Info soon...
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Name: The Royal Athenaeum
Category: Education
Built: 1956
Abandoned: ca 1999
Explored: July 2011 |
I discovered this location while driving past it some time ago. I had no idea it was a bowling hall though.
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Name: The Bowling Mill
Category: Leisure
Built: 1920
Abandoned: ca 2008
Explored: September 2011 |
Not much history to tell about this place. It used to be a boarding school for boys and girls (in separate wings of the building). After the school moved to another building, it was used by the police for training. This probably explains the hundreds of 9mm shells, which held paint bullets. Some floors are very decayed and the moist and fungus made it hard to breathe.
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Name: Boarding school
Category: Education
Built: 1974
Abandoned: 1997
Explored: August 2011 |
Chateau du Chien (Castle of the Dog) didn't steal it's name. As we approached the castle, we were welcomed by an old bitch (something labrador-like). As we were figuring a way inside the dogs seemed to say 'Follow me'. So we did follow her, got wet feet, and found an entrance. She even went to the highest tower with us. The castle itself was in pretty bad shape. Graffiti everywhere, large parts burned down and a lot of vandalism. Seems the dog isn't much of a guard...
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Name: Chateau Du Chien
Category: Residential
Built: 1304
Abandoned: probably in the 70ies
Explored: February 2011 |
The Belgian Gendarmerie was abolished 11 years ago, many barracks are abandoned since. Lots of these living quarters are the same, but the barracks also included an administration and a shooting range. There were also a lot of old documents left: copies of IDs, tickets and a photo of a corpse. These photos are from two different visits: The sunny outdoor shots are from april, the interior shots are from June.
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Name: La Gendarmerie
Category: Residential/Military
Built: 1938
Abandoned: 2000
Explored: June 2011 |
With the economic recession, many of Belgium's heavy industry is getting in trouble. Some factories are being closed for good, others, like this one, are temporarily closed and might be restarted if there is more demand. This sleeping blast furnace was closed in 2008 and has been abandoned ever since. The power is still on and even the display which tells the days without accident is still counting. At the moment of our visit, the counter was on 1119 days without accident.
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Name: Sleeping Blast Furnace
Category: Industrial
Built: 1910
Abandoned: 2008
Explored: April 2011 |
One of the most beautiful mansions I have ever seen. It was built in 1900 by one of the most famous Belgian Art Nouveau architects. Art Nouveau or Jugendstil is characterised by organic - especially floral and other plant-inspired- motifs, as well as very stylised, flowing curvilinear forms. This mansion had a very nice skylight with stained glass. There’s also a remarkable Chinese room with detailed woodwork.
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Name: Art Nouveau house
Category: Residential
Built: 1900
Abandoned: 2003
Explored: April 2011 |
Our last visit today came to a very abrupt end. After a lot of residential locations recently, we
thought it was time for another industrial exploration. There was an abandoned sugar refinery
in the area, so we figured we'd just go for that one. Upon arrival we immediately noticed
that the lights were still on in the office buildings and that there was a big sign that said the
building was under surveillance. Since the building was clearly abandoned, we didn't think
much of it. The sign didn't really bother us either, since many of the locs we visit have those
signs, but they rarely have any real security measures.
So we entered the location, went through the first building (being very careful on the upper
floors where the metal flooring was not in a very good shape), crossed the open yard and into
the next building. We did find some weird objects in the middle of the factory like a bird's
cage and an umbrella, but other then that your average industrial exploration. At least until
we found the second control room. Upon entering this small room, a small red light started
blinking in the upper right corner of the room and I immediately knew something was wrong.
The blinking was followed by a loud alarm sound seconds later. That's about the time when
we decided it might be a good idea to get the hell out of there. So that's what we did. We ran
towards the exit as fast as we could, being quite exposed as we crossed the big open space in
the middle. Outside, on the streetside of the building there was another speaker sounding the
alarm. Making extra sure everybody in a 1km radius knew that those 2 guys crawling under
the gate and sprinting towards the only parked car in the area were actually doing something
they weren't allowed to.
We drove off, and never saw one cop or securityofficer on the way out. We got out without
getting caught, but it was quite the adrenaline rush!
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Name: Sugar Plant
Category: Industrial
Built: ca. 1900
Abandoned: 2009
Explored: February 2011 |
We were both preparing for our exams in a couple weeks, but found some time to check out this location. It's an old ''farmhouse'', only 2 blocks away from Joachim's house! It had been there for decades, hidden in a piece of woodland!
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Name: Teacher's house
Category: Residential
Built: N/A
Abandoned:
Explored: January 2011 |
Here we are again with another relatively close to home location. We parked the car at a nearby train station, and walked the last kilometre through the woods until we reached a big open spot, the horse track. Commissioned by the ''notorious'' king Leopold II from Belgium in 1889, the horse track from Groenendael was one of the most beautiful and well known tracks in all of Europe. After the downfall of the horse sports in the 20th century, the racetrack was declared bankrupt in 2001.
The location consists of 2 main buildings (the gallery and the royal pavilion), and a couple of stables as well as a house for the groundkeeper. The gallery was completely trashed, but also well cleaned up afterwards (weird), and the track itself was still in relatively good condition! One wonders who is still doing the maintenance on such a big piece of abandoned land and why in God's name he/she is doing it :p. Anyways, we had a great time, and it was very nice to do an ''outdoor'' location for a change!
