Abandoned: Maison Kirsch

A quaint abandoned farmhouse in Luxembourg.

Abandoned: Italy

Italy is a beautiful country and is home to some beautiful abandoned places.

In May/June 2015 I went on a tour of Italy to photograph some abandoned places. Basically in four days we managed to visit 27 locations. From abandoned hospitals to deserted villas there was so much to see. The first full day was spent driving around Lake Maggoire, surrounded by tree filled mountains, it was a beautiful start to the trip. We finally end our day in Vercelli.

The next day we head further South taking in a hospital, a theatre and a number of abandoned villas and finish our day in Turin, we end up in a hotel that is basically in the middle of the ghetto, large blocks of residential flats with a lot of activity.

A big day today, Manincomio Di R. A beautiful asylum which was a major goal of the trip. It all goes wrong and a guardian knows why we are there, "no photo, no photo". We were only walking past. This is a major setback and there was a few expletives said to ourselves as we walked on. Not to be deterred we wonder around to the other side of this large abandoned asylum and manage to find another access point and we are quickly inside. It was clearly worth the perseverance and spent a number of hours enjoying this beautiful building. We leave a happy bunch and probably more expletives were said as we left here, this time in joy. We finally take a long drive up in to the mountains to visit an abandoned college which houses a beautiful modern chapel. After some time here another long drive to the coast to my personal main goal of the trip, Ospedale Psichiatrico Di Q. A beautiful asylum with the finest stone staircase. After some climbing one of us managed to gain access and let the rest of us in easily. It was early evening by now and the light was perfect, the building was perfect, the whole day could not of gone better. We even grabbed a few shots of the entrance to the live asylum on the same sight. We leave the coast and head up into the mountains for a final night in Italy.

We wake up at the crack of dawn to make the most of our final day, it doesn't start well we are locked in the village. What the hell, everyone is still in bed. We are left with one option, sound the horn and wake up the whole village. Finally we are set free and on our way to a monastery then a small sanatorium in the mountains and finally Palace Casino, a popular abandoned mansion set in beautiful parklands. We arrive back to the car and choose a random hospital on the sat nav. It turns out to be mostly a live site but one building is left abandoned. Luckily it houses a beautiful staircase and a few random bits left behind. We have no idea where it even was but it was a pleasant surprise to finish off the trip.

Big thanks to Justin from As The Light Slowly Fades and Masa of Masa Kores Photography for an awesome few days.

So I made this as it turns out two years later I have just returned from another trip to Italy. Its strange how it has worked out to be exactly two years later.

Below are all the locations visited on this trip in 2015 go check some of them out. Just to whet the appetite of the new locations I recently visited.

 

Thanks for looking let me know your views below.