INFORMATION VINE * 50 Abandoned Places Around The World That Are Eerily Beautiful *.

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This world is a gigantic place, so much so that it is nearly impossible for us to inhabit every square inch of it, even with the population size we have today. This has lead to some places being abandoned or left behind for one reason or another, but the ironic part is that some of these places can be even more beautiful than the cities and land we inhabit. Scroll through this gallery to check out some of these beautiful places around the world that are no longer inhabited, some may surprise you. 

Indonesia’s Chicken Church is beautiful and weird

Located in Central Java, one of Indonesia’s most popular provinces is a place called Gerejam Ayam or Chicken Church. The place is an abandoned church that is just as captivating as it is saddening though the architect responsible for the design of the church set out to make the building’s shape turn out like a dove. 



Photo Courtesy: [Sijori Images/Barcroft IndiaSi/Getty Images]


While it doesn’t completely look like he intended because it was never truly finished due to financial reasons, the place was still put to good use for some time as both a place of religion and worship and a rehabilitation center, before it became abandoned and now a tourist attraction.

China’s Tianducheng district is basically a Paris clone

It is tough to miss the similarities between China’s Tianducheng region and Paris because the two places look so similar. They look the same because Hangzhou’s Tianducheng area is a clone of France’s capital city. 



Photo Courtesy: [Guillaume Payen/Contributor/Getty Images]


The place was constructed fourteen years ago and was built with its own Eiffel Tower that’s also 300 feet tall, and its Champs-Elysees. The thing though is that while recreating the look of a place is tough, cloning how a place feels is nearly impossible so China’s version ended up lacking the romantic feel of Paris. 

The semi-emerged Rummu Prison

Estonia’s Rummu Prison is a semi-emerged underwater attraction that is also quite creepy. It was built in the 1940s and served as home to several Estonian prisoners, and these prisoners were coerced into working at a limestone quarry not far away from the prison. 



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Estonia’s independence is what resulted in Runmu Prison being abandoned, and it became submerged with water soon after. It is still around today, mostly underwater, and serves a different purpose as an attraction to divers.

Alaska’s Kennecott Mines is a deserted beauty

The Kennecott Mines in Alaska used to be full of life and families when it was a booming copper mining center. Miners and their families lived in the town close to the mines that we will discuss later as it has a story of its own. 



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However, the copper in the region was reduced significantly with the volume of mining activity in the town, and shortly after, the copper resource of the region was gone. Soon after, nearly all the workers working in the mines left their jobs and abandoned the mines after the copper was gone.

Spain’s Canfranc Station

The International Canfranc train station in Spain used to be a lot more relevant previously than it is today, but it has managed to maintain its identity because it remains a spectacular place that creates an impression of grandeur. 



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It used to be one of the biggest and most famous train stations in Europe at the time it was newly constructed early in the 19th century. The derailing of a train is what resulted in the Canfranc train station being closed. 

New York’s Grossinger’s used to be a luxury resort

A fall from grace is what describes going from the kind of place that people visited for a classy weekend escape to becoming a dilapidated and abandoned building. Located in the Liberty area of New York, Grossinger’s was a luxury resort, one that inspired some Hollywood films. 



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Grossinger’s sadly wasn’t immune to the effects of the economic downturn and so it collapsed with the wave of austerity in 1986. They had to shut their doors because of the economic contraction.

Croatia’s abandoned Hotel Goricina

Hotel Goricina was an exclusive luxury hotel at its peak, one which the elites and rulers of Yugoslavia frequented, which made it difficult for the common man without connections to book a reservation. 



Photo Courtesy: [jbdodane/Flickr]


Hotel Goricina had its own private villa and was once visited by President Josip Broz Tito who spent a holiday there. It was the devastating effects of Croatia’s Independence War that left the Goricina hotel and a couple of other hotels ruined, and it became abandoned as a result. 

Japan’s Hachijo Royal Hotel

One of the biggest hotels in Japan is the Hachijo Royal Hotel, located on the green island of Hachijo-Jima. The hotel was opened in the 1960s in a period in which the Japanese began to travel the world in numbers for the first time.  