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Name: Hippodrome G
Category: Leisure
Built: 1887
Abandoned: ca 1995
Explored: November 2010 |
It had been a while and now that we were both able to make some time, we decided to go on another little trip. We agreed not to go too far, but just take our time in one location relatively nearby.
Today's ''target'' was an old laboratory that belonged to the ministry of agriculture. Here, research was done to find new ways to enhance farming techniques. A little bit of research and the nameplate at the gate told us that, because inside it looks like a normal laboratory complex of course ?. The location consists of 3 main buildings in a U shape, a big square garden and a barn with some agricultural vehicles that was very well sealed.
One more surprising and somewhat disturbing discovery we made in this lab was the presence of a nuclear section. The lab had a specially sealed room with a big ''nuclear'' sticker on the door. A storage room for equipment with nuclear capabilities? A passageway to a secret underground nuclear research facility? I guess we'll never know ;).
The building itself is of very old age, but it has been refurbished many times during its long life. The site was abandoned in 2004.
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Name: Chemical Lab
Category: Other
Built: probably 1920
Abandoned: ca 2004
Explored: November 2010 |
Here's one we've been thinking of doing for a long, long time now. Under the Belgian/Dutch border lie hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of underground passageways, left behind by old limestone miners (mined during the middle-ages). It's an interesting place to visit, and we had seen some unbelievable pictures come out of that quarry, but... (yes, there's always a but) Going into one of the biggest underground mazes of Europe where every corridor looks alike and where you have no cellphone reception and no chance to be found... That's not something I was going to risk for a fun day out and some nice pictures. So we went looking for somebody who was familiar with "the maze" and who was willing to guide us around. And we did found somebody... Quite quickly too I must say. Apparantly, there's another hobby, somewhat like ours, that's all about exploring those old quarries! And not only did we get a tour, the kind man even made us some hotdogs and soup down there!
The quarries themselves were in one word breathtaking. The vastitude of the corridors was unbelievable. The light playing along the walls, the absolute silence, a bat here and there,... It was not like any other location we'd ever visit. Another interesting detail was the "graffiti" we found down there. Most locatrions we visit are "enriched" with smudges of spraypaint they call "art". This location was no different, but here, the drawings were made with charcoal and sometimes over 1000 years old!!! There were even ancient "tags" made by guides that used to guide people from one side of the quarry on the Belgian side to the other side on the Dutch side.
All in all a wonderful day out. We learned a thing or two, and got to visit yet another amazing location.
Special thanks to Mipjes, our guide.
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Name: Limestone Quarry
Category: Underground
Built: Middle Ages
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: September 2010 |
It was one of those extremely hot days this summer when we got into the driving oven to visit this location. It was going to be a 1 location day. We chose this location primarily because there was supposed to be a museum in one of the buildings, which was also abandoned. Simply put: the building got abandoned in the 70's, a museum was furnished in one of the buildings, and that museum is now also abandoned.
We weren't able to enter the building that housed the museum (and one other building), but the location overall was well worth our time. A beautiful industrial location, only tainted by nature and time, where many of the old equipment/paperwork still remained.
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Name: Powerplant ECVB
Category: Industry
Built: 1913
Abandoned: 1970ies
Explored: June 2010 |
The original monastery was built in 1491, but over the centuries the buildings have changed a lot.
During centuries hermit monks lived in complete isolation behind their thick walls.
But in the late 1700's, during French revolution, the monks where chased away by the frenchies and their possesions where destroyed or sold. The French army used the buildings as barracks and an ammo depot. Due to an explosion of ammunition a large part of the monastery was destroyed. The army left the monastery to decay. Early 1800 the church was demolished. Recent archeological excavations show the foundations of what used to be the church.
After a century of decay, in the 1920ies, an other religious order of monks bought the ruins the old monastery. And after a few years of renovation, the monastery was used as a school and study house (including a library) for new monks. The monastery was finally abandoned in 2004 and has been empty ever since. Future plans speak of adding buildings, but this will be difficult because the monastery and it's suroundings are protected heritage.
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Name: Monastery Ave Maria
Category: Religious
Built: 1920
Abandoned: 2007
Explored: June 2010 |
I (Ben) have been extremely busy for school for the past few months, so there hasn't been much time to go out on trips sadly enough. But now that I'm having a rather calm period before the exams start there's a couple scheduled. Today being the first one!
We went to the Belgian coast (quite a long drive for us!) to visit an abandoned hotel that we had our eyes on for quite a while. Access should've been a walk in the park (Joachim had already noticed the building in a previous trip and saw that the door was open)... If only it was true... We made a quick tour around the building, but found it hermetically sealed! We then climbed over a door, only to find more locked doors. One of those doors wasn't locked all that well, so we managed to open it... Only to find more locked doors! Long story short: we didn't get in.
Location nr 2 of the day was an abandoned shipyard. Not really that much to say about that one other then the fact that entry was easy and that it was relatively uninteresting. If it weren't for a couple fibreglass molds to make cabins to go on ships, it was nothing but a couple of old hangars and some changing/washing rooms for the people who used to work there. We did however bump into some random photo shoot, quite the surprise!
