Photos

Εγκατάλειψη

Abandoned places, primarily in Greece. Εγκατάλειψη is the Greek word for dereliction.

photography abandoned greece
The old fertilizer factory in Drapetsona
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According to local folklore, these caves served as prisons for monks who behaved...erm... less than monastically.
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Meteora boasts the oldest evidence of construction in the world - a wall at the mouth of the Theopetra cave dating back some 23000 years. This wall is certainly a lot younger, but it serves the same purpose: Keeping the weather out.
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This is Ropoto, a village that started sliding down its mountain when the drainage system for rainwater stopped working. Of the several sunken houses I had seen in older pictures, only two remain. Ropoto is - on the whole - back from the dead and inhabited once more.
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The church in Ropoto stands at a 16° angle. I am still surprised at how intact it is - outside and inside, hardly any damage is noticeable.
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A window to the OSE transmission tower in the distance
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On the way to Delphi, I saw a train in a field. You know I couldn't just drive past...
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This train hasn't been going anywhere for a while.
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With some imagination, you can still make out the labelling on the waggons.
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More impromptu stops on the way to Delphi - this looks like an old olive oil mill.
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And another lost place - a World War II bunker by the looks of it. It was difficult to get in, but ultimately disappointing. Apart from an old tyre and some graffiti, it was completely barren.
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This must be a recent derelict. My in-car GPS still shows it as an active petrol station, and the concourse as well as the station building are completely free of graffiti. Even the fridges are still in place. Weirdest of all, there's still electricity. I assume it comes from the field of solar panels behind the station.
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Behind the petrol station, there's a woodworking shop — and what looks like it could have been an automobile workshop. No idea what this machine does, but it's safe to say it doesn't anymore.
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One of the several derelict steam engines at Myloi
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The rails leaving Myloi station quickly disappear in the undergrowth.
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Myloi station. Don't bother waiting for the next train.
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The diesel engine at Myloi
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The NIEN hospital is situated in a large park, more like a large forest. On the map, I noticed another hospital in the same park, labelled as an active hospital. A closer look at the aerial photos gave me some indications that this building could be abandoned as well. So, a couple of weeks later, I ventured into the forest behind NIEN. After scaling walls and finding holes in chainlink fences, I found...
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...the branch of the Athens General Hospital "Sismanogleio", formerly "Papadimitriou". Obviously abandoned, but less obviously so than NIEN. Certain evidence on site leads me to assume that this hospital was active until the 21st century.
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The back of the hospital - noticeably less graffiti than at NIEN
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The front entrance
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This hospital is in much better shape than the others I've visited. Several signposts, as here to "blood donation", are still up.
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The notes on how to measure blood toxins are still up — next to a handwritten passive-aggressive no-smoking-sign. Every sign, they say, has a history...
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An autoclave
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Several rooms in the hospital look like somebody actually swept them recently. This room — the old pharmacy, by the looks of it — had prescriptions and export bills for pharmaceuticals in a pile on the floor.
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I assume this was the morgue — and I hope the grating on the walls is to keep people out...
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It looks like this hospital was being extended at the same time it went derelict. This is one floor of a whole new wing in construction.
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One room was completely filled with that type of graffiti. Must have taken somebody quite a while.
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The floodlights in the operating theatre are still up.
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"Entrance to outpatient clinics"
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A long abandoned car in a nearby parking lot. The ratio between still active cars and derelicts in there was about 1:1.
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I thought this was the old "Columbia" record factory - although the building was completely empty. I realised after that columbia is next door - but apparently just as empty.
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Some derelicts in Pyrgos station
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The building next to the fertilizer factory still has the hulk of a large diesel generator in it...
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...but not much else.
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Normal sized truck in the middle for size reference
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This workshop at an old quarry seems untouched. I managed to get in because the welding points with which the door was welded shut had rusted through... Inside, there's still an unused calendar from 2001 - of the type that, I assume, were typical at places like this.
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In another corner, supplies are still stacked on shelves.
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Everything neatly turned off, as it should be.
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More fertilizer factory impressions
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The button factory "Three Stars" in Patissia
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One of the abandoned quarries in Dionysos still has a very large stock of cut marble plates and blocks.
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In the hotel "Le Grand Chalet" in Kifissia. Room service, please!
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