Photo Courtesy: [Daibo Taku/Wikimedia Commons]


Hachij0-Jima is a volcanic, subtropical island located about 178 miles away from Tokyo. The architecture of this hotel is French Barope that blends with the trees and moss on the hotel’s walls.

Germany’s abandoned Hospital

There are few things creepier than a hospital that has been abandoned for decades. Germany’s Beelitz Heilstatten hospital complex has been abandoned for two and a half decades, after being used as a hospital for the military during each of the two World Wars. 



Photo Courtesy: [K.H.Reichert/Flickr]


Beelitz was even the place from which Hitler got treatment as a young chap. The building is over a century old and it used to be one of the most significant lung disease treatment hospitals around.

Romania’s Geamana region

Copper mining was a big deal in the 19th century and it resulted in the creation of several settlements across the world. Romania’s Geamana region witnessed a significant uptick in copper mining in the 1970s. 



Photo Courtesy: [Hardy Clein/Wikimedia Commons]


The village had to be evacuated entirely because it had gotten infected with toxic waste from the copper mines. The intention was to transform Geamana into a place for dumping toxic waste. Coincidentally, the region got flooded courtesy of an artificial lake.

The Craco area in Italy

Italy’s Craco region has been around for a ridiculously long time, since 540 in fact, though today nearly all of the town’s inhabitants have departed due to the inability of plants to thrive in the environment. 



Photo Courtesy: [Maurizio Moro5153/Wikimedia Commons]


Craco also recorded flooding in 1963 and 1972 and is now simply a very old place that is renowned for its beauty and for starring in several movies including The Passion of the Christ.

Mexico’s Temple of Santiago

Mexico has its own abandoned Roman Catholic Church known as the Temple of Santiago and it is located in Chiapas' Nezahaulcoyotl Reservoir. The Bartolome de las Casas-led Dominican friars founded the Temple of Santiago, also known as the Temple of Quechula. 



Photo Courtesy: [Joaquin Gomez Sastre/NurPhoto/Getty Images]


It is now 450 years old and it is surrounded by water that has made the church sink into the ground several feet. The temple has now emerged away from its submerged condition and serves as a vivid reminder of older times.

The Gougi Island is a green atmospheric phenomenon

China’s Gougi Island is an island located in a region that houses approximately 400 islands known as the Shengsi archipelago. 



Photo Courtesy: [Xurxo Lobato/Contributor/Getty Images]


The place used to be full of life as recently as fifty years ago when fishing was booming in the region but a downturn of fishing activities in the surrounding area has caused a devastating outcome for the island as several island dwellers headed elsewhere in search of fish. The result is that the town is now more deserted than ever and is even ghostly.

Macedonia’s flooded Saint Nicholas Church

Flooded churches and ruins are another type of attraction altogether, and Macedonia’s flooded Saint Nicholas church is no different. 



Photo Courtesy: [Alex Iva/Wikimedia Commons]


It is located in Macedonia’s Lake Mavorvo, and unlike other submerged/flooded ruins, the flooded Saint Nicholas church was in fact intentionally destroyed because the Marvorvo lake was designed to operate a power plant and the church’s destruction had to be done. The church was built in the 17th century on a site where flooding regularly occurred.

The Miranda castle in Belgium

The Miranda Castle is the kind of castle vividly described in fiction; breathtaking, and with a unique kind of structure. The castle was meant to be used to house people during the summer, though the death of the building’s designer preceded the completion of the building. 



Photo Courtesy: [Pel Laurens/Wikimedia Commons]


The Miranda castle served a purpose during the Second World War when it was used as a training camp for two years. The Miranda castle’s enormous maintenance cost resulted in the abandonment of the castle.

India’s Ross Island

India has its own forgotten yet fascinating place in its Ross Island, located in South Andaman. The place was used by the British as a center of administration for the settlement of convicts in India. 