Since location nr 2 of the day was relatively small and uninteresting, we got back into the car and drove off to location nr 3. Location nr 3 was supposed to be a milk factory with a bunch of oldtimers inside. Again, we found the place without problems, we identified it as an abandoned milk factory (could see through the windows), but didn't find a way inside (well, technically we found one, but the risk of not being able to get back out was too big :p)!
Long story short: at the end of the day we spent more time in the car then we did exploring... WAY more. But that's part of the job, right!?
#ffffff;"> < Go to the full gallery >
The Shipyard in it's glory days
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Name: The Shipyard
Category: Industry
Built: 1923
Abandoned: late 90ies
Explored: May 2010 |
A military control station to communicate with the ships on the atlantic ocean nearby. Built on top of a German WWII bunker that was part of the 'Atlantikwall' defense line. This impressive structure, in the middle of enormous woods, can be seen from miles away. Very few people know it's abandoned and it's far away from residential areas, so there is almost no vandalism. It was abandoned only 10 years after it was built, the story goes that it was actually built on a bad spot, since the tall trees covered the sight.
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Name: Le Sémaphore, France
Category: Military
Built: probably 1987
Abandoned: 1999
Explored: April 2010 |
This is a small chateau in the middle of a quite village in the outskirts of our capital city. It was squatted, looted, vandalized, stripped of all of some value. It looks like the favorite hanging out spot for the local youth, judging by the many grafitti's insulting specific people. "Nina" seems to be very unpopular in the village.
Chateau d'Exaerde in better days
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Name: Chateau d'Exaerde
Category: Residential
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: March 2010 |
Here you'll find the first analog photos I've ever taken. They're shot with the 1977 Minolta XG2 I've found on the attic. Photos are taken in Dadipark, Hasard Cheratte, the Military cargraveyard, Chateau Noisy, Den Hoorn brewery and at the old trains.
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Name: Analog Photos
Category: /
Built: /
Abandoned: /
Explored: 2009 |
Closed by the governement in 2007, because it was emitting too much CO2. Still guarded nowadays though.
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Name: Powerplant M
Category: Industrial
Built: N/A
Abandoned: 2007
Explored: March 2010 |
We weren't really sure what to expect in this hospital. We know only a few floors are used as a hospital. The reason for that must have been the biggest achitectural failure in Belgium's history. The story goes that all the doors and hallways are made too narrow for two beds to pass each other. Later we found out that the back wing is used as a student residence, but the front wing was never used.
Since the part we visited isn't completely abandoned this could be considered an infiltration.
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Name: The Hospital
Category: Hospital / Infiltration
Built: 1945
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: February 2010 |
Today, we went to visit, among some other things, a university campus. The campus consists of various buildings that used to house various departments (all scientific). Even though the campus was abandoned part by part between 1980 and the late 90's, two of the buildings, the smaller ones, are still in use by two different organisations.
This university campus was built on the location of an old abbey. Only a few buildings of that abbey remain. Building started in 1930. The first building was finished in 1932, two others in 1936.
Although the whole campus and it's buildings seemed to be locked airtight (welded bars on all windows and doors), entry was surprisingly easy. The inside of the HUGE buildings was quite a disappointment though. Most of it was trashed and/or empty, and it all quite looked the same. We did however bump into a couple interesting rooms/things, take a look!
Oh yeah, before I forget: future plans for the site speak of partly demolishing some parts, restore the rest and sell them as office buildings for companies.
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Name: The University
Category: Education
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: January 2010 |
It's been AGES since we last went out on a trip, but today we finally found
some time to hit the road again. Exams have been keeping me busy and an
internship has been taking most of Joachim's time. But we're back at it now!
Starting easy with a 2-location daytrip.
First on the list were a castle and a nursery. Both had a turbulent history.
Documents from 1495 mention a stronghold, of this old castle only a few
ruins remain by 1659. Early 19th century a new castle is built on the
foundations of the ruins, it is the castle we see today.
During the Second World War, the castle was an orphanage, but it was also a
safe home for Jewish children, hiding from the Nazis. The villa (still in
use nowadays) was occupied by American fighter pilots, who crashed down and
had to hide.
After the war the three buildings (castle, nursery and villa) where used as
a holiday camp for children with a mental disorder. The children only stayed
in the castle and the nursery. The villa housed classrooms, a party hall and
accommodation for the supervisors (mostly nuns). There's a lot of
documentation from that period, have a look at the postcards.
In 1979 the domain was bought by a very controversial religious organisation.
They only used the villa and left the castle and nursery to decay. Today the
domain is frequently used by the organisation and the park surrounding the
castle is well maintained, which is in great contrast with the nursery,
which is about to collapse under it's own weight.
The castle itself is absolutely astonishing from the outside, but the inside
is rather boring and empty (well worth the visit though!).
Chateau R'tard in the glory days
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Name: Chateau R'tard
Category: Residential
Built: 1835
Abandoned: 1979
Explored: January 2010 |
This is the first urbex location I've visited with my new camera: a Canon EOS 1000D, and I'm pretty happy with it. It was a cold but beautiful day, the low sun gave amazing light inside. And even a more spectacular view outside. Just click the link below to see the results. Unfortunately, there were some signs of demolition or reconversion for the near future.
