Explore #6 of ‘The Smell of Cheap Cologne Tour’ The final morning of our long weekender saw us hop yet another border, this time into France to explore the decaying remains of a power plant for a large coal mine … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #159: Power Plant Puits Simon II (PS II), France – February 2016
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Explore #160: Poterie DGM, France – February 2016
Explore #7 of ‘The Smell of Cheap Cologne Tour’ The final explore of our long weekend in Germany, Belgium and France was this long abandoned pottery, for which access was probably more memorable than the actual explore! History This region … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #161: Kraftwerk Plessa Powerplant (permission visit) – May 2016
Explore #1 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ In May I embarked on an epic week-long roadtrip through Eastern Germany and Poland in the great company of my usual exploring buddy James, his girlfriend Jade, and Dan of Mr Dan … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #162: Kraftwerk V – May 2016
Explore #2 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ After our permission visit of Kraftwerk Plessa it was time to get down to some ‘proper’ exploring at another huge decaying powerplant with an equally impressive control room… History This large coal-fired … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #163: Villa Guano aka Villa Miley, Germany – May 2016
Explore #3 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ Day Two saw a traditionally early start, and first up was this derelict manor house with rather lovely stairs, columns and capitals (as I think they’re called – feel free to correct … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #164: Villa Schöne Decke aka Villa HMG, Germany – May 2016
Explore #4 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ Next up on our tour of East Germany and Poland was a quick 30 minute visit to this abandoned old manor house with a distinctive painted ceiling. History Apparently the house was … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #165: Grand Hotel Atlantis, Germany – May 2016
Explore #5 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ The afternoon of this explore was one of my favourite times on our whole week-long tour through East Germany and Poland. The sun was shining, we’d already had a couple of successful … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #166: Salem Sanatorium, Germany – May 2016
Explore #6 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ Rounding off Day Two of our tour of East Germany and Poland was a quick visit to the remains of this former Sanatorium. Most of the rooms have been stripped out for … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #167: Biosphere Hotel, Germany – May 2016
Explore #7 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ First up on Day Three was this exceedingly decrepit and rather tastily decaying abandoned guesthouse, somewhere in the alpine East of Germany. I don’t know any specific history of this place, but … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #168: Ferienhotel Sachsenhof, Germany – May 2016
Explore #8 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ Next up in the gorgeous alpine landscape of Eastern Germany was this abandoned hotel which apparently never even opened… History (rewritten from here) Originally built in 1905 as a sanatorium, during the … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #169: Villa Symmetry, Germany – May 2016
Explore #9 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ Sorry for the long delay since my last post – it’s been a busy couple of months at work, home, and on holiday! I’ve got the next batch of reports from my … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #170: The Blue Morgue, Germany – May 2016
Explore #10 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ As we continued our journey East towards Poland we made a quick stopover at this abandoned morgue. As always, click on a photo to VIEW LARGE Thanks for popping in – more … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #171: VEB Strömungswerke, Germany – May 2016
Explore #11 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ Next stop on our roadtrip were some rather special stairs… History (translated, abridged and rewritten from here) VEB Strömungswerke was an East German ‘flow works’ manufacturer which designed and built jet engines … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #172: Ballhaus K, Germany – May 2016
Explore #12 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’ Our final stop in Germany before crossing over into Poland was this extremely decayed building – I’m afraid I don’t know anything about its history, but judging from its codename and the … Continue reading ![]()
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Explore #173: Palace of Columns, Poland – May 2016
I hope you all like my slightly newer and improved blog!
This is my first post in many months due to lots of other personal commitments and a need to upgrade this site to add more storage space. My ace brother in law has been an absolute superstar in doing all the technical behind the scenes work needed not only to make that happen, but also to give the site a revamp in the process – thanks Mark!
Right, down to business..
Explore #13 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’
Finally our road trip took us over the border into Poland. I was really looking forward to this leg of our journey as I’d never been to Poland before – I loved the place. Friendly locals (who drove like suicidal maniacs), glorious weather, good food, very cheap beer and great company – what more could you ask for!
Our first location in Polska was this beautiful abandoned mansion deep in the countryside. Whilst pretty stripped out the central atrium area was particularly impressive and photogenic, so we concentrated on that.
Click on any photo to open the shiny new lightbox feature and view LARGE! 
As we made our way through the overgrown gardens we caught our first glimpse of the palace…
…after finding a way inside we spent a few minutes appreciating the grand columns which gave the location its codename…
Looking up…
I then headed upstairs to the landing – I really liked the subtle pastel tones of this scene.
Before too long it was time to move on – I grabbed a couple more external shots and we hit the road.
Dzięki za szukanie
Adam
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Explore #174: Palac Bożków, Poland – May 2016
Explore #14 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’
The third and final explore of day four was a permission visit of this stunning crumbling palace in Southern Poland.
