Lost Places / Urbex Europe - by Peter Untermaierhofer

Lost Places / Urbex Europe - by Peter Untermaierhofer 🚸 Follow my travels to abandoned places in europe
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⚠️ urbex isn't just a hobby - it's a way of life!

Tabernacolo della minieraHidden behind glass and old wooden frames stands the mechanical heart of the mine — almost like...
16/08/2026

Tabernacolo della miniera

Hidden behind glass and old wooden frames stands the mechanical heart of the mine — almost like a relic preserved inside its own industrial shrine.

That is where the title Tabernacolo della miniera comes from: the “tabernacle of the mine”. Not in a religious sense, but as a reference to the almost sacred importance of machinery like this. Without the engines, winding systems and countless mechanical components above ground, nothing moved below it.

Mining has shaped Sardinia for thousands of years. Mineral resources were already being exploited in prehistoric times, followed by the Nuragic period and later the Punic and Roman eras. Lead and silver became particularly important, and mining continued under the Pisans during the Middle Ages. From the middle of the 19th century, industrial mining expanded enormously, with more than 250 concessions eventually spread across the island.

For generations, entire communities grew around mines extracting lead, zinc, silver, copper and other minerals. Shafts, processing plants, workers’ settlements and railways transformed parts of the Sardinian landscape. Some mines employed more than a thousand workers at their peak.

By the second half of the 20th century, falling mineral prices, exhausted deposits and rising operating costs pushed much of the industry into decline. Many mines eventually closed, leaving behind an enormous industrial heritage of machinery, tunnels and buildings.

Today this machinery no longer drives anything underground. It remains where it once belonged, surrounded by broken glass, dust and empty rooms — the silent tabernacle of a mining era that shaped large parts of Sardinia.

15/08/2026

Broken Hearse

Two abandoned hearses stand in the corridor of a deserted monastery, as if they had been waiting for one final journey for decades.

The complex was abandoned after earthquake damage left deep cracks running through the masonry. Even here, the damage is impossible to miss. The vaulted ceiling is fractured, parts of the floor have collapsed, and a deep gap runs through the passage. Whether this place will ever be restored remains uncertain.

Above the hearses, old frescoes, painted medallions and inscriptions still cover large parts of the walls. Lower down, faint drawings can be seen in the plaster as well. Some of them look almost like old children’s drawings, simple figures and lines left behind beneath the much more elaborate religious decoration.

And then there are the carriages themselves. Dusty, damaged and long out of use, they still belong perfectly to this setting. Parked one behind the other beneath the vaulted ceiling, they feel like remains of the funeral rituals that once formed part of everyday life here.

Today they stand between rubble, cracks and creeping vegetation in a monastery that has long since fallen silent.

Passeggeri clandestiniThe bus has long since reached its final stop — but that does not mean it is empty.Inside this aba...
14/08/2026

Passeggeri clandestini

The bus has long since reached its final stop — but that does not mean it is empty.

Inside this abandoned bus at a deserted depot, new passengers have already begun to move in. Ivy creeps through broken windows and open doors, slowly spreading across the floor and into the old passenger compartment. At sunset, the whole scene almost feels as if the bus were still waiting for departure, even though it will probably never leave this place again under its own power.

One day, it may only make one final journey — to the scrapyard. Whether its silent green passengers will be removed before that happens is another question.

Or perhaps they were never meant to leave at all.

Maybe this is not just a shelter for stowaways, but the beginning of a quiet takeover. Because sooner or later, nature always returns — patiently, persistently, and without asking.

13/08/2026

Holiday at Home

Some places become important long before you ever photograph them. Sometimes they quietly accompany you for years, until one day you finally get to see what has been hidden behind their walls.

Around 2005, after an apprenticeship and a few years of working, I went back to school in my early twenties to earn my Fachabitur. On the way to school, I passed this old traditional inn in my home area almost every day. Years before I knew what urbex was, and even before photography became part of my life, something about the building already fascinated me. It simply became one of those places you keep noticing without really knowing why.

When I started exploring abandoned places around 2008/2009, I came back and looked through one of the windows, curious to finally get a glimpse inside. But at least part of the building was still inhabited. So the place remained closed to me, and over the years the idea of ever seeing its interior slowly faded into the background.

Then, in 2017, someone I had met through one of my exhibitions managed to establish contact with the owners while the property was being sold. More than a decade after I had first become curious about the building, I was finally able to enter it officially.

By then, of course, a lot had changed. I had already photographed far grander, more spectacular and more beautiful abandoned buildings across Europe. Had I walked through these rooms back in 2005, they probably would have impressed me much more.

But in the end, that hardly mattered.

What made this place special was not its architecture or its decay, but the years attached to it. It belonged to a time before photography, before urbex, before I could have known where all of this would eventually lead me. Walking through these rooms twelve years later felt less like discovering another lost place and more like returning to a small unfinished chapter of my own past — and finally being able to close it.

CĂşmplicesThis hall felt like a time capsule of automotive history. Beneath its corrugated roof stood dozens of forgotten...
12/08/2026

CĂşmplices

This hall felt like a time capsule of automotive history. Beneath its corrugated roof stood dozens of forgotten classics — rows of old Mercedes, unusual luxury cars, elaborate vintage hearses and even something resembling a light armoured vehicle. Everywhere, dust, rust and faded paint told of decades of silence.

And yet, out of all these remarkable vehicles, it was this pair that impressed me most.

