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.

BATHHOUSE No.8 [GE]

Exploration #235 Bathhouse No.8. Bathhouse No.8 was one of the nine thermal baths, called also “spring” located within the large central park of Tskaltubo (წყალტუბო), the town located in west-central Georgia designated as an important balneotherapy centre by the government of the former Soviet Union. Of the nine buildings, four are currently in use: Bathhouses No. 1, 2, 3, and 6.

Bathhouse No.8 was a communal bathhouse that was probably used  by the proletariat rather than the party elite. It has a huge central skylight that was probably glass covered originally. Nowdays it is completely abandoned.

Tskaltubo has always been famous for its healing mineral waters and radon bath treatments. The centre focuses on balneotherapy for circulatory, nervous, musculoskeletal, gynaecological and skin diseases.
The first balneological baths were opened around 1870 and in 1925, the first sanatoriums and curative structures were built. Development continued apace and in 1931 the town was designated a balneotherapy and spa centre by the Soviet government. Tskaltubo was one of Stalin’s favourite holiday resorts: he had a private swimming pool in Bathhouse No.9, which is still in use today in the same park where Bathhouse No.8 is located.

During the Second World War the hotels were used as hospitals, but after the war Tskaltubo became one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Soviet Union. Moreover, it was not only a luxury holiday for the rich, but spa treatments could also be prescribed by doctors and provided free of charge to the poorer population. Four trains arrived daily from Moscow. There were about 5,000 beds in 19 hotels and sanatoriums and up to 1,500 people a day underwent treatment.

The independence of Georgia in 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of December 1991 caused the Tskaltubo spa industry to collapse. Without guests, most hotels and resorts were forced to close. Buildings were abandoned and fell into disrepair.

In 1992, a war broke out in neighbouring Abkhazia. More than 200,000 displaced Georgians fled the conflict and about 10,000 of them found refuge in the empty buildings of Tskaltubo. It was supposed to be temporary accommodation but today, almost 30 years later, these makeshift flats have become permanent homes for new generations of families. The condition of the buildings is extremely poor even though they still possess the magnificence of Soviet architecture. A couple of former structures, Hotel Medea and Hotel Imereti, are still so incredibly photogenic that they host multiple wedding photo shoots during the summer months. Bathhouse No. 5, on the other hand, is just a skeleton of mouldy, peeling walls within the large city park.

If you enjoyed this article, you can also have a look at this other places in Tskaltubo: Bathhouse No.5.

FLUGPLATZ BRAND [DE]

Exploration #216 Flugplatz Brand. Flugplatz Brand is an abandoned airbase about 50 km south of Berlin. Its construction started in 1938 for the Luftwaffe and in 1939, the airfield was equipped with a 1000 m long grass runway. It served as an operational airport and, until September 1944, as a training airfield for the pilot school. A school building was erected especially for the pilot training school.

The Soviet forces, who remained in Germany as occupation forces after the end of the Second World War, extended the small airfield in 1950/1951 by adding a 2500 m long concreted northern main runway. In 1958, another 2000 m runway was added as an auxiliary fighter runway. In later years, there was even a command post and a weapons warehouse that could be used to store nuclear aircraft bombers and MIG-17 as well.

The Soviet left the base and the buildings in 1990 and the site was transferred to German authorities. In 1998 the society CargoLifter bought the area and started dismantling the northern runway and built the most extensive unsupported hall in the world to construct cargo airships. After the insolvency of CargoLifter in 2002, the airship hangar was sold to an investor from Malaysia, who has been operating the amusement park “Tropical Islands” there since 2004. On the contrary the buildings are nowadays abandoned.

HAUS DER OFFIZIERE [DE]

Exploration #206 Haus Der Offiziere. Haus Der Offiziere, also known as the Forbidden City or Little Moscow, is a big abandoned military complex located in Wünsdorf, a small town not far from Berlin. The town was the headquarters of the Soviet forces in communist East Germany and was the largest military base in Europe. From 1994 it is abandoned.

The history of this place begins in 1910 when a military training camp and the Prussian military railway were built. The complex “Haus Der Offiziere” was built in 1914 as a military sports school. During first world war Wünsdorf became the headquarters of the Reichswehr, the German military. After the war the site was also used as a gymnastic training camp to take advantage of its facilities and during the race to 1936 Olympic games some of the Olympic team trained here.