Photo Courtesy: [Biswarup Ganguly/Wikimedia Commons]


The colonial administration used this remote island to incarcerate a lot of individuals that partook in the 1957 rebellion in India. Wild ficus caused the Island to be abandoned after it grew all over the place, and now it is something of a tourist attraction.

New Orleans' Abandoned Six Flags Theme Park

Six Flags used to be a bubbling theme park in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina happened in 2005 and it became fully flooded. The flooding from the 2005 hurricane resulted in the park being abandoned, and the place is now home to alligators and occasionally visited by wandering explorers. 



Photo Courtesy: [Patrick Semansky/Bloomberg/Getty Images]


In the aftermath of the flood, water in Six Flags was high enough to submerge adults of average height and children, and most of the park’s rides were also damaged, and efforts to rehabilitate the place have failed since.

Scotland’s Hirta Island still looks stunning

The beautiful island of Hirta in Scotland has remained a beautiful island despite being abandoned for decades now. It became abandoned in the 1930s after its harsh weather and chronic food shortages hit its inhabitants. 



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Illnesses were also brought to the island by visitors, leading people to evacuate the place. What’s left of the place are beautiful stone sculptures and Soay sheep that have made it their home in the absence of humans. Hirta is the biggest of the St. Kilda archipelago islands.

The Dome Homes in Florida

The place used to be a budding vacation home that was frequented by society’s rich. Just south of the Marco Islands, the Cape Romano Dome House can only be accessed by water and it is one of ten thousand Islands. 



Photo Courtesy: [Andy Morffew/Getty Images]


It now looks like a weird spaceship after being devastated by hurricanes years ago, and the outlook looks grim for the Dome home because its coastline keeps on receding. The fun part is the different kinds of legends that have erupted about the dilapidated domes and their origins.

The Ghost Town of Berlin, Nevada

The district of Berlin in Nevada has a rich history intertwined with the rise of mining in the area in 1863. Silver was discovered in the Union Canyon and soon after, a mining camp was constructed. 



Photo Courtesy: [SofiLayla/Wikimedia Commons]


However, the Berlin district wasn’t as successful as the other districts and so it was abandoned early in the 19th century after a steady decline of the mining boom recorded in the middle of the 18th century. The abandoned town has its own stage station, infirmary, post office, and union hall.

Namibia’s Kolmanskop ghost town

The mining boom in Namibia’s Kolmanskop region led to the creation of the Kolmanskop town and it was the depletion of mining activities that ultimately led to its demise.  



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When rich diamond fields were discovered to the south of the town, the miners that had settled in left in a hurry, leaving behind their houses and belongings. The town became fully abandoned in 1954 after the resources that attracted miners there had been depleted. What is left of the place is homes filled with sand.

The Kilchurn Castle in Scotland

Scotland’s Kilchurn castle was constructed long ago in the middle of the 14th century by the first lord of Glenorchy, Sir Colin Campbell. The place was home to some very powerful aristocrats at the time and it also contains the longest surviving barracks on Britain’s mainland. 



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It became abandoned in the 17th century and has evolved into a tourist attraction frequented by photographers and tourists, and numerous pictures of the castle have been taken over the years due to its uniquely captivating location.

Kayakoy village in Turkey

Known as Karilissos in Greek, Turkey’s Kayakoy village was constructed sometime in the 14th century. It used to be a beautiful sight, constructed in the Taurus Mountains until it became deserted in the 1920s when people were forcefully evacuated from the town in the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish war. 



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There was an exchange of people between Turkey and Greece so each nation could have its own identity. The result today is the hundreds of homes that have been deserted in the village.

Australia’s Floating Forest is actually a ship

Located in Sydney’s Homebush Bay is one of Australia’s most unique attractions known as Australia’s Floating Forest. It is actually an abandoned 102-year old ship that ended up on Homebush bay, home of abandoned ships in the region. 



Photo Courtesy: [Keith Friend/Contributor/Getty Images]


It has now evolved into a floating forest even though it was meant to be disassembled. The ship that became the floating forest was called the SS Ayrfield, and it is still today distinct from other retired ships because of its unique greenery and mangrove trees. 

