urban exploration

Schöneberg is one of my favorite districts to walk around aimlessly because there is always a surprise around the corner. On one of my most recent walks there, I manage to discover something that I remember reading about in the past but never manage to see one in real life. But I’m not talking about Bigfoot or anything like that. I’m talking about the Kunstautomat on Crellerstrasse.

Buying Small Pieces of Art at the Kunstautomat in Schöneberg

Berlin (category)
4 min read
22/07/202016/02/2024

Checkpoint Bravo was the name of one of three Allied checkpoints used by the United States in the divided Germany and Berlin during the years after the Second World War and the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Before 1969, this Checkpoint could be found on a bridge over the Teltow Canal. Still, it was moved to a different location called Albrechts Teerofen. In here, we will be talking about the original and abandoned Checkpoint Bravo.

Checkpoint Bravo and the Teltow Canal Bridge in Dreilinden

Berlin (category), Urbex (category)
7 min read
08/07/202031/08/2024

If you ever walked around Alexanderplatz, Altes Stadthaus, and the Alexa shopping mall, you have seen the ruins of a church. That is the Franziskaner-Klosterkirche, founded in 1250 and destroyed by Allied bombing in April 1945, in the last days of the Second World War.

Franziskaner-Klosterkirche: A Visit to the Ruined Church next to Alexanderplatz

Berlin (category)
6 min read
10/06/202014/10/2020

My goal for Easter Sunday was to fly my drone over Blub and capture how it looks like from the sky. But, once I got closer to the building, I realized that it would be better to just enter the place. The holes on the fences are more prominent than before, and there were lots of people inside, taking pictures of the abandoned buildings and sunbathing during that lazy afternoon.

Lost Paradise: The Rise and Fall of Blub Berlin

Urbex (category)
8 min read
16/04/202004/12/2024

It doesn’t look like much, but the building of the Yugoslav Ministry of Defence was considered to be a masterpiece of post-war architecture. Today, the building is better known as one of the most famous ruins of Yugoslavian history, and we went there to take a look at this vital piece of recent history.

Ruins of Yugoslavian Army Headquarters

Belgrade (category), Serbia (category)
6 min read
19/03/202018/11/2025

Today, in 2019, there are still plans to restore parts of it and even open a new pier in the original location. But all these plans were seen to be unrealistic by the West Pier Trust. But you can still go to the beach and sit between the last columns of the pier and watch the burnt down ruins of the West Pier in the distance. They don’t look that far, but, at the same time, they feel like they are a million miles away.

The Ruined West Pier in Brighton

Brighton (category)
6 min read
15/09/201921/12/2023

The Spreepark is an abandoned amusement park that has been laying abandoned close to the heart of Berlin for, at least, 15 years. When you enter the park and start walking around, you can see the remnants of the previous decades, and this is why this location is so unusual for people. From all the urban explorers that want to capture its decay to the hipsters that want to photograph something that looks cool.

The Abandoned SpreePark in Berlin

Berlin (category), Urbex (category)
8 min read
19/08/201904/02/2025

Hiding in plain sight, in the middle of El Raval, there is a small wooden door that was once attached to the Provincial Home for Maternity and Foundlings of Barcelona. Nowadays, that small round door looks more like a decoration than anything else, but that is the infamous Barcelona's baby drop-off. And, when we were in Barcelona, we had to visit the location and take pictures of it.

Barcelona’s Baby Drop-off in El Raval

Barcelona (category)
3 min read
17/07/201907/05/2024

Close to the center of Lviv, there is a makeshift museum of sorts. This unlikely tourist spot can be found on a typical urban courtyard, but this is far from ordinary. The Yard of Lost Toys in Lviv is an unbelievable exhibition and could be described as the toys the world left behind.

The Yard of Lost Toys in Lviv

Lviv (category), Ukraine (category)
5 min read
18/12/201821/12/2023

Les Espaces d’Abraxas in Noisy-le-Grand was built between 1978 and 1984 as an entry into the new city of Marne-la-Vallée. Ricardo Bofill wanted to create a social housing project that would mix function regarding the human scale and the aesthetics of public spaces.

Postmodernist Architecture in Noisy-le-Grand: Science Fiction in the Suburbs of Paris

Paris (category)
7 min read
22/11/201819/01/2025

It’s 2018, and there are still some Lenin statues left around Germany. We visited one of these statues in Berlin, and we continue looking for them around the country. One day we got lucky, and we managed to find two of them on the same day. That blessed day was back in October 2016 when we took our bikes north and went to Fürstenberg to do some urban exploration.

