I was positively surprised as I began to cycle round Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. I had expected it to be mostly nature & views, but soon the first modern ruins began to appear. These are the remains of the battery Ledyard, two concrete platforms that carried cannons on them until 1915. They were […]Read Post ›
Nothing beats the beauty of an abandoned concrete building basking in the Californian sun. When I first saw this huge empty shell of a warehouse somewhere at the shores of the San Francisco Bay, for a second I thought that I had been transported to the Soviet Union in 1970s. Getting closer, however, the fragments […]Read Post ›
Seeing them standing alone by the roadsides of Italy, I first thought they were old railway stations. Instead, as I found out, they are “Casa Cantonieras” – or at least had been when they were operating. By the older roads on Italy one can spot these humble but sturdy stone buildings that have defied the […]Read Post ›
Normally I’m more drawn to the industrial ruins of our own era, but I won’t say no to an abandoned old graveyard, if such happens to come along. That was the case with this place. The story of the forlorn cemetery near the central St. Petersburg is common enough. It served as a graveyard of […]Read Post ›
Once upon a time almost the entire San Francisco Bay was strewn with factories & mills. Not any more. Some of them have survived, but in other use. Even the former industrial wastelands are rapidly disappearing, but few modern ruins still stand as a reminder of the rusty past. One of them is the former […]Read Post ›
If you happen to travel around central Italy, no use trying to check in at this roadside motel. Some thirty kilometres from Rome, in the middle of sunny campagna, stands a lonely motel. It is situated just by an important highway, but for some reason the customers never found it. The motel wasn’t waiting for […]Read Post ›
Near the abandoned medieval town of Craco (see my earlier update here) lies a small city of Pisticci, famous for its Amaro Lucano liqueur. The valleys between the hill towns are richly cultivated and there are many agricultural facilities. Some of them, however, have lost the battle to bigger producers and closed their gates. And, […]Read Post ›
During the California gold rush at the middle of the 19th century hundreds of thousands flocked to the state, mostly up to Sierra Nevada mountains, in search of lucky strike. But the ghost towns & other ruins they left behind were not always as glorious as the golden hopes. The digging continued in many areas […]Read Post ›
The countryside of southern Italy is strewn with old abandoned houses of former farmers. Many have sold their small fields to larger combines & moved away, leaving their homes behind. Among them one can find also few newer villas, some of them quite fancy – and left all alone. This building, lying rotting by a […]Read Post ›
Wasteland 