Everything changed drastically in 1945 when the town was occupied by the Soviet army and the Germans surrendered without fighting. The soviets transformed Wünsdorf into a closed town which become the largest Soviet military camp outside of the Soviet Union. A daily delivery via a direct rail link from Moscow allowed the town to isolate itself from the surrounding areas, having its own shops, bakery, and hospital. In preparation for the construction of the Berlin wall Commander-in-Chief Marshall Ivan Konew organised the Soviet armoured protection for the project from here. The Haus Der Offiziere was certainly the best most elegant of town with leisure facilities such as a theatre and swimming pool and the locals were not allowed on site to enjoy the luxuries the Soviets had. A giant statue of Lenin stands was also erected in front of the central building.

Wünsdorf changed again in 1994 when the Soviets left the area and its population dropped from about 60.000 to 6.000 people. Many former Soviet buildings were left abandoned and are still up for sale.
Haus Der Offiziere was also abandoned but luckily it was preserved and today is guarded, waiting for future development projects. The statue of Lenin is still in its original position and it is one the few statue still surviving outside Russia.

If you like this exploration you can also have a look to others abandoned military sites in Germany: the CCCP pilot school, the abandoned soviet hospital.

CHEREPISH MONASTERY [BG]

Exploration #179 Cherepish Monastery. We are in Bulgaria, near the banks of the river Iskăr, in a section where the river winds its way between inaccessible rocks in a gorge. It is a cold spring day and the landscape is made magical by an unexpected overnight snowfall. In this picturesque place, the Cherepish Monastery was built in the 14th century and is still a place of worship today. A few metres away are several other religious buildings, now abandoned.

It all began in 1902, when the Sofia Theological School was founded, an institute that became very prestigious over the years. During the Second World War, the School’s buildings were damaged by aerial bombs, forcing the students to be evacuated to various places in the country, including Cherepish, where until 1947 some classes were temporarily transferred to buildings constructed next to the railway. At the end of the war classes returned to the seminary building in Sofia, but in September 1950 the new communist government decided to use the building for the Ministry of Education and exiled the Theological School to the old buildings in Cherepish Monastery. There the life of the seminarians lasted until 1990, when after the fall of the communist regime, the Theological Academy regained its property in Sofia. Since that year the Cherepish Monastery buildings have been abandoned. A guard was initially posted to watch over the place, but over the years everything has been left to decay.

What we are about to visit is the church built by the seminarians removed from Sofia, dedicated to St. Clement of Ohrid (Св. Климент Охридски). The interior of the church was adorned with many frescoes, while the exterior was enriched by a narthex, decorated with columns, from which the bell tower rises. Since liturgical singing was also studied in the Seminary, a large balcony called ‘emporium’ was reserved for the choristers. The garden around the temple was also very well cared for. In the centre of the garden, a stone spring can still be seen, from which water gushed out to quench the thirst of visitors.

Unfortunately, humidity and water infiltration are slowly destroying the frescoes, and uneven ground is creating dangerous cracks by tilting the main walls. Visiting the abandoned church evokes mixed feelings. On the one hand, the quiet and peaceful silence accompanied only by birdsong. On the other hand, the empty church and the probing glances of the many forgotten saints show that everything is perishable, even the buildings that were meant to serve God.

BUZLUDŽA [BG]

Exploration #181. The official name of the Buzludža monument is “Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party”. It was built on the Hadzhi Dimitar Peak (until 1942 known as Buzludža Peak), which is close to the geographical centre of Bulgaria. It is the largest ideological monument to the communist regime in Bulgaria. After the political changes in Bulgaria in November 1989, the new government had no interest in this symbol of communism and it was abandoned.

The monument commemorates a secret assembly of socialists from different Bulgarian areas, on 2 August 1891, to form an organized socialist movement, the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party. This assembly was an initiative of the socialist leader Dimitar Blagoev and this new party (from 1894 the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers’ Party) was in fact a forerunner of the Bulgarian Communist Party, founded in 1919. But there are two more reasons why this spot is important for Bulgarian history. On 18 July 1868, the famous revolutionary Hadzhi Dimitar led his rebels in a final battle against the Ottomans, fought at Buzludža Peak. And on 25 January 1944, Bulgarian partisans ambushed here fascist forces engaged in training exercises, ending up in a fierce fire fight, during which several partisans lost their lives.
The decision to build this monument was taken by the Bulgarian Communist Party on 11 March 1971. Its construction began in January 1974 and was financed with donations and the sale of stamps, in total worth more than 14 million Bulgarian Leva (nowadays about 35 million USD). The monument, a round domed building with a 70m high double pylon, was designed by a team led by the architect Georgi Stoilov. The structures were designed by professor engineer Dobromir Kolarov. The Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party was unveiled on 23 August 1981 by party and state leader Todor Zhivkov.