Hunting Down Lenin Statues in Fürstenberg

Urbex (category)
6 min read
14/09/201810/12/2023

Exploring the Abandoned Flugplatz Rangsdorf Close to Berlin

Urbex (category)
6 min read
29/07/201821/02/2025

Flugplatz Brand: Abandoned Barracks and Bunkers Close to Berlin

Urbex (category)
7 min read
30/04/201818/02/2024

Back in 1999, local historian Christian Bormann found something that it wasn’t supposed to be lost. Nine years after demolition began, he found a piece of the Berlin Wall, somehow forgotten in the woods between a train station and a supermarket. More than 80 meters of the original Berlin Wall, built in 1961, is standing there, some with the V-shaped brackets that once had barbed wire on it. It’s hard to believe that something with this historical importance was lost and this is why we went there to see it with our own eyes.

The Newly Found Original Berlin Wall that was lost in the woods in Schonholz

Berlin (category)
5 min read
05/02/201823/05/2024

I was in Kaliningrad in the last days of October 2017, and the House of Soviets caught my attention since I arrived in the city. The building can be found in the middle of the central square of Kaliningrad, close to where the Königsberg Castle used to be but not quite there. The House of Soviets was built over the moat of the castle, and you can clearly see this in the following picture. There you can look at the ruins of the castle and the abandoned building in the back.

The Monster of Kaliningrad: The Story of the House of Soviets

Kaliningrad (category), Russia (category)
7 min read
22/11/201730/10/2024

Far away from the tourists the flock Berlin there is a neighborhood called Kaulsdorf, and it’s there that you will find the lonely hippo known as Knautschke after a famous hippo that was born in the Berlin Zoo back in 1943. Knautschke has the entire Freibad Wernersee to himself but, when I was there, I didn’t see he enjoying much of it. Maybe it was cold; maybe it was the fact that the pool was frozen. Maybe he was just waiting for a time where he would have company, but this will, probably, never happen.

Freibad Wernersee: The Abandoned Pool where a Hippo rests forever

Berlin (category), Urbex (category)
6 min read
23/08/201705/02/2024

Like I said before, We Will Forget Soon is a fantastic book that documents a part of German history that most people don’t like to talk about but that needs to be told. Dario-Jacopo Laganá and Stefano Corso did a fantastic job with their book, and I believe that everybody that has some interest in this part of history needs to have this on their bookshelf.

We Will Forget Soon: An Interview with Dario-Jacopo Laganá

Berlin (category), Interviews (category)
11 min read
08/05/201722/02/2024

The Soviet Union had a strange obsession with statues. But the Soviet Union is gone for a long time now and where have all these statues gone? I not sure about most of them but I manage to find some of them in what could be described as a Soviet Statue Graveyard in Tallinn. And I’m here to share with you what I saw there.

Our Visit to the Soviet Statue Graveyard behind the Estonian History Museum

Estonia (category), Tallinn (category)
5 min read
26/01/201724/01/2024

The abandoned boat in the Spree River has a name, even though I couldn’t find one when Fotostrasse visited the place back in July 2016. The boat is called MS Dr. Ingrid Wengler. It was named after the owner’s true love, a surgeon at the Dreifaltigkeits-Hospital in Lippstadt. She died in 1979 and she left a hole that never closed. This is why Franz Günther van de Lücht, the owner of the abandoned boat, says about his loss. But the fact that the boat that carries her name is stuck between the Molecule Man sculpture and Badeschiff leaves another one.

A Visit to an Abandoned Boat in the Spree River

Berlin (category), Urbex (category)
7 min read
11/11/201621/12/2023

No swimming is allowed at the Freibad Lichtenberg since it was closed down in the late 1980’s. Some say it was the end of the Berlin Wall but who knows for sure? Today you can visit it and think about better times for this abandoned pool in the middle of Lichtenberg.

The Abandoned Freibad Lichtenberg Pool is gone

Berlin (category), Urbex (category)
4 min read
31/07/201613/05/2024

There are no trains at the Güterbahnhof Pankow-Heinersdorf but they used to come here a lot before somebody figured out how to make them drive in the other direction. Yes, this place was built to allow trains to go the other direction and it is one of the only remaining buildings with this history in Germany.

Exploring the abandoned Güterbahnhof Pankow-Heinersdorf

Berlin (category), Urbex (category)
4 min read
29/04/201619/02/2025