott into a
boomtown overnight. The copper ore was shipped
down the mountain by rail for 200 miles to
prince william sound, where it was carried by
ships to smelters in Tacoma, Washington.

Financed by J.P. Morgan, the railroad was an
engineering marvel, with the tracks having to
be constantly adjusted because they were laid
right on top of shifting glaciers. Untold numbers
of workers died building the railroad, and many
believe it was their painful cries – and ghostly
shenanigans – that afflicted the modern-day
construction crew. By the 1930s, after generating
as much as $300 million worth of copper, the ore
ran out and Kennecott quickly turned into a ghost
town. The old red-painted wooden buildings, including
a bunkhouse and hospital, may be battered but
still remain standing, and kennecott now draws
hikers and tourists as a historic site operated by
the National Park Service. Some visitors claim to
have seen tombstones on their way into town, but
the grave markers appear to have vanished when
they pass by again on the way out.

Kolmanskop
Ghost Town
People flocked to what became
known as Kolmanskop, Namibia,
after the discovery of diamonds
in the area in 1908 by Zacharias
Lewala, a railway worker, who
picked up what he thought was
an unusually shiny stone, and
showed it to his supervisor.
The supervisor, August Stauch,
immediately applied for a prospector’s
license, and verification confirmed that
the first diamond in the region had been
found. The diamonds were in such supply
that they could be picked off the ground
by bare hands, and soon the area was
flooded with men wanting to make their
fortune.
Namibia

As people arrived with high hopes,
houses and other key buildings
were built. The new town, which
was German-influenced, saw the
construction of ballrooms, casinos,
theaters, ice factories, and hospitals,
as well as the first X-ray station
in the southern hemisphere.

As people arrived with high hopes, houses
and other key buildings were built. The new
town, which was German-influenced, saw
the construction of ballrooms, casinos,
theaters, ice factories, and hospitals, as
well as the first X-ray station in the
southern hemisphere.

Maunsell Army
Sea Forts
England

Rising from the water like
rusty invaders out of H.G. Wells, the
Maunsell Army Forts in the Thames
Estuary are decaying reminders of the
darkest days of World War II.
Part of the Thames Estuary defense
network, the anti-aircraft tower-forts
were constructed in 1942, with each
fort consisting of a cluster of seven
stilted buildings surrounding a central
command tower. When operational,
catwalks connected the buildings.
Built on land and then transported
to their watery homes, the forts were
designed by Guy Maunsell, a British civil
engineer, later known for innovations in
concrete bridge design. Originally there
were three of these forts, but only two
are left standing: the Redsands Fort
and the Shivering Sands Fort.
After their successful wartime
career, the forts were decommissioned
in the 1950s. The Nore Army Fort
was badly damaged by both a storm
and being struck by a ship and was
dismantled in 1959-60. In the 1960s
and 70s, the remaining abandoned
forts were famously taken over as
pirate radio stations. The micronation
Principality of SeaLand occupies a
nearby Navy fort of a different design
known as the Roughs Tower, also built
by Maunsell. All of the army forts are
now abandoned.
In 2003, the Project Redsands
organization was formed with the aim
of protecting and possibly restoring the
Redsands Fort, chosen over Shivering
Sands due to its better state of
preservation. More recently, the Shivering
Sands Fort was occupied by the artist
Stephen Turner for 36 days in 2005,
roughly the same amount of time a
WWII serviceman would have spent at
the fort. He described the project as
an experiment in isolation and wrote a
blog and a book about the project. In
2008 The Prodigy filmed a music video
at Redsands.

According to Underground Kent, an
organization dedicated to exploring and documenting
the military installations in Kent: “Access for the
men posted to these forts was via an entrance at the
base of the platform. Parts of the ladders that the men
would have used are still visible today but are in a very
poor condition. Indeed, attempting to access these forts is
extremely hazardous, and they are best viewed from a
boat and a safe distance.”

Chapel of Nossa
Senhora das
Vitorias
Portugal

At the edge of the tropical
tree line of Lagoa das
Furnas there is a charming
lake in the middle of São
Miguel Island. Emerging from
this fairytale landscape is
the slim tower of a neo-
Gothic church that dates
to 1882. What began as a
testament to the ailing
wife of a wealthy Azorean
gardener and amateur
botanist, ended up as one of
the most evocative churches
in the whole archipelago.