To build a stable foundation for the monument, about 9m of the peak had to be levelled; 15,000m³ of rock was dug out, reducing the height of Hadzhi Dimitar Peak from 1441 to 1432m. A total of 70,000 tons of concrete, 3,000 tons of reinforced steel and 40 tons of gilded glass were used for the construction, involving more than 6,000 builders and workers. At the top of the double pylon, on its wide sides, are two irregular 5-pointed stars, made of red glass and measuring 6.5 x 12m (the largest in the world). The stars had lighting fixtures; at darkness, they could be seen from far away.

The round domed building consists mainly of the ceremonial hall with a corridor around it, covered with a copper roof of about 2500m². The round ceremonial hall is decorated with mosaics with a total area of 510m². The hall is surrounded by a corridor with large glass windows, and 14 mosaics covering the walls. More than 60 artists needed about 18 months to create the interior artistic design. All mosaics together cover a surface of about 920m². In the ceiling of the hall, one can still see the mosaic ‘Proletarians from all countries, unite!’, with the communist symbol hammer and sickle.

After the political changes in Bulgaria in November 1989, the new government had no interest in this symbol of communism and it was abandoned. Soon afterwards, the last employees left and the doors were locked. In the following years, the monument deteriorated. It became subject to theft, vandalism and weather influences. The building began to crumble, glass was broken, mosaics, ornaments and other elements of the monument’s structure were torn down. Everything in the building worth stealing, was stolen, including the copper covering the roof.
Several initiatives to preserve the monument had been undertaken throughout the years, not with much success. The latest initiative started in 2019 and after investigation, a Conservation Management Plan was made and it was indicated that the monument could be saved. In 2020, works started to stabilize the surviving mosaic panels. These conservation and preservation efforts are still ongoing.

These photo are from my visit in March 2017 (fog and snow) and March 2018. Nowadays the monument is being renovated.  

CUG – COMBINATULUI DE UTILAJ GREU [RO]

Exploration #145. This building is part of a huge plant created in 1970, during the most prolific years of the communist regime in Romania. Energy oriented equipment were here produced, like household boilers or industrial boilers. From 1976 the plant was expanded to metal and steel sector, production of oxygen, laboratories for mechanical and chemical tests, mechanical presses for car parts casting, hydraulics engineering. In 1985 around 8000 employees were working in this factory. After the fall of the communist regime, the needs of heavy machinery felt down dramatically and the factory got split in many different companies. In 2002, only 617 employees were still working there, leaving a big part of the site totally empty.

Today some companies are still running their business in some buildings, while other are empty. This is the vastest abandoned building and probably one of the vastest building of the former plant. Even if it has been abandoned quite a long time ago, and despite the obvious traces of decay, the building has been kept quite clean and now it is like a modern cathedral

(source: Combinatul de Utilaj Greu CUG).

VEB CHEMIEWERK RÜDERSDORF [DE]

Exploration #143. This former cement, then phosphate, chemical factory is located in the city of Rüdersdorf which dates back to the 13th century. It was around this time that the local settled farmers encountered large chunks of limestone when they tried plowing their fields. Little did the farmers know that they stumbled upon the resource which would be used to build the grandeur of Berlin for centuries to come.
The use of limestone saw rapid adoption and by 1600 it was realized that calcium oxide, otherwise known as quicklime, used in making cement and mortar, could have been produced by burning the limestone and dousing it with water. Rüdersdorf began soon to operate limekilns to mass produce said quicklime. What is known as the Chemiewerk Rüdersdorf today had its origins in the year 1900, when the C.O. Wegener Company built its first cement factory which produced cement using its ultra-modern rotary kilns.

During the years of Nazi terror, Nazis immediately took over control of the factory and over 2000 forced laborer’s had to work in the lime quarries and cement works, as did Italian, French and Soviet prisoners of war (who were held in a concentration camp nearby). The Cement factory continued producing cement until 1944, when it switched over to producing synthetic bauxite. Bauxite is used to create Aluminum and the German war industry was hungry for it. The majority of the buildings that are left standing today trace their origins back to that construction phase.

After the war Rüdersdorf capitulated to the Soviets. While the forced laborer’s and foreign prisoners of war were liberated – the Soviets erected a new Prisoner of war camp in May 1945 on the grounds of the cement factory. The Soviet Camp had a camp within the camp reserved for high ranking Nazis, Concentration Camp Commanders and personnel.
Because of its state-of-the-art technical equipment, the alumina plant immediately became the focus of the Soviet occupation’s dismantling efforts. The factory was completely cleared out, even doors, windows and gutters were sent east. On 25 August 1949, the Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) issued Order 106 to reinstate the former plant with the aim of installing fertiliser production in the empty halls. A magnesium phosphate was produced from kola apatite and kieserite in the rotary kiln. In 1959, the annual production was 21000 t.

