The Bridge of Angels [Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Poland]

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When you’re in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, it’s worth to look up for one beautiful sight here—the Bridge of Angels. It’s not the first bridge at this place—there had already been a few other ones there, but were damaged by the flood. The current one was built in 1903-1910 and is decorated with stone statues of archangel Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and guardian angel which make this at first sight ordinary bride look really impressive.

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Abandoned Chapels on the Holy Mountain [Lubawka, Poland]

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Nothing more misleading than locals in Lubawka, a small Polish town, saying that you won’t see anything interesting on the Holy Mountain situated nearby when you ask them how to get there. In fact this place is really worth to see if you’re looking for abandoned sacral places, as you can find here a few beautiful abandoned chapels and devastated sculptures of the former Way of the Cross. Despite the fact that the chapels are in a very bad conditions and the sculptures are almost completely destroyed, they all taken together still create a mystical atmosphere on the mountain. You can feel it going up the path, entering the chapels you find on the way and enjoying the silence in their emptiness where only the Saints and an angel look at you from the frescos reminding how great this place was in the past.

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A Creepy Garden [Kamienna Góra, Poland]

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When you walk along one the streets of Kamienna Góra (Poland) and look around carefully, you can find an extraordinary and a bit creepy garden near one of the houses surrounding the street. The thing which catches your attention passing through this place is its ‘inhabitants’—old garden sculptures and toys, including a few ducks, once bright-colored gnomes, a sad Teddy bear and the creepiest one—a doll with a piece of wood instead of the body.

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An Abandoned Palace in Kościelniki [Kraków, Poland]

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Passing through Kościelniki (a former village, currently a part of Kraków) it’s worth to have a look on an abandoned palace surrounded by a huge park. Now decaying, once it was a really great and beautiful place.
The palace was built at the beginning of XVIII century by Stefan Morstin, the owner of the property in Kościelniki. There were a few more improvements later changing even its original style from Baroque to Clasicism. The palace also changed a few owners. The last ones owning it were Wodzicki family who, forced by the coming Red Army, decided to leave the property. Soviet soldiers staying in the palace for a few months devastated it and since then its situation has been getting worse and worse. Today the palace belongs to the Nowina Konopek family, according to the information on the official website of Kościelniki, it’s being renovated.

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The Płaszów Locomotive Depot [Kraków, Poland]

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When you’re looking for abandoned railway places in Kraków, it’s definitely worth to visit Płaszów Locomotive Depot. It was built in 1927 as a complex of office and technical buildings. Despite being in use (trains are still repaired here), the depot is known as a great abandoned railway site because of old trains here. Huge rusting locomotives and carriages as well as the territory around create unusual and a bit creepy atmosphere which make this place popular with urban explorers and photographers.

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The House of Hanging Dolls [Rváčov, Czech Republic]

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When you’re passing through Rváčov (Czech Republic), you’ll definitely see a strange house at the end of the village. The first thing which attracts your attention is a huge tree with plenty of dolls hanged on its branches. Going further you’ll see a house with, again, hundreds of dolls and other toys in front of it. Most of them are old and dirty, covered with dust, many are naked, with some parts as legs or hands missing. The eerie toys create an incredibly spooky atmosphere which you can’t forget even long time after leaving this place, as well as all the creepiness there makes you wonder, who and why is keeping such unusual collection?

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The Abandoned Saint George’s Church [Luková, Czech Republic]

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When you’re passing through the north-western Bohemia region of the Czech Republic it’s definitely worth to visit the abandoned Saint George’s church in a small village Luková. Built in XVI century, it initially fell into disrepair in 1968 after the roof collapsed during a funeral service. Convinced that this was a curse, locals abandoned it preferring to carry out sermons and masses outside.
The church continued falling into ruin, but luckilly the way to rescue it was found—local artist Jakub Hadrava designed a collection of spooky ‘ghosts’ that line pews and aisles of the church. Since the art installation was created, the thousands of visitors from the whole world have come to visit the church and voluntary donations they leave help to restore this beautiful old church to what it once was.

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Abandoned Stone Mills [Miękinia, Poland]

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There’s an interesting industrial site hiding in Miękinia—abandoned stone mills spread in a local forest. It’s quite a huge place consisting of a few buildings which were built at the beginning of 60’s of XX century for the usage of a nearby porphyre quarry. The stone mills were closed down in 1975—all machines were moved from here to other quarry and the buildings became abandoned which made them turning into an impressive ruins.

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The Abandoned Potocki Palace [Krzeszowice, Poland]

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The great abandoned Potocki Palace surrounded by a huge park is definitely one of the most impressive places in Krzeszowice—a small town near Kraków where it’s situated. The palace was built in the middle of XIX century, not counting some later improvements. The Potocki family moved here in 1862 and had been owning the palace until World War II, when it became a summer residence of the General-Governor Hans Frank. After the war the palace was nationalised and turned to a special purpose school and education center, later also a care facility for children and youth. At the same time the process of the destruction of the palace started—affected by the lack of heating and moisture, the building started getting into the worse and worse conditions and now it has already been a few dozen years as it’s abandoned. Despite this fact, today the palace and the park surrounding is still an impressive place often visited by locals and is really worth to see if by some reason you are in Krzeszowice.

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