CRAWFORD PRIOR [UK]

Exploration #295 Crawford Priory. Crawford Priory in Fife, Scotland, began as an 18th-century country house and was transformed into a dramatic Gothic mansion for Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford. Enlarged again in the Victorian era, it was abandoned after 1968 and devastated by fire in 1995.

The story began with Crawford Lodge, probably built in 1758. After inheriting the estate in 1808, Lady Mary commissioned David Hamilton and James Gillespie Graham to remake it between 1809 and 1813 in an ecclesiastical Gothic style. Despite its name, Crawford Priory was never a monastery. Lady Mary created an elaborate residence filled with Gothic interiors and surrounded by an estate where she kept numerous animals. After her death in 1833, the house stood largely unused until the 1870s, when architect William Little restored and greatly enlarged it, adding a chapel, service ranges and a tall Gothic tower.

Further alterations followed in the 1920s under the Cochrane family. A fire damaged the north wing in 1921, while damp and dry rot later made the enormous house increasingly expensive to maintain. After the death of the 2nd Baron Cochrane of Cults in 1968, Crawford Priory fell out of use. Rooms were closed, furnishings sold and parts of the roof removed.

The final blow came in 1995, when another fire gutted the building. Today the roofless shell remains a striking fragment of Scottish Gothic Revival architecture, its ruined halls preserving the scale of a country house that became too costly to survive.

LENNOX CASTLE [UK]

Exploration #293 Lennox castle. Lennox Castle, near Lennoxtown in Scotland, was built between 1837 and 1841 as a grand country house. Later transformed by war and institutional healthcare, it became part of a vast hospital complex before abandonment and a devastating fire.

Designed by Glasgow architect David Hamilton for John Lennox Kincaid-Lennox, the sandstone mansion adopted a dramatic Norman castle style, with battlements, corner pavilions and a commanding tower. During the First World War it was requisitioned as a military hospital. In 1927 the estate was sold to Glasgow Parish Council, which planned a major institution for people with learning disabilities.

Lennox Castle Hospital opened in 1936 with accommodation for about 1,200 patients. The castle itself became nurses’ quarters, while new wards and service buildings spread across the surrounding estate. During the Second World War the castle again served hospital purposes, and a maternity unit operated on the wider site until 1964. By 1987 the castle had been vacated, while the hospital gradually declined as care shifted away from large institutions.

The complex finally closed in 2002. Most of the hospital buildings were later demolished, but the Category A listed castle survived in ruins. In May 2008 a major fire caused severe damage, leaving the shell that stands today as a reminder of both Victorian ambition and a difficult chapter in Scottish social history.

SHUMEN CENTRAL CITY SQUARE [BG]

Exploration #283 Shumen central city square. Conceived in the late 1980s, the Central City Square of Shumen was an ambitious urban megastructure designed to redefine the city center. Interrupted by the political collapse of 1989, the project was never completed and remains one of Bulgaria’s largest unfinished socialist-era constructions.

Designed as a revolutionary civic complex, the project aimed to integrate commercial, administrative, and social functions into a single architectural system. Plans included shops, a hotel, restaurants, cafés, municipal offices, and ceremonial halls, all connected through a vast, multi-level concrete structure extending across an entire city block. At its core stands an imposing 18-storey tower, rising from a six-storey base embedded into the terrain. The complex was conceived with underground levels, tunnel-like passages, and direct connections to nearby buildings such as the Hotel Madara, reflecting a highly modernist vision of urban continuity and functionality.

The redevelopment of the surrounding city center was carried out in parallel, incorporating symbolic elements linked to Bulgarian history. Sculptural motifs and architectural details echoed the nearby Monument to the Founders of the Bulgarian State, creating a cohesive ideological and visual narrative rooted in national identity rather than explicit political symbolism.

However, the fall of the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1989 led to economic instability and the abrupt abandonment of large-scale state projects. The Central City Square became one of many unfinished constructions left behind, though none matched its scale or ambition. Today, the structure stands as a striking example of failed utopian planning—an unfinished vision of a self-contained urban center that reflects both the aspirations and the sudden collapse of late socialist architecture.

BULGARIAN FORGOTTEN SCHOOLS [BG]

Exploration #282 Bulgarian forgotten schools. Across Bulgaria, hundreds of villages have been gradually abandoned, leaving behind a landscape marked by silence and decay. Nearly 200 settlements are now completely uninhabited, while around 500 count fewer than ten residents. Among the most visible remnants of this demographic collapse are rural schools, once central to community life.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Bulgaria was predominantly agricultural, with about 80% of its population living in small villages. Even the smallest settlements typically had a church and a primary school, where children of different ages often shared the same classroom. Larger villages also hosted vocational schools, preparing older students for technical professions.

The decline of these institutions began after World War II, when the communist regime promoted rapid urbanization and industrialization. However, the most dramatic population loss occurred after the fall of communism in the late 20th century, when land privatization and economic instability accelerated migration toward cities and abroad. Today, rural population levels have dropped by approximately 60%. As villages emptied, schools lost their purpose. Many were closed due to the lack of children, leaving behind classrooms, laboratories, and educational materials. In some cases, interiors remain partially preserved: science rooms with equipment, books, and even biological specimens stored in formaldehyde, untouched but slowly deteriorating.

These abandoned schools represent more than neglected buildings. They are tangible records of a profound social transformation, reflecting the decline of rural life and the shifting economic realities that reshaped Bulgaria over the past century.