Capella de Nossa Senhora das Vitórias, Chapel of
Our Lady of Victories, was intended to honor Maria
Guilhermina Taveira de Brum da Silveira, the wife
of a local landowner named José Do Conto. She had
fallen tragically and terminally ill, and her husband
took it upon himself to create this magical lakeside
chapel. Calling on his renowned design and landscaping
talents, despite the structural elements the whole
endeavor feels more like the soft-focus of magical
realism than hard-edge gothic.
Do Conto didn’t actually finish the work himself, but
compelled it to be done before he passed away in 1898.
Living to see its completion, his wish to be buried next to
his wife was fulfilled, and both are there in the Chapel.
There are 18 windows, mostly filled with bright stained
glass that shine down colorful gospel depictions on the
couple’s final resting place.
There are no services held here, which gives it an
ancient, abandoned, and even timeless feeling as
the natural elements take over. It stands like an
old tree, firmly rooted and infused into the forest.
Between the Chapel, the gardens, the lake, and the
surrounding mountains, it stands out as one of the
most endearing and rustic places in the Azores.

Power
Plant Im
In a small neighborhood
known as Monceau-sur-
Sambre, within the Belgian
town of Charleroi, sits an
abandoned power station, the
magnificent abandoned cooling
tower of which still looms over
the town no longer creating
electricity, but providing plenty
of dystopian vistas.
Belgium

Power Plant IM was originally built
in 1921 and when it was finished,
it was one of the largest coalburning
power plants in Belgium.
Water would be let into the cooling
tower where it would be cooled
by the wind that swept in from
portals in the base of the tower,
releasing billowing columns of hot
air. By 1977 the power plant and
its massive tower was the main
source of energy in the Charleroi
area and is said to have
been able to cool down 480,000
gallons of water per minute.
By the 1970s new components
were even added to the power
plant that could also use
gas power. However, the power
plant’s days in the sun were
numbered.
After years of service, a
report found that Power
Plant IM was responsible for
10% of the total CO2 emissions
in Belgium. Due to this,
protests from Greenpeace
in 2006 gave the power
plant a lot of negative
attention and it
closed in 2007.

After it was closed down, there were
reports of looting by metal scrappers,
but today there are often security guards
The power plant still lies abandoned and
is said to be scheduled for demolition, but
until that time it continues to stand as
a popular location for urban explorers.

Cartersville
Abandoned
Plane
This discarded G-159 Gulfstream
plane was abandoned near a river
put in during the mid-2000s. It has
since been picked clean by salvagers,
the wings, tail, wiring, and instrument
panels are no longer present.
United States

However, the fuselage and leather seats remain and
display the effects of more than 15 years of exposure
to the elements. In recent years, the airliner has become
a canvas, as the site has gained popularity with area
teenagers, intrepid hikers, and graffiti artists.

The twin turbo-prop was retired and scrapped by nearby
Phoenix Air and dumped in the woods on city land. Despite
some speculation, this is NOT the Dessault Falcon 20 that
crashed near the Cartersville airport in 1989. This aircraft
used to carry the registration number N173PA but that
registration was canceled in January 2005 and subsequently
transferred to a newer Gulfstream III that Phoenix Air
currently uses as air ambulance.
The scrapped aircraft currently resides on land owned by
the City of Cartersville. There’s a parking lot nearby for
the put-in for kayakers and tubers that connects to a
walking trail and a gravel service road. Follow the gravel
road past the gate that keeps vehicles out and follow the
road around to the right, and stay to the right when the
road forks. Just past the fork in the road, start looking
to your left. When you see an open meadow on your left
next to a stand of trees, walk into the meadow about
20 yards. You’ll see the plane tucked in the trees on your
left.

Church of
St. Nicholas
Cyprus

Kouris dam was built in the
1980’s flooding the local village
of Alassa including the
Church of Saint Nicholas.
Today, the only hint of the
village that remains are the
ruins of the church. During
the summer, the ruins are
completely visible but when
the rain comes during the
winter, the reservoir fills
and only the church tower
is visible.
There are also rumors of
sightings of the “Loch Ness of
Cyprus” in the reservoir, but
its existence has never been
proven.