This was a revisit, scroll down to see the pictures from 2008.
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Name: Malterie Annexes Revisit
Category: Industrial
Built: 1924
Abandoned: 2004
Explored: January 2010 |
Is there anything better than enjoying the New Year's eve fireworks on top of an abandoned silo-building with your friends and a bottle of champaign? I think not.
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Name: Den Hoorn Silos
Category: Industrial
Built: N/A
Abandoned: ca 1995
Explored: January 1, 2010 |
Today, we completed one more chapter in our 'Stella' story. This time we went for the offices... I hear y'all thinking: 'but hey guys didn't you visited the offices earlier this year?' Yeah well, these offices are in a different building! These buildings didn't get abandoned until recently (we found evidence they were still in use in 2008), which made this an interesting exploration. Interesting because there was still a whole lot of stuff there, but also quite different... All electricity was still on! We even took the elevator to the top floor, used the phones to call home, made some copies... Not what you would expect from your average abandoned building :p. But still a whole lot of fun.
We visited this building twice: once at night (pretty creepy if you ask me), and once during daytime.
Btw: did you know Bruce Willis was a member of InBev's Executive Committee?
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Name: Den Hoorn - Part Five - InBev Offices
Category: Residential
Built: N/A
Abandoned: 2008
Explored: December 2009 |
These trains are visible when leaving town by train, so we had to check them out some day.There is a Red Cross coach, a restaurant coach, a locomotive, some passenger coaches with luxury seats and some cargo wagons. Most of the coaches where pretty trashed and probably have only one destination left: the wrecking yard.
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Name: Old Trains
Category: Transport
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: October 2009 |
Who would have guessed there would be such gems inside a boring hangar, right next to the tracks. Inside we found this collection of BEAUTIFUL old trains, it felt like being in an abandoned museum!! Maybe not a coincidence since a railroad enineer told us they were going to make a railway museum and that those trains would move there once it's finished...
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Name: Older Trains
Category: Transport
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: October 2009 |
Once every year, a number of old buildings (cultural heritage) open their doors to visitors. Like this, they want to get people to explore their own surroundings and discover what hidden beauties lay in their own backyards. Needless to say that the 'real' beauties are never accessible during these tourist days, and the buildings that are accessible are not interesting to us (from our photographing / Urbex point of view that is ofc). This one is 'half' an exception on that... This location consists of around 3 or 4 buildings, only one being accessible as cultural heritage. 'But why would you bother going then,' you ask? Well, what better distraction then a herd of tourists :D? It worked like a charm: we got in the otherwise harder-to-enter-without-being-noticed building without bumping into anybody.
These buildings belonged to a psychiatric institution for women. Built in 1927 and initiated by the queen. Recently the psychiatric institution has left the domain, some pavilions are rented to other organisations. You'll find pictures of two pavilions in the gallery. One very decayed building and one that's been abandoned more recently. The buildings will be converted into offices and lofts very soon.
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Name: Salve Mater
Category: Hospital
Built: 1915
Abandoned: 1997
Explored: September 2009 |
The history of this site began in the year 1870 when the authorization was given to start the construction of the "Brasseur" factory. In 1872 the first iron ore furnace was heated. The factory was closed in the year 1977. Since the shutdown of the last furnaces in 1997, the last buildings still in use have been left abandoned.
So far the history of this building. As you can see on the 'Terre Rouge in the glory days' postcards, this is only a small part of the original factory. All in all pretty small and uninteresting, but still worth to pop in while you're in town.
Terre Rouge in the glory days
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Name: ARBED Terre Rouge, Luxembourg
Category: Industrial
Built: 1870
Abandoned: 1977
Explored: September 2009 |
This week Joachim, me and 2 more friends went camping aaaaaaaaaaaall the way down South around the French/Luxembourg border. It would be a real shame to drive that far and NOT visit any of the interesting sites there wouldn't it? So we picked out 2 locations that looked promising and were close to each other and the camping (we found out the hard way that 34km in bird's eye is NOT the same as driving 34km in the car...), being this old electricity plant and the blast furnaces of Terre Rouge.
This building was extremely moshed up by vandals (it's near Southern Belgium, what did you expect?), which is a real shame. The plant provided power for industial and domestic use. With the closing of many factories and mines in the area, Centrale Thermique was forced to stop it's activities too.
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Name: Centrale Thermique, Luxembourg
Category: Industrial
Built: 1951
Abandoned: 1997
Explored: September 2009 |
Ok, so here's part 4 in our Stella exploration set. This time we went for the laboratories and the offices. Now we've been trying to get into those offices ever since our very first visit. We found access to some laboratories, but that was only a small, sealed bit of the big part. So after some major snooping around, we finally found a way in. Only to find out that we had actually missed a little door that we walked by EVERY time on our way in AND our way out for the past 3 explo's that gave direct access to the big laboratories and the offices... Didn't feel this stupid in a long time... But anyway, we got in! Enjoy ;)
(oh, and the electricity is still on in this part of the building... pushing the elevator button scared the hell out of me!).