ACQUAPARK NIAGARA [IT]

Exploration #211 Acquapark Niagara. Acquapark Niagara is a small water park that has been abandoned since the year 2000. The park was equipped with several slides and a large swimming pool. A disco and a restaurant were also present during the period of operation. The park was built on a natural slope and from its top it was possible to see the sea and the beach. After its closure, the park was abandoned and devastated by thieves and vandals. The slides and swimming pools, on the other hand, are covered by dense vegetation making the scene look like a jungle.

CINEMA IDEAL [IT]

Exploration #203 Cinema Ideal. Cinema Ideal is a small cute abandoned cinema in a small village in the Italian countryside. I don’t have any more info about this place.

CIMITERO DI STAGLIENO [IT]

Exploration #202 Cimitero di Staglieno (testo italiano a fondo pagina). The monumental Cimitero di Staglieno is the largest burial place in Genova. It is one of the most important monumental cemeteries in Europe and is considered a true open-air museum. Illustrious sons of the Ligurian capital and other famous people are buried there, including one of the fathers of the Italian homeland, Giuseppe Mazzini, the Prime Minister and partisan Ferruccio Parri, and the composer of the music for the Italian anthem, Michele Novaro.

Work began in 1844 and the building was opened to the public on 2 January 1851. After various extensions over time, it now covers an area of around 330,000 square metres. Along the hill above it, monumental chapels in Gothic, Byzantine, Neo-Egyptian, Art Nouveau, Mesopotamian and Neoclassical styles can be found.

Genoa’s main cemetery has undergone a decline over time, also due to its size, while retaining its charm. The old tombs and sculptures are now greyed by dust, smog and overgrown shrubs. Although left abandoned, they remain equally full of grace and perfect in structure, remaining one of the best examples of the funerary art with which the Genoese bourgeoisie of the 19th century flaunted its opulence (source: wikipedia).

COSTA DI SOGLIO [IT]

Exploration #142. Costa di Soglio is, or perhaps we could say was, one of the many uninhabited crest villages in the Ligurian valleys. Its history is not known in detail, but the village dates back to the early 18th century, reaching a population of about 130 families at the end of the 19th century and the status of an independent municipality.

The village develops along a main street, very steeply sloping along the ridge, which is bordered on both sides by buildings, some of which have stone arches giving access to small internal courtyards. Many stone slab seats in the walls of the houses, which were probably used to rest during the steep climb or to have a chat after work with a glass of wine. Its inhabitants were mainly farmers, who only owned a small piece of land and a few head of cattle as a source of livelihood. Life up there could not have been easy, windy summer days alternating with cold winters, when walking up the steep slopes could be very dangerous.

Slowly, starting in the 1950s, depopulation began: some families moved to the larger village below closer to the sea in search of work or simply more comfort; others sought their fortune in the Americas.
Many houses are now reduced to piles of stones, while others are surprising that they were left like that the night before, as if the inhabitants had to return home after working in the fields. The silence, the tranquillity and the wonderful view make this exploration very beautiful, it almost feels like going back in time when the village was still inhabited.

A recovery project was launched in July 2019: some of the owners have already expressed their willingness to donate their property to the municipality, others to redevelop it so that this ancient hamlet can be brought back to life.

BALLHAUS RIVIERA [DE]

Exploration #102 Ballhaus Riviera. Ballhaus Riviera was built in 1895 and had large ball room and several smaller rooms including a bar and restaurant. It had also a palm-lined outdoor dance floor, where guests could spend the summer evenings outside dancing and dining, and a their own pier, where boats cruised down the Dahme River and offloaded their guests into the large Beer Garden.

Ballhaus Riviera became such a hotspot in the 1930s that it was a “badge of honor” for musicians to play there. The ballhaus survived the war undamaged, though they had lost a lot of their former
splendor in the DDR years. Despite not being able to live up to its glory days, the Riviera managed to attract thousands of visitors on the Weekends.

After the reunification, the Property was taken under administration by the Treuhandanstalt in 1990 and then transferred over to the Treuhand Liegenschaftsgesellschaft (TGL). The property slipped into disrepair as no one wanted to buy it due to its exorbitant listing price. Parts of the property were put under Denkmalschutz, which just complicated any possible sale or renovation.
After lengthy legal discussions, the TGL had planned to build a Congress Hotel in its place, but no investor could be found to buy the land who would be willing to cough up another 15 million euros to save the ball room and facade.
Seems like no one was dumb enough to fall for this trap until 2006, when a Turkish Business Woman bought the property and agreed to build said hotel (and a floating restaurant). Apparently they ran a study and found out that nobody would use/need the proposed hotel so a new plan was drafted up to build some nice little houses on the property. The Bezirksamt rejected the plans because they were “disproportionate”. At this point the Business woman has broken off all contact with the Berzirksamt, and the buildings are now rotten and abandoned (source: digitalcosmonaut.com).

COLONIA LURASCHI [IT]

Exploration #101. The Mario Luraschi Institute (Colonia Luraschi ) was a mountain summer camp for children with respiratory problems. The building was built in the 1935 and in the 1937 it became property of the Fascist Mutuality.

On April 25, 1945 a garrison of Nazi soldiers and some soldiers of the Repubblica di Salò barricaded themselves inside the building, but the next day they surrendered without bloody events. After the war, in 1947 the institute passed into the hands of the I.N.A.M. (National Institute for Health Insurance), which in 1977 was replaced by the National Health Service.

In 1978 the summer camp was abandoned due to mass tourism to tourist destinations and the advent of drugs that made staying in a community unnecessary. The institute was finally abandoned in the summer of 1979 and was recently sold to a Swiss private citizen. I visited this location in 2014; although abandoned for more than 40 years, the structure was still in good condition, with a lot of furniture inside. Nowsdays all the forniture has been removed and the structure is very vandalized.