The Villa in Lake Como, Italy

Lake Como is located in Italy’s northern region and it is a major attraction for several photographers and artists from all over the world. 



Photo Courtesy: [Villa Elio/AGF/Universal Images Group/Getty Images]


The Lake Como villas are one of its major attractions as they give a peek into the life that Europe’s noble people and the wealthy lived all those years ago. It is believed that the castle was erected in the 18th century and it became deserted because of the death of someone in it. 

Germany’s Allerheiligen Monastery

The foundation of Germany’s ill-fated Allerheiligen monastery was built by Uta von Schauenburg. He then founded the monastery in 1191 and summoned the Premonstratensian order to it soon after. 



Photo Courtesy: [Stefan Karl/Wikimedia Commons]


The church was built in Germany’s Black Forest and was unfortunate to have been struck by lightning leading to multiple fires. The lightning and burning up of the monastery led to it being abandoned and all that’s left now is ruins.

The famous Ta Prohm Temple in Cambodia

Cambodia’s Ta Prohm Temple was constructed by Khmer King Jayavarman and was intended to be a Mahayana Buddhist monastery. The temple is quite famous and was used in the Tomb Raider films, merged with visuals from similar Angkorian temples. 



Photo Courtesy: [Soeren Stache/picture alliance/Getty Images]


It became abandoned after the empire fell in the 17th century and has been neglected for centuries as a result. Today, it has become part of the jungle that surrounds it despite being one of the most famous tourist attractions in all of Cambodia.

England’s Maunsell Army Sea Forts

England built the Maunsell forts and located them in the Thames Estuary in 1942 as part of efforts to protect England’s Kent shores from Germany’s air and sea strikes.  



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The forts were built with reinforced concrete and steel and they became decommissioned in 1950 after the second world war had ended and they were used as the headquarters of radio stations run by pirates for some time before becoming completely abandoned. However, they can still be visited by boat today. 

New York’s Dundas Castle

The Dundas Castle in New York is also known as Craig-e-clair and it is a place full of history that used to be Ralph Wurts Dundas’ estate. The owner of the estate was a well-known and rich New York resident and William Wurts’ grandson. 



Photo Courtesy: [Peter Bond/Wikimedia Commons]


The castle was constructed by Bradford L. Gilbert, one of the greatest architects from Scotland, though he died before the building was completed, leading to rumblings of his ghost still roaming the walls of the castle.

The Bodiam Castle in England

England’s Bodiam castle exists today as a moated ruin in the Rother Valley, though its ability to capture a person’s imagination remains intact. 



Photo Courtesy: [Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs/Getty Images]


The castle was constructed in Sussex in the 14th century by Sir Edward, a knight that wanted to fortify the region against France while the Hundred Years’ War was raging. It became abandoned after the wars ended and it has now evolved into a tourist attraction for people.

The Methodist Church in Indiana

Indiana's very own abandoned beauty is the abandoned Methodist Church located in Gary, Indiana. What remains of the dilapidated building is a far cry from the initial status of the church when it used to be one of the biggest churches in the region.  



Photo Courtesy: [Peter Fitzgerald/Wikimedia Commons]


Worship ceased to be held there in 1975, only about fifty years after the church commenced worship. The church’s construction cost $1 million when it was erected nearly a century ago, and it had a significant congregation soon after.

Colombia’s Hotel de Salto

The Hotel de Salto is a historic place with macabre yet captivating architecture. The hotel was launched in 1928 to cater to tourists that were trooping to a nearby waterfall in droves. The building was originally constructed to serve as wealthy architect Carlos Arturo Tapias’s residence before being converted to a hotel. 



Photo Courtesy: [ArturoAparicio/Wikimedia Commons]


It is a French architecture masterpiece with high windows signifying class and beauty in the 1920s. The waterfall close to the hotel became less attractive to tourists and gradually, the hotel closed up and became abandoned.