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Name: Den Hoorn - Part Four - Offices and Laboratories
Category: Residential
Built: 1923
Abandoned: ca. 1995
Explored: September 2009 |
'Kay, so last time we were here just before sunset, and as I mentioned before, the view from up the tower is absolutely fabulous. We've been thinking of going up there again to watch the sun set over the city and watch Leuven by night, so when I was bored last night, I gave Joachim a call to ask him if he felt like going. He did have plans with another friend, but that fellow didn't mind tagging along, so we just went for it. Needless to say it was a fabulous evening ;).
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Name: Leuven by night (from the brewery-tower)
Category: Industrial
Built: 1923
Abandoned: ca. 1995
Explored: August 2009 |
As stated in part 2 of our Stella explorations, we 'assumed' this building (yes, we thought it was only one building for quite some time) was gonna be quite big. After our first visit, we found out it was somewhat bigger as we expected and that it wasn't just one big building, but a couple buildings connected to each other.
Well... we now know that even THAT was a huge understatement! These buildings used to house: brewing facilities (DUH), storage rooms, archives, offices, meeting rooms, quite some laboratories... Too much to mention really. One minor setback though: all separate buildings are locked, so we'll have to find entry to every building. But since we live really nearby, that's only a tiny hump in the road. So here you go, exploration nr. 3 and counting!
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Name: Den Hoorn - Part Three
Category: Industrial
Built: 1923
Abandoned: ca. 1995
Explored: August 2009 |
This is the final resting place of hundreds of old cars. The cars date from the thirties to the sixties. Some cars sunk into the bog, some fell apart over the years and are hardly recognizable but it still is a unique and beautiful place.
It all started with Åke Danielsson, who shovelled peat in these moors. Åke was born in 1914. In 1934, when his sore back didn’t allow him to shovel peat all day, he started to collect scrap cars as a second job. He built a small shed and a workshop on the bog and lived and worked there with his dog. He had no electricity, nor water and lived in a 15 sq meter (161 sq ft) ‘house’ for years. When he had sold every valuable piece of the car, he just left it in the swamp. Over the years the car heap grew larger and larger. Various brand and models can be found here: Morris Minor, Austin, VW van, several American brands and of course many Swedish cars like Volvo, Scania and Saab.
In the early nineties Åke had become too old to still live in his shed, so he went to a retirement home were he finally died in 1999. After Åke leaving the graveyard, people began to ask questions about the fact that the cars might leak toxics into the swamp. They wanted the cars to be removed. Others where convinced that the graveyard had a big historical value, since a part of Sweden’s industrial past is lying there. The two parties kept squabbling for years.
In 2001 the community cut the Gordian knot. The graveyard will be protected for 49 years, since research showed that the impact from the cars’ toxics on the swamp is minimal. Until 2050 this place is safe, but after that they have to take a new decision and this wonderful place might be lost forever...
SOURCE (Swedish)
Thanks to this and a lot of puzzling.
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Name: Car Swamp, Sweden
Category: Transport
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: July 2009 |
This small German house I discovered by coincidence. It was empty and some floors were rotten, but it was a nice quick visit. The place used to be a watermill, but nowadays the only thing that could show it's history is a water basin and a storage shed for the flour. The building is from 1779 and is built with the typical German timber framing technique, the spaces between the timber is filled with loam.
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Name: Lensahner Mühle (watermill), Germany
Category: Residential
Built: 1779
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: July 2009 |
This relative unknown location was a big pain in the *ss to gain access to. Satellite pictures show a very visible path with a nice and big front gate... Not a trace of any of that when we got there though... What we did find was a very steep hill with a lot of vegetation. After driving around for about 15 minutes, we decided to stop wasting time and just start climbing. Easier said then done, because due to heavy rainfall, the mud was extremely slippery and there was nothing to hold onto. After some climbing (and some falling down) we got to the top and found access. After some more looking around we found the courtyard that had access to the actual monastery. We knew there this place also had a guard on a bike and a dog, so we were very cautious, but we had no surprise-encounters (we did find bike and dog trails in the dust though). The beeping sound of the fire alarm did scare us in the beginning though... We thought it was a motion detector at first, but found out about its true meaning pretty quickly.
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Name: Monastère de C.
Category: Religious
Built: N/A
Abandoned: 2007
Explored: June 2009 |
For me(Ben) personally, this was one of the most interesting locations so far. I reallyreallyreally wanted to go there from the moment I first laid eyes on the location. Unfortunately due to a lack of time and later due to the fact that it was sealed, we had to postpone our visit. Since sealing a location up is only a temporary solution (impatient urbexers or vandals always crack it open at a certain point), it was just a matter of time before we could make our visit. When we heard about somebody who made a recent successful visit, we started planning immediately and made our way over there. It took some looking around to find the beautiful workshop where we came for (it’s quite a big site actually), but it was WELL worth it!! And a miracle it’s still so untouched! A visit we won’t forget very quickly!
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Name: La Cristallerie
Category: Other
Built: 1826
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: June 2009 |
This very well known location was actually not nearly as exiting as we thought it would be. Many, many urbexers have visited this location, but all in all, it wasn’t really that special. We got a great story out of it though... When we parked the car, we saw some guys in camo outfits talk to some other older guy in a car. We identified this person as Mr. Gomez, the very well known ’’guard’’ of Hasard Cheratte. It’s a known fact that he fancies a drink every now and then and that you can bribe him with liquor, so we figured that those guys were just fellow urbexers and that Gomez was there to let them in. We didn’t really care and just took the back entrance without paying Gomez anything. We were pretty surprised when those guys in camo outfits didn’t pull out cameras and tripods, but a whole range of guns!! We decided to play safe and walk in their direction to make sure they wouldn’t shoot us for whatever reason. They turned out to be a group of friends who just enjoy a game of airsoft every now and then, and we agreed that we would yell something when we were about to cross the fireline and they would ’’hold their fire’’... Something else then bumping into fellow urbexers I guess ^^.