From 1972 onwards, the same technology was used to try to produce a calcium-sodium phosphate for industrial animal husbandry in the GDR, but this did not succeed satisfactorily because of the short rotary kilns. Therefore, major investments were made and two 100-metre rotary kilns were built at the Rüdersdorf branch of the VEB Chemiewerk Coswig, together with the equipment for waste gas purification, grinding and shipping, which was about 80% new.

The Chemiewerk Rüdersdorf began producing high quality feed phosphate under the brand name Rükana. The quality of Rükana was so good that the GDR used it to sell it abroad to western markets.
German reunification did not bring any good fortunes to the factory. The Rüdersdorf Chemical Factory did manage to continue production through the first years of German reunification but it was slow death. Rebranded as the Rüdersdorfer Futterphosphat GmbH, production capabilities and personnel were scaled down to such an extent that one could assume that the new owners and investors were deliberately running the company into the ground and by 1999, production was shot down. After all assets were sold off, all that remained were the empty production halls from the 1940s.

The ruins are today used as a film location for various film, big Hollywood as well as local German productions.

SKRUNDA-1 [LV]

Exploration #71 Skrunda-1. Skrunda-1 is a special ghost town: during the period of activity it was a closed city and Soviet military base in Latvia. Skrunda-1 housed almost 5000 military, technicians and scientists (with related families) on duty at a radar station called in NATO slang “Hen House” (name deriving from the fact that it resembled a large chicken coop). It was one of the six radars built at the beginning of the Cold War in the peripheral areas of the then Soviet Union, capable of monitoring possible ballistic missile launches to Russia. The city was built in 1963 and had around 75 buildings spread over an area of more than 100 acres. The city was self-sufficient and inside there were schools, residences, a small hotel, a prison, places for leisure and bunkers.

The Russians left Latvia in 1994 but Skrunda-1 remained operational for a few more years. The city was finally emptied of all its valuable material and then abandoned by the Russians in 1998. The Latvians demolished the radar towers on the occasion of the exit of the Soviets, but the rest of the city was left abandoned in the middle of the forest.

In my urbex adventures I explored several ghost towns, but Skrunda-1 was a different experience. First of all, the vastness: we are not talking about a village but a real town with main roads and secondary avenues. Then the buildings: multi-storey apartment buildings, all the same in classic Soviet style that follow one after the other. Walking in these avenues was like experiencing the post-apocalyptic film scene. Inside, everything was devastated, but some small memories of the inhabitants remain, the ones that most impressed me, some small posters of some Russian teenagers who spent their childhood in Skrunda-1.

This exploration dates back to 2014. From 2016 it became an almost official tourist attraction and local authorities asked for an entrance ticket. Since 2018, however, the city has been under army control and is used for training and therefore unfortunately it can no longer be visited.

GEAMANA FLOODED VILLAGE [RO]

Exploration #40. Geamana is a very unique ghost town located in Romania. Its peculiarity is being entirely submerged by of a toxic red lake created by men. The tragedy of this village, that once occupied a fertile and sunny valley, began in 1977. In that year the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decided to begin the exploitation of the nearby copper deposit of Rosia Poieni, in those years the largest in Europe .

At first the residents of Geamana imagined getting some small profits from the nearby copper mine but unfortunately it was not. The copper extraction process in fact produces large quantities of toxic waste, in particular sludges containing cyanide and other metals that must be adequately treated by expensive machinery. The brilliant idea of the former dictator was therefore to store these muds, and what if not the nearby valley of Geamana could serve for this purpose? In 1980 all the lands were expropriated, a large containment dam was built at the beginning of the valley and toxic mud began to take the place of the green cultivated fields. About 400 families were promised new fertile lands but in reality they were moved to cities more than 100km far and received only a small amount of money. About 20 of the 1000 inhabitants of the valley of the past, mostly elderly, have instead decided not to move but to build new houses at an ever higher point.

As the exploitation of the mine has continued over the years, so the level of this surreal toxic lake increased. To date practically the whole village has been submerged, except for the bell tower of the old church, once the high point, and the new homes of those who decided to stay in this forgotten and forever poisoned place. The old cemetery, which the authorities had promised the former occupants of the village to move, also now lies submerged near the church. It is now only a matter of little time that the bell tower is forever submerged, putting the end to the history of Geamana.