Crematorium
& Cemetery
There are parts of this
abandoned cemetery in
Dessau, Germany where
it truly feels like stepping
into a horror movie.
Fallen tombstones and
urns are already spooky,
and the creepy reliefs
on the stones just add
to the dark atmosphere.
Then you come across
a building that looks
like a small chapel.
Stepping in, the
realization hits: It
is an abandoned
crematorium.
Germany

Most parts of the historic
Cemetery III in Dessau are
abandoned. The cemetery is divided
by a street. The larger western side is
a park-like area with plenty of old
graves, beautiful monuments, sometimes
with quite horrid reliefs and greatly
decorated wells all overgrown with ivy.
Among others, you’ll find a memorial
for the victims of fascism and a
memorial for the victims of the
BAMAG-Disaster, a 1918 explosion
in a workshop at a WWI
munitions factory that killed
56 workers, mostly women
and young girls.
There are more signs of abandonment in
the eastern part of the cemetery. Here many
tombstones have fallen over and stone urns
lay on the ground. Nature is winning back
the place in some areas, though certain
monuments are still cared for; there are
several monuments for the casualties of
both the First and Second World War.

Then, also in the eastern part of the cemetery, you’ll
come across a building with a dome roof, protected as a
historic monument. This domed structure is an abandoned
crematorium, constructed in 1910 and in working order
until the late 1980s. It’s believed more than 100,000 bodies
were cremated here, many buried in an adjoining urn
grave field. The crematorium was later expanded with
a new wing, which also stands abandoned today. Inside
the older cremation system you’ll see a rotary hub on
tracks, and in the newer system, the bone mill and other
items can still be found. Urns, number tacks and old
paperwork are still here, as are the old telephones and
even shoes.
The most famous person
who was burned here was
the social democrat and antifascist
Wilhelm Feuerherdt, who
was killed in 1932 in Zerbst
during a pub fight with a
group of Nazis. He died from
severe stabbing wounds in the
face and the back and was
later cremated here. Still
the abandoned crematorium
has attracted attention
purely for its eerie desertion.
In 2012 it was visited by
a Austrian filmmaker
Nikolaus Geyrhalter to shoot
a film called Irgendwann
(Sometimes), a documentary
about abandoned and
deserted places in the world,
the end of humanity, and
what we will leave behind.

Goddard
Mansion
United States

Designed by noted architect
Charles A. Alexander for local
lumberman John Goddard, the
property was later acquired by
the army for housing NCOs and
their families.
The local authorities
purchased the abandoned
structure in the early 1960s,
but as the decay of the
interior was already well
underway, a controlled fire
was conducted in the 1980s
to remove dangerous debris.
The remaining shell is still
beautiful, a bit creepy, and
is an excellent place for
photography.
Viewing is accessible from
the surrounding public
trails, though please note
that the mansion is
fenced off for public
safety.

Dunmore
Park House
Scotland

A path at the rear of
the property leads to the wine
cellar, which is surprisingly
well preserved. Unfortunately,
any rare vintages once stored
here are long gone. A common
misconception is that this area
was the mausoleum, unsurprising
given the large shelves that wine
bottles would have been stored
on.
The main entrance still stands,
with its grand doorway that
was built to impress. You can
still see remnants of where
the old rooms would have stood
through old fireplaces and
carved decorations high above
the ground level. The house has
now been taken over by nature,
and a number of trees now
sprout from the walls.
Dunmore park house sits within Dunmore
Park. The once-majestic mansion was built in
1820 alongside a large stable opposite the house.
Unfortunately, what once would have been the
grandest site in the area has now been reduced to
ruin. For suspected tax reasons, the property was
partially demolished in 1972, with the roof removed.
As a result, the house is filled and surrounded by
large piles of rubble. Despite this, it is possible to
walk around the remaining structure, which is still
impressive.

Since the house fell into
disrepair, a number of proposals
have been made to redevelop it,
ranging from a golf course to a
leisure complex to a hotel—but
nothing has become of them yet.
It seems only a matter of time
before the house is fully swamped
by the surrounding vegetation.
Interestingly, the building was
used as a filming location for
the series Outlander, acting as
a World War II-era hospital.
Perhaps the best-known
building on the estate is the
Dunmore Pineapple. This is one
of Scotland’s most remarkable
buildings as it is topped off
by a huge stone depiction of
a pineapple. Interestingly, it is
relatively unknown compared
to other equally as impressive
architectural structures in the
local area. You can book online to
stay as well.