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Name: Hasard Cheratte
Category: Industrial
Built: 1860
Abandoned: 1977
Explored: June 2009 |
This was a rather disappointing day of urbexing. I had to be back home by 15.00 because of work, so we didn't have all that much time. After a long drive we arrived at this abandonned amusement park. It closed in 2003 because of safety issues (a kid lost an arm on the "Nautic Jets"). It was actually WAY too hot outside to do anything that day, but we went for it anyway. The first thing we noticed was a big sign warning for "dangerous ostriches, keep out". It was funny when we first read it, but we kept the pepperspray within handreach anyways... You wouldn't want to be remembered as "that guy that got killed by ostriches"... The amusement park itself was totally trashed and overgrown with trees and other plants and there were bugs everywhere. And the crappy part was that it wasn't even worth our trouble. When we were finished, there wasn't enough time left to do any of the other locations we had planned, so we just went home.
Dadipark in the old days
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Name: Dadipark (funfair)
Category: Other
Built: 1950
Abandoned: 2003
Explored: June 2009 |
What, oh what could you POSSIBLY do
when you're bored on a sunny wednesday afternoon? Wash the cars and go on a last minute urbex trip ofcourse!! The original plan was to visit another brewery
that we missed that tuesday, but that would mean we would be stuck in traffic jam for at least an hour and a half on the way back... Not really worth
it.
So we decided to check out another one of the old Stella buildings right where we live in Leuven. The Stella company has 4 old buildings in Leuven, at
least that's what we thought. After this exploration, we found out 2 of them are actually connected. We had already visited the main brewery hall, and we
knew that a second one was accessible (that was our target for today). We had been doing our research, and found out that the third big building (the one
connected to the fourth one) was all sealed, so we were totally surprised to find the side door unlocked and wide open when we walked by on our way to the
other building! We entered quickly and started exploring this huuuuge building. The original plan was to be home by 6pm, but we left the location at half
past 7, and still left a part of the location unvisited!
The building includes a tower that can be seen from all over the city. Once you're up there you feel king of the world ;)
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Name: Den Hoorn - Part Two
Category: Industrial
Built: 1923
Abandoned: Ca. 1995
Explored: June 2009 |
 Hundreds of German military vehicles are being
overgrown by nature. MAN trucks, VW Kübels (Thing), Red Cross Beetles, boats and even two airplanes are rusting away here...
It had been a while,
but this location got the adrenaline pumping through our veins again. When we looked up the location on Google Earth, it looked like an abandonned car
graveyard (that's also how it is known in the online urbex community). But when we got there, it turned out quite differently. We started getting suspicious
when we saw direction signs with the name of the location on it. When we arrived, we did find a car graveyard, but it was most certainly NOT abandonned. We
had to follow a long narrow road to get there, and at the end of the road there was a house... Since it was raining pretty hard, and we didn't want to walk
down that narrow road to get to the location, we decided just to park the car on the road and do our exploration. Not the most subtle of things since the
road only leads to the car graveyard and we were in plain sight, but we took our chances.
We didn't run into anybody or anything during the first couple hours of our exploration, but that probably had something to do with the fact that it
was sunday and it was raining really hard. But after a couple hours of interesting exploring and fooling arround in the many many army trucks and other
army equipment, it stopped raining for a while and the owner came looking for us on an old moped. We had to hide quickly and it's a miracle that he didn't
find us. After a couple minutes, it started raining again and since he was only wearing a T-shirt, he drove off to his jeep to continue the search. We waited
until the timing was right and made a run for it. Good thing we were finished anyway!
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Name: Military Cargraveyard
Category: Military / Transport
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: June 2009 |
This fairytale castle had been on our to-
do list for quite a while, but (mostly) due to the long distance and the lack of any train stations nearby, we had to postphone it for a while. Now that we
finaly have a car to get arround, and we found some more locations nearby to do, we decided to give it a go. Another reason why we wanted to get there as
soon as possible is the rapid decline of the castle.
The castle is on the top of a hill in the middle of the woods. We parked the car at the bottom of the hill and proceeded on foot. For all you people out
there: if you ever plan to visit a location that isn't totally obvious to find, BRING A MAP (or a sattelite picture). We learned the hard way. The walk up to
the castle took us about half an hour (while it was actually less then a mile from where we parked the car). The way back took even longer (we ended up
walking a big loop ARROUND the castle instead of away from it).
The castle itself then was built in 1866 by a count, designed by a British architect. The main tower was built later though, the exact date is unknown
(to us at least). From the '50 the castle was used by the Belgian Railway Company as a holiday camp for their employee's kids. The place was abandonned in
1991 and has been declining ever since.
