54 Still Beautiful Abandoned Buildings around the World ...

I came across some pictures of abandoned buildings and immediately saw why photographers are attracted to places long since left by their residents. I never imagined abandoned buildings could be so beautiful.

1. Water Wheel, Cordoba, Spain

Water Wheel, Cordoba, Spain Via Water wheel

Some industrial abandoned buildings simply outlive their usefulness as modern technology replaces their function.

2. Chateau Jbb, France

Chateau Jbb, France Via Chateau Jbb

Glorious staircase.

3. Rustic

Rustic Via beautiful designs

Imagine the stories this building could tell.

4. Abandoned Church

Abandoned Church Via 9 Photos of Abandoned Cities ...

The altar once served by many is now demolished.

5. Frozen in Time

Frozen in Time Via flickr.com

Once a home, now empty and decaying.

6. Wyndcliffe Rhinebeck, New York

Wyndcliffe Rhinebeck, New York Via Rhinebeck

This was once a huge family home.

7. Staircase

Via The Chateau Staircase

This puts me in mind of the staircase in the Von Trapp family mansion in The Sound of Music

8. Mansion in Egypt

Mansion in Egypt Via Archived Report - Abandoned Mansion, ...

Just love the way the staircase splits into different directions.

9. Grand

Grand Via Family life frozen in time: ...

Imagine how magnificent this once was. The decorated ceiling gives a clue.

10. Manoir À La Verrière, France

Manoir À La Verrière, France Via *Rococo Revisited

Was this once a ballroom or just a grand salon, do you think?

11. Water Tower, Lincolnshire, England

Water Tower, Lincolnshire, England Via Maltings 'S'.."Elegance Unravelling"

Abandoned industrial buildings can be just as beautiful as domestic ones.

12. Piano

Piano Via hotel ballroom

The piano was probably once the focus of entertainment at grand soirées.

13. Sweeping Staircase

Sweeping Staircase Via Chandelier

It amazes me that people don't enter places like this to rip out features such as that magnificent light fitting.

14. Abandoned Monastery, Belgium

Abandoned Monastery, Belgium Via St Hilarius old monastery 1

I wonder where all the monks went?

15. Cointe Observatory, Liège, Belgium

Cointe Observatory, Liège, Belgium Via The Loneliness of the Long-Abandoned ...

Built 1882, abandoned 2002.

16. Lillesden School for Girls, Kent, England

Lillesden School for Girls, Kent, England Via Archived Report - Lillesden School ...

This conservatory once rang with the sound of children's voices.

17. Kings Theater, New York

Kings Theater, New York Via 9 Photos of Abandoned Cities ...

Brooklyn's Kings Theater was once one of the country's grandest movie theaters. Opened on Flatbush Ave in 1929 as one of five "Loew's Wonder Theaters" in New York, it closed in 1977 and has been abandoned ever since.

18. Bar at Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel, Liberty

Bar at Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel, Liberty Via 9 Photos of Abandoned Cities ...

Can you see the people lined up at the bar, enjoying a drink, sharing stories, making new friends and memories?

19. How Sad. Think of the Love That Must Have Gone into Designing and Building This Home

How Sad. Think of the Love That Must Have Gone into Designing and Building This Home Via Unique Home Architecture - Incredible ...

A lot of effort to design and build. A home to a family/families and all their stories. And all no more.

20. Lenoir County, North Carolina

Lenoir County, North Carolina Via The Grand Abandonment: Lenoir County, ...

Where abandoned by humans, nature finds a home.

21. Manor House, England

Manor House, England Via Abandoned - Abandoned manor house, ...

A poignant tale of abandonment. Why leave a picture of children and a pram? There's a story there!

22. Northampton County, North Carolina

Via Northampton County, North Carolina Scenes

I was particularly drawn to this abandoned plantation house because I live in Northampton, UK.

23. The Sauer Castle in Kansas City, Kansas

The Sauer Castle in Kansas City, Kansas Via Sauer's Castle

Many abandoned buildings are associated with the paranormal. Even if you don't believe in such stuff, it still adds to the spookiness.

24. Howey Mansion, Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida

Howey Mansion, Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida Via Abandoned Howey Mansion in Howey-In-The-Hills ...

