Didn’t have time to enter the main building so made some quick snaps from the outside, there weren’t that many photo’s and I had forgotten about them. That’s why I post them this late.

Mini-gallery of Fort 7

Yes, I [finally] put my galleries online of train graveyards. There are more train graveyards around then you would think, with people being able to fly easily with sites like Fly.com, there is becoming less use for some old train lines. Trains and trainstations still have that little bit of romantic nostalgia about them from the old days, think steam trains, Orient Express etc...
I visited two trainyards for the moment:

Trainyard Hombourg


Trainyard Baasrode

I made a revisit to Cheratte, a place took photographs of many years ago. The buildings haven’t changed but it’s not the same anymore. Cheratte must be one of those “landmark” urbex places that everyone “needs to have visited”. Surely I think thousands have been there by now. I still remember the very first time I entered the building in 2003. Not much graphitti or any other indication of recent visitors other than the people who last shut the door when they closed down the mine.
The contrast with today could not be bigger: many have left their markings on the walls, many artifacts I remember were gone and during the 4 hours we spent on site, we encountered 2 German photography groups, a Dutch photographer with 2 models, A bunch of kids with camera’s shooting in the mid tower and last but not least: about 15-20 fully combat dressed guys who were playing a wargame! It’s not the serene place to shoot pictures it once was
In a way this is a pity, but I still enjoyed the time spent there, although I realise for me it will be the last visit.

Because of the revisit, I decided the just redo the old gallery as well, removed some images and added the new ones.

revisited gallery of Cheratte Hasard:

Yes, this is the original factory where they made the famous cristals from Val Saint Lambert. This old part is abandoned, but the rest of the plant is still in operation.

see the images of Val Saint Lambert

This place has served several purposes. It was a sanatorium for children back in the days and also served as sort of a big atelier for several artists. An old firetruck is parked in front. I have seldom seen so much crap dumped in a building. I didn’t take any pictures of it, it was a waste of megapixels

see the gallery of Preventorium Dolhain

Hugo is much like many other mines from that period. What interested me in particular in this place though was the locker rooms where workers used to hang their clothes on metal cages that were hoisted to the ceiling. One can only image the smell
I didn’t visit the rest of the site besides this locker because it photographically wasn’t much different from most ordinary abandoned factories [and we were also on a schedule...]

Check out the Hugo locker room

This place seemed to be a sanatorium at a certain stage, but I don’t know much else about it. Much of the large villa is ceiled off and in the surrounding buildings there is not much to see anymore.

see to the Victoria Stift gallery

Panacolor studio’s [as it is generally known] was a very sophisticated sound synchronisation studio build right after the second world war. The studio was also used for the voice-overs in German language of foreign films. It was abandoned in the late 90’s and to this day most of the equipment is still there!
Unfortunately when we arrived, there was already a “posse” of 5 people inside taking pictures. It was much too crowded for my taste so I didn’t get to shoot the pictures I was looking after. We cleared the area after about a bit more than 2 hours. I heard the other photographers stayed there all day.

see the Panacolor gallery

A few years ago during the winter period I visited Volklinger Hutte. This former mamoth steel factory was build in the second half of the 19th century and I believe it must have been one of the biggest of its kind. The biggest part of the site is reconverted for public access and is now part of the industrial heritage. During the first visit we only shot the inside of the Boiler Room. During the second visit now we walked around public parts in the factory. Well only part of it actually, because the site is in fact too big to visit in detail in one day.

Galleries: 1st shoot - 2nd shoot

On a trip trough the Liege area, we came across this abandoned castle. We saw the towers through the treeline from the distance and it looked really promising. But unfortunately it had been in decay for quite some time. Add the odd fire now and then...

Chateau de Seraing

I visited the Centrale Thermique building at the Terre Rouge site during last winter. It was a great site, the pipe structures on the inside are really special, it resembles a giant metallic spagetti sometimes. In a certain way it was quite an urbex photographer’s heaven so I put quite some images online:

Go directly to the gallery

Placed some images online from the Cemetery in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Go directly to the gallery

Yes!
Another urbex update: visited Steel plant Forges de Clabecq. Half of this factory is now ready for demolition, part of it is already gone as you will notice from some images. This plant was not abandoned that long ago. There is still electricity and running water at some locations!
Update added to the section Urban Exploration Belgium.