Central Station in Michigan

The Central Station in Michigan went through a spectacular boom and slump that was a reflection of what happened in the city of Detroit in the period over the years. Michigan’s central station was a source of pride with a design that signified majesty and civilized transportation. 



Photo Courtesy: [Bill Pugliano/Stringer/Getty Images]


It is a three-story train depot with an office tower eighteen stories high. The central station was even featured in the popular Eminem movie, 8 Mile. The central station stopped operations in 1988.

New York’s City Hall Subway Stop

City Hall Loop served as the terminal station on New York City Subway’s IRT Lexington Avenue Line. It was developed to serve as a terminal for the subway, and it was opened on the 27th of October, 1904. 



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The City Hall Subway was eventually closed in 1945 because of its difficulty to amend dimensions and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge station. City Hall Subway is one of the 28 pioneer train stations in New York.

The Holland Island in Maryland

Maryland’s Holland Island used to be an eroding and marshy island that farmers and watermen lived in before it became abandoned because of rising sea levels and the sinking of the surrounding land surface. 



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The island was discovered in the 16th century by Daniel Holland, who bought it from the County Sherrif of Dorchester and it had hundreds of residents early in the 19th century, complete with 70 houses, stores, and different structures. The Island also had its own school, church baseball team, and post office.

California’s Abandoned Bodie Railway

At the peak of the Bodie railway in California around 1879, the area housed anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 people, with about 40 new dwellers arriving every day. 



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People came to live in the Bodie area because of the Gold Rush in California, and it still contains one hundred historic buildings today. It became abandoned in 1942 due to the suspension of mining in the region and the subsequent evacuation of miners from the place.

The Aniva Lighthouse in Japan

The Aniva Lighthouse in Japan was constructed by the Japanese in 1939. It was built on a piece of rock on the coast of Sakhalin, a place between Russia’s Okhotsk Sea and the Sea of Japan. 



Photo Courtesy: [Yuri Smityuk\TASS/Getty Images]


It also lies to the east of Russia, and it was shared with Russia, where it was annexed during the Second World War, leading to the evacuation of five hundred thousand Japanese soldiers. The building itself is a seven-story fortress with accumulator rooms, diesel engines, and more.

Bannerman Castle in New York

The Bannerman Castle in New York is a historic building that was constructed in the 19th century. It was originally built to serve as storage for America’s military after the war with Spain. 



Photo Courtesy: [Dan Dvorscak/Flickr]


The Castle was named after entrepreneur Francis Bannerman a Brooklyn resident originally from Scotland who needed a place to store his cache of goods and supplies. Unfortunately, some of the weapons stored in the Bannerman Castle exploded in 1920, leading to the near-complete destruction of the building.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China has been mostly abandoned since it was constructed because it is so expensive to maintain. 



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It has undergone such gradual destruction over the years that less than 10% of the wall remains in the condition it was constructed today, and the rest of it is in a terrible state with wild plants overgrowing on it and the walkways now full of thick shrubs and weeds. Adverse weather conditions and human activity alike has resulted in the demise of China’s Great Wall.

Ukraine’s abandoned Pripyat city

The abandoned city of Pripyat is close to the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and it is the city that felt the devastating effects of the disaster most deeply as an incredible amount of radiation was released into the city, making most of the city’s residents flee for safety. 



Photo Courtesy: [Sean Gallup/Staff/Getty Images]


Due to the presence of several monuments like school toys, frozen clocks, and an amusement park, Ukraine’s Pripyat city remains one of the most popular abandoned sites in the world.

China’s Houtouwan Island 

The Houtouwan village in China used to be a fishing village and it is located nearly a hundred miles to the southeast of Shanghai. It has been abandoned and uninhabited for several years but it still remains a captivating sight because its buildings are mostly covered in lush vegetation and ivy that culminate into an attractive landscape. 



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The abandonment of the village began in the 1990s when the residents gradually began to move inland, though some peasants still remain on it today.

