10 Most Beautiful Abandoned Places in the World

In this com­pi­la­tion, we have col­lect­ed 10 of the most beau­ti­ful aban­doned places in the world where time has stopped. Once thriv­ing land­marks that are now noth­ing more than ghost sites.

10. Abbey of St. George in the Black Forest

The monastery was found­ed in 1084–1085 in the Black For­est at the source of the Brigach. The adjoin­ing premis­es and the church were destroyed by fire on Octo­ber 13, 1633. Recov­ery was not car­ried out. The town of Sankt Geor­gen im Schwarzwald suf­fered a seri­ous fire in 1865 and the ruins of the abbey were used as a quar­ry for its restora­tion.

Inter­est­ing selec­tion: 10 creepy aban­doned hotels around the world

9. El Hotel del Salto, Colombia

The build­ing was built as a man­sion in 1923, as a sym­bol of the well-being of the elite cit­i­zens of the 20s. Lat­er, in July 1950, the build­ing was recon­struct­ed into an eigh­teen-sto­ry hotel. In the 90s, the hotel was aban­doned for more than two decades due to riv­er pol­lu­tion. Now it is the main attrac­tion of these places. Thou­sands of tourists vis­it the area to admire the 157 meters high water­fall and the sur­round­ing nature. The hotel is locat­ed direct­ly oppo­site the water­fall on the edge of the cliff.

8. Sharda Peet, Neelum Valley, Kashmir

The famous tem­ple of God­dess Saraswati (Shar­da) on the banks of the Neelum Riv­er in the Neelum Val­ley, Kash­mir. The Kash­miris great­ly revere this deity, whom they call “Bhag­wati”. Dur­ing their dai­ly wor­ship, they often say, “Namastey Shara­da Devi Kash­mir Pur Vasi­ni Tvam Ham Prartey Nityam Vidya Danam Che De hi mey” which means “Greet­ings to you, O Shara­da, O God­dess, O liv­ing in Kash­mir.” They pray to her every day with a request to grant insight. The last time the tem­ple was repaired by Mahara­ja Gulab Singh from Kash­mir.

7. North Brother Island, New York

North Broth­er Island is a small island in the East Riv­er locat­ed between the Bronx and Rik­ers Island in New York. Once there was a hos­pi­tal here, but today it is unin­hab­it­ed and marked as a bird sanc­tu­ary. The size of the island is approx­i­mate­ly 400 by 250 m. Near­by is its small­er satel­lite — the island of South Broth­er.

6. Craco, Italy

Cracko is an aban­doned com­mune in a medieval vil­lage locat­ed in the Basil­i­ca­ta region, about 40 kilo­me­ters from the coast of the Gulf of Taran­to at the foot of the Ital­ian “boot”. The local land­scape is typ­i­cal of moun­tain towns in the region, with mod­er­ate­ly undu­lat­ing forms and adja­cent fields sown with wheat. Kracko was aban­doned in 1963 due to reg­u­lar earth­quakes.

Relat­ed arti­cle: Ital­ian aban­doned chapels

5. Kalavantin Durg, India

This fort is right across from Pra­bal­gad near the Mum­bai-Pune Express­way. Accord­ing to leg­end, the fort was built for a queen named Kala­van­tin. The steps lead­ing to it are carved into the rock of the hill. From the top of Ala­van­tin, you can see the forts of Mather­an, Chan­deri, Peb, Ershal and Kar­nal, as well as the city of Mum­bai. Adi­vasi peo­ple from the vil­lage of Machi Pra­bal per­form a tra­di­tion­al dance at every Holi (Shim­ga) fes­ti­val at the top of Kala­van­tin Fort. This his­tor­i­cal land­mark is an inte­gral part of their her­itage.

4. Kolmanskop, Namib Desert

Kol­man­skop is a ghost town in the Namib Desert in south­ern Namib­ia, a few kilo­me­ters from the coast of Lüderitz. It was named after a dri­ver named John­ny Cole­man. Once it was a small but very rich min­ing vil­lage. Today, it is a pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tion oper­at­ed by the NamDeb (Namib­ia-De Beers) joint ven­ture.

3. SS Ayrfield, Homebush Bay, Australia

The SS Ayr­field, for­mer­ly known as the SS Cor­ri­mal, is a rusty wreck strand­ed in the calm waters of Home­bush Bay, west of Syd­ney, Aus­tralia. It was a 1140 ton steel hulled sin­gle screw steam elbow, 79.1 m long. It was built in the UK in 1911 and reg­is­tered in Syd­ney in 1912. The ship was bought by the Com­mon­wealth gov­ern­ment and used to trans­port sup­plies to US troops sta­tioned in the Pacif­ic dur­ing World War II.

2. Dome Homes, Southwest Florida

The his­to­ry of the Dome House at Cape Romano, Flori­da is as unusu­al as the archi­tec­ture itself. The struc­ture was com­plet­ed in 1981 and sold to John Tosto in 2005. It has since been the sub­ject of a long rede­vel­op­ment dis­pute, which result­ed in Tosto’s deci­sion to relin­quish own­er­ship of the house.

1. Fisherman’s hut, Germany

The fish­ing hut is locat­ed in the Bercht­es­gaden Lake Nation­al Park. The park is locat­ed in the south­east of Ger­many, in the Free State of Bavaria, adja­cent to the state of Salzburg in Aus­tria. Found­ed in 1978, the park cov­ers an area of ​​210 square kilo­me­ters and belongs to the state. Its high­land land­scapes are famous for their exten­sive forests and steep cliffs.

Read more: Aban­doned Vil­lages and Cities of the World