Built in 1925, 20 rooms, 8,800 square feet - now all gone to wrack and ruin.

25. Maison Heinen, Luxembourg

Maison Heinen, Luxembourg Via 9 Photos of Abandoned Cities ...

I'm fascinated by the ceramic tiles. I've never seen them in this sort of setting before - they're normally the realm of bathrooms, kitchens and floors. Other pictures show the tiles continue along the landing walls.

26. Uptown Theatre, Chicago

Uptown Theatre, Chicago Via eric holubow: urban exploration photographer ...

The Uptown is the largest theater in Chicago, and it boasts 4,381 seats. Its interior volume is said to be larger than any other movie palace in the US, bigger even than Radio City Music Hall. The huge theater has an ornate five story entrance lobby with an eight story façade. It's been left unused since 1981.

27. Maison Lily, France

Maison Lily, France Via Maison Lilly

Although first mentions date back to the 15th century, little history is known of this magnificent mansion near the border with Monaco.

28. Grand Synagogue in Constanta, Romania

Grand Synagogue in Constanta, Romania Via Picasa Web Albums - Redactia ...

Built in 1912. Long abandoned and little chance of it ever being returned to original use as there are only around 50 Jewish people living in Constanta now.

29. Empty Theater

Empty Theater Via Secret Cities: Capturing Hidden Abandoned ...

What sights and sounds must the walls have experienced.

30. Wooden House, Russia

Wooden House, Russia Via Abandoned Russian Village | English ...

Among the many, many abandoned villages across Russia, there are some wonderful examples of traditional architecture.

31. Ceiling and Floor

Ceiling and Floor Via Abandoned Buildings by Matthias Haker ...

Imagine how much it would cost today to build a house with that ceiling and a real wood parquet floor.

32. Quebec, Canada

Quebec, Canada Via Hauntingly beautiful abandoned old house

Still beautiful and not yet fallen into a bad state of disrepair.

33. Fredericksburg, Virginia

Fredericksburg, Virginia Via 500px.com

What an amazing structure. Bags the room at the top. A room with a view.

34. "Pew with a View"

"Pew with a View" Via Pew with a View

The light coming in through the stained glass is amazing.

35. Doorway

Doorway Via we were all part of ...

I wonder where it's leading to.

36. Church in Gary, Indiana

Church in Gary, Indiana Via Abandoned Church

Its congregation once numbered 3,000 souls.

37. Stained Glass Window

Stained Glass Window Via Sit down and enjoy the ...

I just love the radiator under the window. So incongruous.

38. Abandoned Palace, Poland

Abandoned Palace, Poland Via Places to explore

Staircases like this are pretty scary even when not in abandoned Polish palaces.

39. Abandoned Villa in Italy

Abandoned Villa in Italy Via Beauty in Decay

The grandiose nature of the paintings on the ceiling and walls seems to have been echoed in the floor, but as it's now covered with the dust of time, it's hard to tell.

40. Francis Lee Smith's Folly

Francis Lee Smith's Folly Via Gone with the whimsy: Smith ...

Built single-handedly as a family home over 12 years by an engineer, the house on the hill also killed its builder. Frances Lee Smith died falling from a balcony on the pagoda-style roof. It stands abandoned on a hill in Wapiti Valley, Wyoming.

41. Hafodunos Hall, Wales

Hafodunos Hall, Wales Via Deserted Places: Hafodunos Hall, an ...

Once a family country seat and designed by renowned British architect George Gilbert Scott, Hafodunos Hall has been a nursing home and a girl's school. It is now being restored.

42. Rusting Steelworks

Rusting Steelworks Via Abandoned America: Photographer captures haunting ...

Once the workplace of thousands of men, now a study of urban decay and industrial decline.

43. "the Smallpox Hospital," Roosevelt Island, New York

"the Smallpox Hospital," Roosevelt Island, New York Via The Smallpox Hospital

44. Chateau Des Singes, Normandy, France

Chateau Des Singes, Normandy, France Via les escaliers ds

The Chateau de Singes (Castle of Monkeys) is also known as the Chateau la Folie (Chateau of Folly) but is really the Château à Cahaignes (Castle Cahaignes). We only know it was built in the 17th century and abandoned in 1976. Why the Castle of Monkeys? No one knows!