The Great Train Graveyard in Bolivia

Bolivia’s Great Train Graveyard is a peculiar attraction for tourists. It is a cemetery consisting of ancient and abandoned trains. The place came to be as a result of a project that was intended to expand the Unyuni transportation network but was abandoned due to difficulties encountered and resistance from locals. 



Photo Courtesy: [Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported/Wikimedia Commons]


The trains were briefly used to convey minerals but were abandoned after the minerals were exhausted. Corrosion from salt has since affected the abandoned trains and has resulted in the Great Train Graveyard.

Massachusetts’s Ponyhenge field

The Ponyhenge field in Massachusetts is an abandoned relic shrouded in mystery. The place is a collection of rocking horses and ponies that sit in a field that is only 14 miles away from Boston. 



Photo Courtesy: [Ponyhenge/Trip Advisor]


The collection of ponies in the field grew substantially after the first ponies were added in 2010, yet how the horses keep increasing in number still remains a mystery. It is open to visitors and tourists that want to visit even though it is located on private land.

Poland’s Lapalice Castle

Much like the antique and mysterious castles in Eastern Europe, the Lapalice Castle in Poland is an imposing and ornate structure that was constructed in 1979. It was intended to be used as artist Piotr Kazimierczak’s studio despite having a ballroom, a dozen towers, a swimming pool, and ramparts. 



Photo Courtesy: [Marian Naworski/Wikimedia Commons]


However, Kazimierczak didn’t have the requisite permits for the land and didn’t have enough money to complete the castle’s construction so he abandoned it entirely.

The Haludovo Palace Hotel in Croatia

The abandoned Haludovo Palace in Croatia is a distinctively unique building whose origin is hard to place. It's design and shape have a futuristic feel that belies the state of devastation in the building. 



Photo Courtesy: [Arne Müseler/Wikimedia Commons]


The hotel was constructed on the Krk Island in 1971 in communist-style architecture with asymmetrical concrete and a modern outlook. For some decades after its construction, the hotel served as an attraction for leaders and actors that visited Yugoslavia but it folded up completely in 2001 due to declined tourism.

Alaska’s abandoned Kennecott town

Kennecott used to be a major hub for processing copper from 1911 to 1938, and almost $200 million dollars worth of copper was processed in the town at its peak. Kennecott was a self-sufficient town with its own tennis court, dairy, skating rink, and hospital. 



Photo Courtesy: [Christoph Strässler/Wikimedia Commons]


The majority of the town’s buildings have been empty for about 60 years now and have as such been dilapidated but have managed to retain their beauty. Those that wish to rent the town’s recreation hall can still do so as it remains available to rent.

China’s Kangbashi Ghost Town

The Kangbashi town in Ordos, China is a modern abandoned town located in a division of inner Mongolia. 



Photo Courtesy: [Qilai Shen/Contributor/Getty Images]


The place was meant to be a big residential region to accommodate about a million people when its construction was commenced in 2003, but filling up the apartments proved a tall task because they were so expensive and the location was far away. It became a ghost town soon after as a result, albeit a beautiful and modern one with art installations and intact construction.

Belgium’s Power Plant IM

Power Plant IM was built in 1921 and was one of the biggest power plants run on coal in Belgium. It has a gigantic cooling tower with the capacity to cool down 480,000 gallons of water in 60 seconds. 



Photo Courtesy: [Lennart Tange/Wikimedia Commons]


Power Plant IM was, unfortunately, a major source of pollution in Belgium, accounting for 10% of total carbon dioxide pollution by itself, and it was shut in 2007 after some protests. Though far from their original purpose, the towers of the abandoned plant remain a beautiful attraction.

The empty Hashima Island in Japan

It’s a tough fall going from being the world’s most populated island to being uninhabited but that is precisely the case with Japan’s Hashima Island. Interest in the Island grew after the discovery of a deposit of coal underwater in the region below the island. 



Photo Courtesy: [Carl Court/Staff/Getty Images]


This attracted the influx of laborers and miners, but they only stayed as long as the coal remained. What is left of it is an abandoned town made of concrete and rock in the ocean.