Noisy in her glory days
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Name: Chateau de Noisy
Category: Residential
Built: 1866
Abandoned: 1991
Explored: June 2009 |
 A small abandoned house. Lots of stuff still inside: washer, dryer, kitchen equipment, cutlery, glasses, even paintings. The beds are still made and the clothes are still in the closet. We might be the first explorers in this charming place.
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Name: Story-Time-for-Jesus-House
Category: Residential
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: May 2009 |
 This one is a little bit special in a way. Not an abandoned building like all those other locations we’ve been to, but a collection of “art” that’s being sold. This collection belonged to the late Max Rosendor, a contractor that was responsible for the demolishment of a number of art-nouveau buildings. He kept the most beautiful pieces of those buildings and stored them in a hangar. Now Max Rosendor is gone, his children decided to sell the collection, and we got permission to take some pictures. More Info: www.rosendor.be
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Name: Rosendor Collection
Category: Other
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: April 2009 |
 After a short visit to the Rosendor-collection, we still had half a day ahead of us. Plenty time to visit one more location nearby. We had no idea what we were gonna find here, because there are a lot of rumours about the place. Some people say it’s impossible to get in, some people talk about a tourist attraction. Some say there are construction workers and guards all over the place; some say they didn’t see a single soul. We got lucky and found a way in and didn’t see anybody except some other urbexers (we thought they were guards... scared the shit out of us). Inside we found a pretty well preserved veterinarian school. It was messy alright, but no traces of vandalism whatsoever. A lot of labo equipment was still inside, and the famous flasked animal organs were also still there. What surprised us the most was the very complete library in the attic. If you move your school do a different location, you’d think they would take the library with them right...? All together a great location! Ecole vétérinaire in her glory days
Name: Ecole vétérinaire
Category: Education
Built: 1903
Abandoned: 1991
Explored: April 2009 |
 This coalmine was built in 1875. This mine has a long history, in 1920, 12 workers died because of firedamp, a flammable gas that's often found in coal mines. 10 years later another 5 persones died by the same gas. In 1935, this factory was abandoned. Over the years, it has served for many purposes. Nowadays about a dozen of vintage cars are rusting away, of which a 1962 Mercedes-Benz 190C and a 1979 Ford LTD.
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Name: Charbonnage FT
Category: Industrial / Transport
Built: 1975
Abandoned: 1935
Explored: March 2009 |
 Our first backup after a failed attempt to enter the theatre Varia was this abandoned traindepot. The name says it all to be honest: a depot filled with rusty locomotives :D. It was a welcome change after a whole lot of buildings/factories, we most certainly enjoyed it!
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Name: Train Depot
Category: Transport
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: March 2009 |
 Chateau H, also known as Chateau Chérie, lays in the middle of the fields on the Flemish countryside. This chateau was one of our first locations. The first time I didn't have a tripod yet and had never heard of HDR. So, returning from Chateau Rochendaal, we did a quick revisit, and I took some HDR-shots. Little had changed, only a few cars where moved and the castle was still in a bad shape. Only this time we could get in one of the stable-buildings. Inside the building there is an unique and old oven. This is only one of the gems you can find in and around the chateau. There's also a nice chapel with beautiful woodwork. Also, there is a 1980 Mercedes-Benz 350 SL on the courtyard.
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Name: Chateau H Revisit
Category: Residential
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: March 2009 |
 Barracks next to Chateau Rochendaal. It's still military domain and patrolled by the MP.
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Name: Rochendaal Barracks
Category: Military
Built: N/A
Abandoned: 1996
Explored: March 2009 |
 There is not much info to found about castle Rochendaal. The castle was built in 1881 by the lawyer Jean-Henri-Paul Ulens. Ulens was mayor of the city of Sint-Truiden from 1878-1891.
All was going great for the castle and the park it’s in, until WWII came about. The Germans were all too happy to use the castle and its surroundings for “military purposes”. There were barracks on the property and a small airstrip which made it really attractive to use it for somewhat the same purposes as the Belgian army had been using it: airforce training and stationing. Sint-Truiden was also a tactical city, so only good points so far. And it gets better… There was a luxurious villa on the property with a big park! The villa was transformed to a 357434854734 star officers lounge/casino.
The castle is a building with many artifacts. The beautiful details on the ceiling, the wooden tigerheads on the fireplace and the view on the outside are marvellous.
Later the castle is bought by the government. It is added to the Barbanson quarter, a military school of the Belgium air force.
In 1996 the place is closed down.
This location had also been on our minds for quite a long time, but due to transportation issues (we were just 2 poor urbexers with no car nor a driving licence) we had to postpone the visit. But when I got my driving licence last Tuesday it was only a matter of days. Hopped in the car, parked in the neighbourhood 1 block away and sneaked through the fence (now that I think of it… there wasn’t really a fence, just a bunch of “keep out” signs). The barracks and the park are interesting and give you an idea of how military life back in those days was, but the castle itself is just astonishing. Breathtaking. Mind dazzling. And in a surprisingly good state too!
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Name: Rochendaal Chateau
Category: Residential
Built: 1881
Abandoned: 1996
Explored: March 2009 |
 The Den
Hoorn brewery is first mentioned in 1366, city registers show that the brewers
paid taxes. In June 1708 brewer Sebastian Artois get his master diploma from
the Den Hoorn brewery. His sons took over the business later.