Fort Gorges
After the war of 1812, several
fortifications were proposed to
protect Portland’s harbor. The
largest of these was Fort Gorges
(pronounced gorgeous). The D-shaped
granite fortress, modeled after
Fort Sumter in Charleston, South
Carolina, was constructed from 1858
to 1864. By the time of its completion,
the Civil War-era design was
completely obsolete, as its cannon
holds were far too small for modern
guns. After a failed modernization
attempt in the 1870s, the fort sat
empty and unused for nearly 100
years. A purpose was found for it
briefly during World War II, when
submarine mines were stored inside,
but after the war, it was again
abandoned.
United States

The City of Portland
acquired the fort from the
federal government in 1960 and
transformed it into a public
park. The city’s website states
the fort is “open for exploring at
your own risk.” Despite the fort’s
park status, the city in no way
maintains it, so it still feels very
abandoned and rustic. Flashlights
are necessary to explore the inside
of the powder holds, which are
very dark even during the day. A
stone stairway takes visitors up to
the second and third floors of the
fort, which have fantastic views
of downtown Portland, Portland
Harbor, and at least three
lighthouses.

Henry River
Mill Village
United States

The Henry River Mill Village opened in 1905, and like
so many gold-panning towns, the promise of jobs and
prosperity followed. And it delivered.
Before long, the town grew to
incorporate more than 20 buildings,
supporting a population that
worked almost exclusively at the
mill, producing miles upon miles of
fine yarn for half a century. But
like any boom town, this one was
destined to go bust.
As industry marched on, the
mill town became less and less
useful (as did, one must admit,
having an abundance of yarn),
and the Henry River Mill shut
down in 1973. Even before that,
the town had begun to die.
People moved away. For work,
for family—for a more thriving
environment. Almost as a
metaphor for its bygone era,
the people supported the mill
rather than the other way
around, and when the people
started to leave, the mill
finally went under.

The town was finally abandoned in 1987
when its last resident left. All that now
remains is a strikingly modern town from
the industrial age. More curiously, it’s entirely
owned by a single man. 83-year-old Wade
Shepherd is a nearby resident, and now owns
all 20 buildings in Henry River Mill Village
proper. He bought them because he could,
because why not, and because of safety—before
he did, the village was becoming an unseemly
place, attractive to vandals and rapscallions
up to no good.
Mr. Shepherd sees it as his chance to cut bait
and pass the town on to different hands for the
future. He’s put the entire town up for sale, and
a cool $1.4 million will secure the town for a
potential buyer.
A brief breath of life came back to Henry
River Mill Village in 2012 by way of fame and
fortune—Hollywood thought the run-down village
would serve as the perfect setting for the postapocalyptic
dystopia District 12 featured in the
film The Hunger Games. The town was featured
in several scenes, and briefly thereafter was
descended upon by tourists and thrill-seekers,
running tours, trails and sightseeing trips hoping to
capitalize on the story’s monumental popularity.

Hospital San
Juan de Dios
Nicaragua

Located in the heart of
Granada, barely a block from the
Terminal de Buses Granada-Managua,
the ruins of an old hospital are hidden
in plain sight. From the road the building
first appears to be just another facade
of an old colonial building. Yet, a walk
down the block on either side reveals
an incredible abandoned structure
that begs to be explored.
The ruins are of the San Juan
de Dios Hospital. Not much
information is available about the
hospital, but according to most
accounts it was built around
1905 and abandoned 100 years
thereafter. It bears the same
Spanish-Colonial influence as
many of the other buildings in
Granada.

The ruins are easily accessed
from the sidewalk on either side,
no sneaking around, trespassing, or
bribery required. Although overgrown
and extremely dilapidated (they
are called “ruins” for a reason),
it’s possible to explore the entire
property. Despite the condition of
the place, it’s eerily clear what
everything once was—a grand
entry hall, patient rooms, concrete
cabinets, and medical tables,
bathrooms, and even an altar
for praying. The paint is, strangely
enough, hospital scrub green with
accents of red.