Or go directly to the gallery.

I took these images on a trip to Duisburg somewhere beginning 2008. Finally I’ve put them online. Forgot I had these lying around.

-> Go to the gallery

I don’t know the name of this place. We passed by it while visiting the Chateau Heers mentioned below.
It was definitely not empty and there was a dog barking behind the doors of one of the adjacent buildings, a point at which I decided probably not to attempt to go in. Well urbex is all good and well, but breaking and entering is another thing... so just some impressions of the outside of the place which I added to the Heers gallery. [didn’t feel it was enough to warrant it’s own gallery]

the unkown, in use chateau -> images at the back

Another one I had lying in the closet...
Some months ago I was looking for a castle in decay, it was also aired on TV for the program Jambers a while back. The owners still live there. Sad story actually: about a wealthy family gone bankrupt. Problems started for them back during one [or both] of the WWO’s and the Germans confiscated most of their properties back in Poland.

Found the castle and also met the inhabitants! They were friendly enough to let us in and take some pictures but only in the courtyard. I did take some pictures from inside a hallway but actually they were pretty crappy so I didn’t put them online. Not many pictures then and mostly from the outside. Besides the front port, you can’t get in... Piss ‘em off and they’ll sure call the cops!

Some impressions though [go to the gallery]

After some radio silence, I thought this would be an appropriate update: an empty radio station from the early 1920’s in Holland also known as Radio Kootwijk.
Unfortunately I was not able to take any pictures from the inside, although that probably would be worthwile... The outside however also provided a nice view. Completely located in the middle of nowhere. Not many pictures, but nice ones from the main tower IMO.

Go to the gallery.

Found this site when doodling on the Internet: http://ellisislandghosts.com/
Urbex photography with a professional touch to it... nice.
[it certainly does help when the place you're visiting has this rich and "loaded" history as this one.

Proof that Beringen Coalmine is a dangerous place to wander about... I guess we don't need it anymore. Over time more and more news bulletins mention people falling through ceilings etc... whether they be urbex photographers or just plain old copper thieves.

Amazing, at last a new update. I managed to find some time to put this tidbit online. We visited Baviere a while ago, can't exactly remember the date but it was a sunny afternoon for sure [as you will see in the pictures]. We were let in by the friendly people living there and we had company from their dog all the time. You see him in one of the images. I was always afraid he would lift his leg against my tripod
go directly to it : Baviere Hospital

It's a cemetery already visited several times by other urbexers and afficionado's of the genre. It was a real pleasure taking pictures here because of the serene atmosphere there. The light on one side of this long row of forgotten automobile dreams is filtered through tall pine trees which give the lighting a specific photographic quality. Furthermore it's quiet and calm and I also have no idea if there is an owner of this place. Probably there is, I don't think we have much "unclaimed" land here in Belgium. But considering its location on top of a slope surrounded by trees and bushes it might very well be there still for years and years to come.

enjoy

On my first trip over there my friend Tom accompanied me. Since he is living in Berlin, it was one of those rare occasions when the man was in Belgium. I have also put his pictures online, you can find them here.

I recently found out by reading a book from Friedl' Lesage that famous Flemish defence Litigator Jef Vermassen has his office in a restaurated part of the castle [well a separated 'portiers huis' actually but it was part of the castle domain. Jef Vermassen is an art lover and he mentions he doesn't want to be around the office the day they start with the official destruction. We all can sympathise with that can't we?

Just a tidbit for those of you who didn't know...

When on a short vacation in Brittany France, I passed by the site of Etel where a few old shipwrecks are lying alongside the shore of the river. I believe many photographers who know about the place have visited already because it sure allows for some fantastic images. For this session I opted mostly for the black and white variants because of artistical beauty with the subject.

View the gallery

Together with the site redesign some new Urban sites have made it online, these were a few places I visited during the last half of 2005 and beginning 2006.

You'll find the following new sites in the Urban section:

* La Chartreuse
* Volklinger Hutte [Germany]
* Anco
* Beeringen Charbonnages
* Wintercircus Gent
* Cinema Theatre Variete Jumet
* SFPO Boulogne Sur Mer [France]
* EDF Pont Sur Sambre [France]
* Another Car Graveyard
* Trainstation Montzen