In 1926 the
brewery made a special Christmas beer, they named it Stella Artois (Stella
means star in Latin) the beer was so good; it was drunk all year round. This
beer is still brewed in Leuven. The Stella
Artois brewery moved to the other side of the Leuven Canal
and the old Den Hoorn brewery is left abandoned. The old copper beer coves are
covered in dust. Too bad it's not in use anymore; it would make a very nice
museum or restaurant.
This
brewery is situated in hometown, so we just HAD to visit it someday. A visit
had been on our mind from the moment we knew this hobby was something “for us”.
We had tried to get in a couple days after our first Urbex experience, but the
place is hermetically sealed. Unless you can fly, or your name is Chuck Norris,
it’s a no-go. Not visiting this dream location only 200meter from your house
(yes, you can take that literally) was not an option of course. It was only a
matter of time and a lot of lobbying… Was it worth it you ask? HECK YEAH!! For
as far as I’m concerned, this was the best trip so far (maybe a shared first
place with T&T)!
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Name: Den Hoorn Brewery
Category: Food and Drinks
Built: 1923
Abandoned: ca. 1995
Explored: March 2009 |
 On a grey sundaymorning we jumped on a train heading for this beauty of a location. After a short walk and some waiting for a quite moment, we were able to sneak in. First impression is pretty overwhelming: you’re standing at the feet of the biggest and highest blast furnace of Belgium. Metal structures of over 100 meter high and metal pipelines everywhere you look. Apart from the overwhelming views, this location is also incredibly big. We had to rush to see it all in one day, and I’m 100% sure we skipped at least a quarter of the location! Not to mention the fact that only half of the original furnace remains today… (oh yeah, before I forget: if you want to visit this location, hurry up, it’s being demolished!). Overall a great location! Clabecq in her glory days
Name: Forges de Clabecq
Category: Industrial
Built: 1858
Abandoned: 1997
Explored: February 2009 |
 This fort is part of a defensive circle of forts around the city of Antwerp. The construction began in 1859 and was finished in 1864. These forts where useless during World War I, because the walls where not designed to resist gunfire of 'modern' WWI cannons.
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Name: Fort Antwerp
Category: Military
Built: 1859
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: February 2009 |
 Built in 1680 and proterty of the community since 1979. It was restored for the first time in 1997, but due to insufficiant funds, the restoration was stopped. So the place was in decline since 1998. Recently they have sarted the restorations again.
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Name: Hof ter Beke
Category: Residential
Built: 1680
Abandoned: 1997
Explored: February 2009 |
 These warehouses are located in the harbour of Antwerp. They where built in 1895 and used for storage of a variaty of goods; coffee, cigarettes, butter,... The warehouse was used untill 1950, future plans are to reconvert the place into offices.
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Name: Montevideo
Category: Industrial
Built: 1895
Abandoned: 1950
Explored: February 2009 |
 This crypt was built in 1879 and lots of rich and famous people of that century have found their final resting place in these galleries.
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Name: The Crypt
Category: Religious
Built: 1879
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: January 2009 |
 T&T is a large complex of exposition halls and other buildings. Some are in use, some aren't. We've visited the abandoned buildings of T&T.
T&T in the old days
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Name: T & T
Category: Industrial
Built: 1851
Abandoned: 1987
Explored: January 2009 |
 This factory produced leather untill 1998. The place was built in 1930 and had to produce for the Germans during world war two. The future of this site is still uncertain...
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Name: Schotte NV
Category: Industrial
Built: 1930
Abandoned: 1998
Explored: January 2009 |
 This was one of Belgium's largest manufacturers of panties, socks and underwear. The factory was built in 1922 and went bankrupt in 2001. On september 11 2001 there was an auction with the DuParc site and it's households.
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Name: DuParc
Category: Industrial
Built: 1922
Abandoned: 2001
Explored: January 2009 |
 These houses where probably built by DuParc. The house with the red stair was the director's house. The other one could have been the watchman's. When the company went bankrupt in 2001 these people and their families had to move out and leave behind their house and belongings.
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Name: DuParc Houses
Category: Residential
Built: N/A
Abandoned: ca.2001
Explored: January 2009 |
 We know very little about this place. It was quite a suprise when we found the place, there are no other military building around. There's absolutely no light, so we had to use another lightsource, have a look at the gallery.
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Name: Bunker with candles
Category: Military
Built: N/A
Abandoned: N/A
Explored: December 2008 |
 These buildings are on a large terrain, owned by the Belgian Railway Company (NMBS in Dutch or SNCB in French). The complex was built in 1863 and abandoned in 1993, after that some buildings where used for other purposes. Most buildings on the terrain are demolished and replaced by social housing. These workshop-buildings won't be demolished, cause they're protected and will be reconverted in some kind of cultural centre.
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Name: NMBS Workshops
Category: Industrial
Built: 1863
Abandoned: 1993
Explored: December 2008 |
 This building was built by one of the seven largest Belgian malting factories. In 2004 this production facility moved to Antwerp, 18 people were fired and the buildings where abandoned. Malt is used in the production of beer and whisky.
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Name: Malterie Annexes
Category: Industrial
Built: 1924
Abandoned: 2004
Explored: October 2008 |
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to see all the photos. 