Elphinstone
Tower
Elphinstone Tower, also
known as Dunmore Tower
or Airth Tower, is a ruined
tower house currently sitting
within the Dunmore Estate.
Originally, the tower would
have had views across the
low-lying ground to the River
Forth.
Scotland

The tower dates to the early 16th
century, when it was built by Sir
John Elphinstone as the seat of
the barony of Elphinstone. Before his
death in 1638 Alexander Elphinstone,
the 4th Lord of Elphinstone had added
a gallery and a new hall to the tower.
In 1754, the Elphinstone Tower was
purchased by John Murray, the son
of the 3rd Earl or Dunmore, for
the princely sum of £16,000. Two years
later, John inherited the earldom, and
renamed the estate Dunmore after
his title. The tower was extensively
refurbished at least twice in the 19th
century,
In the 1820s, the 5th Earl of
Dunmore commissioned the building of
Dunmore Park, which was to become
the principal residence on the estate.
Following this, the additions to the tower
were demolished to enable the construction
of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, a private
chapel that was completed around 1850. The
ground floor of the tower was then modified
and remodeled as a family burial vault.
St. Andrew’s Church was demolished in the early
1960s, leaving the tower section standing alone.
During the 1960s, it stood as a rectangular tower
with four stories, each of which contained a
single room. Then in a 1968 storm, the northwest
angle of the tower collapsed. Today, the tower is
complete only at the ground floor level, with the
east side rising fairly complete, the corbeled-out
bartizan rounds at the two corners still visible
beneath the onslaught of ivy and overgrowth.
Parts of the first floor walls to the north and
the south can also still be seen, but the rest
has collapsed.

The remains of Elphinstone
Tower now stand at nine
by seven meters, and the
walls are 17 meters high
to the parapet. The burial
vault on the ground floor
has been cleared out,
and thankfully there
are no bodies or coffins
left. Behind the tower
are a small grouping of
gravestones. The burials
within the churchyard
predate this building.

Hotel Evropa
North Macedonia

Although
lake Ohrid receives the
lion’s share of tourists in North
Macedonia, Lake Prespa is a stone’s
throw away, and it packs some
historical sites for those who are willing
to go off the beaten path. Marshal
Tito was quite fond of Prespa Lake,
which was the place where the borders
of Southeast Europe were drawn in the
aftermath of World War II. These were the
borders that remained in place until the
end of the Cold War.
If those spomenik monuments scattered
throughout the Balkans can be read
as a sign of unrelenting optimism, Hotel
Evropa can be seen as their postcommunist
counterpart. Following the
disintegration of Yugoslavia and the
pacification of the newly-born countries
(circa 1992), optimism was in the air. It
was a time of new opportunities and
hope for a prosperous future. The
sheer size and architectural boldness
of Hotel Evropa epitomize this sense
of rebirth. Its location further
corroborates this idea: far from
the touristy route and back to
where history was made.
The two angular arms forming the gate to
the hotel epitomize the communist minimalism
characteristic of spomenik monuments. The
two arms are joined by a banner that
still reads, ever so faintly, “Hotel Evropa.”
Vegetation encroaches on the short road
leading from the gate to the hotel, which
has been neglected for years.

There are uncertainties around
the events that led to the hotel’s
abandonment in 2005. What is certain
is that a massive fire broke out
in the kitchen. What is not clear
is what caused the fire. Three
hypotheses exist: Frying pans got
overheated and caught fire; The
electrical circuitry failed and a
spark started the fire; The fire
was started deliberately in order
to defraud the insurance company.
No one hypothesis is more credible
than the others. Shortly after the
fire, the hotel was abandoned and
has been vandalized since then.
Shattered glass and graffiti are
ubiquitous.

On the ground floor is the ballroom,
which is easily recognizable by the
number of smashed mirrors mounted on
walls and pillars. A derelict bowling alley
can be found in the basement. The upper
floors can be reached through the main
staircase, which is still in good shape. The
upper rooms definitely commanded the best
view of the lake, and they still do, but
nowadays, what is really striking is the
view of vegetation slowly but surely taking
over the balconies on the lower floors.

There are rumors that
developers are set to demolish
the hotel to make room for
something snazzier, but in the
meantime, Hotel Evropa is still
there for those who are willing
to dare to visit it.