On the left stands a Hudson, on the right a Cadillac — two late-1940s Americans parked so closely together that they feel less like separate cars and more like accomplices. Their worn fronts, dulled chrome and silent presence give them an almost human character, as if they had spent a lifetime side by side and ended up here together after one last journey.

In a garage full of automotive rarities, these two had the strongest presence of all. Not because they were the rarest, but because together they felt like a duo — two old companions, still keeping each other’s secrets.

If anyone knows the exact model variants, feel free to leave a comment.

09/08/2026

Divano rotondo del barone

At first glance, it is the decay that dominates this room. But behind the dust, collapsed upholstery and scattered remains lies the history of a house closely connected to Italian science.

The villa dates back to the early 17th century and originally served as the residence of a bishop. After several changes of ownership, it was acquired by the Pellati family around 1869.

Its best-known resident was Nicola Pellati, an engineer and geologist who became one of the leading figures of Italian geology in the late 19th century. After graduating in Turin in 1859, he joined the Royal Corps of Mines and continued his training at the École des Mines in Paris. He later became director of the Royal Geological Office and was heavily involved in the creation of the Geological Map of Italy. In 1881 he helped found the Italian Geological Society and became its president in 1900. That same year, the Society even held its summer meeting at the villa.

Much of this history remained physically present inside the house: family portraits, correspondence, furniture, an extensive library and even a collection of minerals and geological specimens connected to Pellati. The decay, however, continues. Since this photograph was taken, parts of the ceiling in this room have collapsed as well.

Fortunately, its story did not simply end with abandonment. A descendant of the family now looks after the villa with great dedication, trying to preserve what has survived. Visits have been made possible by appointment, with contributions helping towards its preservation. A proper restoration would require considerable investment, however, and unfortunately the necessary funds are currently missing. The long-term hope remains to save the building and its remarkable history.

So despite appearances, this is no longer simply a forgotten house. Much of what can still be seen today has survived because someone decided that its history was worth caring for.

Madonna bluThe damaged roof has opened this small former chapel to rain, moisture and vegetation, slowly covering its in...
06/08/2026

Madonna blu

The damaged roof has opened this small former chapel to rain, moisture and vegetation, slowly covering its interior in deep shades of green.

Located beside the village’s main church in northern Italy, the chapel had been left with an extraordinary amount of its religious interior still in place. Devotional paintings and statues remained on the walls, traces of frescoes survived beneath the decay, and even the votive candle stand still held its candles. At the centre, the blue Madonna continued to watch over a room gradually being reclaimed by the elements.

Water entering through the roof had spread through the masonry for years. Moss, mould and peeling plaster transformed the walls into a mixture of green, blue and faded ochre, while bricks and fragments of the ceiling accumulated between the wooden pews.

Despite the advanced decay, the chapel had not yet been stripped of its identity. Almost everything that once defined the room as a place of worship was still there — making it an exceptional encounter between abandonment, colour and religious devotion.

05/08/2026

Out of Control

Muted light, pale green panels and a control room that looked almost frozen in time — in 2014, this was industrial decay at its best.

At the time, the abandoned paper factory in the Black Forest was still something of an insider tip within a small and close-knit urbex scene. Large parts of the complex remained remarkably untouched. There was hardly any graffiti, the technical equipment was still in place, and the architecture of the old control room could be experienced without layers of paint covering every surface.

Today, the atmosphere has changed completely. Much of the complex is covered in tags and spray paint, and the quiet, authentic character visible in this photograph has largely disappeared.

Back then, however, the factory was a dream location for industrial photography: historic machinery, striking architecture and decades of industrial culture preserved beneath a layer of dust.

Durga(+ previously published images of this formerly abandoned château)A Hindu shrine, a decaying chapel and rooms fille...
04/08/2026

Durga

(+ previously published images of this formerly abandoned château)

A Hindu shrine, a decaying chapel and rooms filled with objects from distant journeys — the château seemed to contain several worlds beneath one roof.

Long before it became a private residence, the estate had been founded as a Cistercian abbey in the 12th century. The surviving residential building was constructed during the 18th century, while the small chapel nearby was altered repeatedly over the following centuries.

According to stories surrounding the abandoned property, its last resident was an artist who frequently travelled through Asia. Many of the Hindu figures, books, artworks and other objects found throughout the rooms were apparently collected during these journeys. They gave the château its urbex name: Château Shiva.

After its owner had left, the building remained vacant for years. Furniture, personal belongings and entire collections were left behind, gradually disappearing beneath dust and decay. The chapel suffered particularly badly, with parts of its masonry and interior already collapsing.

The period of abandonment has since ended. The château is now inhabited again and is no longer an urbex location — a rare case in which an apparently lost building has returned to everyday life.

03/08/2026

Chemistry Class

Dusty desks, forgotten experiment kits, and a room that still looks ready for the next lesson — except the students never came back.

This well-preserved chemistry classroom is located inside Secondary School No. 5 in Pripyat, within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Original chemistry kits, experimental setups, and other teaching materials have survived here, and behind the blackboard a small preparation room still held even more equipment.

Places like this were not only meant to educate children in general subjects. In Pripyat, where life was closely tied to the nuclear industry, schools also helped prepare the next generation for future technical roles connected to the nearby power plant. Even at a young age, there was already a strong emphasis on which direction students would eventually take.

Today, everything lies silent — dusty, yet largely untouched. Nothing may be removed from the exclusion zone, not only for legal reasons, but also because of a simple question: who would willingly take home a supposedly radioactive souvenir?

And yet, artefacts continue to disappear from the zone. Some likely end up in private collections as macabre keepsakes, while others are sold to people who care little about either the possible risk or the moral implications.

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