The Sunken
City of Baia
In its heyday, the classical Roman city
of Baia was the hedonist Las Vegas of
the time, but now its remains are partying
beneath the waves.
A prominent resort city for centuries, Baia
catered to the recreational whims of the
rich and powerful among the Roman elite.
The city, which was located over natural
volcanic vents, was famous for its healing
medicinal hot springs which occurred all
around the city and were quite easy to
build spas over. Some of antiquity’s most
powerful figures such as Nero, Cicero, and
Caesar were known to have visited the
city and a number of them actually
built permanent vacation villas there.
Italy

Unfortunately, the good times were not to last
and the city was sacked by a Muslim army
in the 8th century. By 1500, the remains of the
formerly luxurious town were abandoned. After
the city remains were emptied, the water level
slowly rose due to the same volcanic vents
that were once a draw to the area, and most
of the ancient ruins were drowned under the
shallow waters of the bay.
Today the ancient remains of Baia can be
visited in one of the world’s few underwater
archeological parks. Visitors can view the
crumbled structures and amazingly preserved
statuary of the city through glass-bottomed
boats, snorkeling, or even scuba dives which
allow people to actually swim amongst the
copious ruins. While the city is no longer a
resort, its waters still hold wonders.

Island of
the Dolls
There is a disturbing
circular nature to the story
of “La Isla de la Muñecas,”
or the Island of the Dolls.
Over fifty years ago, Don
Julian Santana left his wife
and child and moved onto an
island on Teshuilo Lake in the
Xochimilco canals. According
to some, a young girl actually
drowned in the lake, while
most others, including his
relatives, say Don Julian
Santana merely imagined the
drowned girl. Regardless, Don
Julian Santana devoted his
life to honoring this lost soul
in a unique, fascinating,
and—for some—unnerving
way: he collected and hung
up dolls by the hundreds.
Eventually, Don Julian
transformed the entire
island into a kind of
bizarre, (for some)
horrifying, doll-infested
wonderland.
Mexico

Don Julian Santana began collecting lost
dolls from the canals and the trash near his
island home. He is also said to have traded
produce he grew to locals for more dolls. Santana
did not clean up the dolls or attempt to fix them,
but rather put them up with missing eyes and
limbs, covered in dirt, and generally in whatever
ramshackle state he found them in. Even when
dolls arrived in good shape, the wind and weather
turned them into cracked and distorted versions
of themselves.
Don Julian also kept his cabin
filled with the dolls, which he dressed
in headdresses, sunglasses, and other
accoutrement. Despite the fact
that most people found the isle
frightening, Don Julian saw the
dolls as beautiful protectors, and
he welcomed visitors, whom he would
show around, charging a small fee
for taking photos.

In 2001 Don Julian Santana was found drowned
in the same area in which he believed the little
girl had died.

Kilwinning
Abbey
Kilwinning Abbey was a Tironensian
Benedictine monastic community whose
magnificent ruins sit in the centre of
Kilwinning town. The Tironensian order
took its name from Tiron in the diocese
of Chartres.
Kilwinning means “the church of
Winnin” and the abbey was dedicated
to Saint Winning and the Virgin Mary.
Traditional holds that St Winnin
was a holy man who first set up a
church here in the 700s, while the
abbey was established later sometime
between 1162 and 1168 with monks
from Kelso Abbey. The only parts
surviving from the earlier church
are parts of a carved stone cross
dating to about 900 which is stored
in the North Ayrshire Heritage
Centre at Saltcoats.
Scotland

Because Kilwinning was not founded by a monarch,
its beginning was less grand than regally-founded
abbeys. This is made clear in the remaining ruins
where frequent changes in the masonry types show that
the abbey was built over several different operations.
Despite this, some still refer to Kilwinning as one of
Scotland’s grandest abbeys.
One of the most unusual features of
Kilwinning was its towers, of which there
were three. One, conventionally, stood over
the crossing between the nave, choir, and
transepts, while the other two stood at the
western corners of the nave. The northwest
bell tower collapsed in 1814 and was replaced
with the present clock tower.
The Earls of Glencairn and Angus plundered
the abbey in 1513, and then in the 1540s, George
Wishart’s supporters caused further damage. In
1559, the Earl of Glencairn led a further raid
on the abbey when many of the books, vestments,
and pictures were removed and burned. The Earl
of Glencairn returned in 1562 and again assaulted
the abbey, this time instigated by John Knox and
the Scottish Protestant Reformation, at this time
it is said that the stained glass was broken,
ornamental tombs were broken up and some
graves were dug up.

By 1592 the abbey sat in ruins, although the nave was
repaired and used as the parish kirk until 1775 when
the new one was constructed. This church was built
within the boundary of the old abbey and sits over the
site of the old choir and presbytery.
The best-persevered parts of the abbey are its
magnificent south transept, dedicated to the Virgin
Mary, the south nave wall which includes the east
processional doorway, and part of the west front.