History (translated and rewritten from wiki and here.)
The estate in the village of Bożków was first established in around 1520 by the von Raueck family. After the Czech-Palatinate war the estate was confiscated and given to the emperor’s physician Caspar Jäschke von Eisenhut. It later passed to the Jesuits, who built the castle and greatly contributed to the construction of the church in its present form. After the childless death of the last male descendant the estate passed in 1780 to the son of one of his sisters, Count Antony Alexander von Magnis.
The palace in its present shape was built between 1787 and 1791, reconstructed on the foundations of the earlier building. In 1800 a park with artificial ruins, gravestones, and a forester’s lodge were established in grounds to the North, and in 1813 a lookout tower was built on nearby Grodziszcze Mountain.
In 1870 a huge fire broke out which almost entirely destroyed the palace. It was rebuilt by Count William von Magnis the following year, and in 1930 the facade was rebuilt in a Baroque-Classicist style.
[External photograph above used from wikipedia page – all original rights acknowledged]
After the Second World War the palace, as with many such estates, became the property of the State Treasury and for many years housed an agricultural school. Some refurbishment and conservation works were carried out in the mid 1970s, but the building’s decline into ruin and decay progressed towards the end of the twentieth century.
In 2005 the palace was sold for PLN2.5m (approx £415,000) to Irish investors Fenelon Group International. However, their plans to convert it into a luxurious hotel failed to materialise, and in 2010 it was sold to a private investor. Its future is currently uncertain.
Our Explore
James had managed to organise permission for us to visit and photograph the Palace. However, our allocated time now clashed with permission to visit another grand palace a couple of hours away, which had only been granted at the last minute whilst we were already on the road. We knew that there was no way that the other palace could be rearranged, so decided to turn up at Bożków a day early and hope do our best to charm our way in!
By the time we arrived in the village it was already late afternoon and the light was fading fast. Armed with bribes of booze and chocolates, and an explanatory note which we’d written and translated into Polish the night before, we knocked on the door of the caretaker’s house. It was answered by the caretaker’s wife, who informed us that he was asleep! Their small dog barked loudly and incessantly at us – things weren’t looking promising. The caretaker’s son then came to the door, and we did our best to explain why we wouldn’t be able to to visit the following day as planned.
“Rocky!” he yelled at the still-barking dog.
“Balboa?” I enquired?
He burst out laughing, nodded his head, and the whole mood lightened.
Eventually the caretaker was roused and we jumped back into our car and followed him on his quad bike down into the village to the Palace. Despite having been so rudely awakened he was very friendly, and after leading us safely past a very large guard dog he unlocked the front door, deactivated the alarm, and gave us a quick tour of the main areas.
Unfortunately by then it was dusk and the best of the light had long since gone. Whilst this made for a very atmospheric experience as our group split up and wandered through the dimly lit decaying rooms, it was far from ideal from a photography point of view and we only had time to grab a handful of shots.
Click on any photo to open the lightbox feature and view LARGE!
The lights were already shining brightly in the fading light…
Detail of the opulent wallpaper.
Whilst this room may look fairly light it really wasn’t – these shots were taken as soon as we arrived, and are 30-second exposures!
The grand carved wooden staircase was definitely one of the highlights – again a very long exposure was needed to capture this in near darkness.
After all too soon it was time to leave. We thanked our gracious host again, and headed off to find our lodgings for the night and some much needed beers.
Thanks for coming by.
Adam X
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Explore #175: Pałac w Krowiarkach aka Palac K, Poland – May 2016
Explore #15 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’
The fifth day of our German-Polish odyssey began with another permission visit to a once-grand palace whose future now seems precarious.
History (translated and rewritten from here and here).
In 1678 a wooden castle was erected by the Beess family in the village of Krowiarki, with ownership passing to Leopold Paczyński in 1690 and Graf Strachwitz in 1800.
In 1826 Ernest Joachim Strachwitz built a new brick palace on the site, and between 1852-77 he reconstructed the castle in a neo-Gothic style, with a park added.
In 1856 the palace passed through marriage into the Henckel von Donnersmarck family. In 1898 the Northern wooden part of the palace was rebuilt and expanded in the Art Nouveau style.
[The palace in 1908]
The palace was owned by Edgar Graf von Henckel-Gaschin from 1911, and by Hans Graf von Henckel-Gaschin from 1939 until March 1945, when he escaped from the advancing Red Army on a bicycle.
The palace survived the war intact, and from 1947 became a State-owned Children’s Home and Nursery. In 1963 it became a Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Hospital. In 1970 the hospital closed, and a period of decline and decay began. After privatisation in the 1990s the new owner did not repair or maintain the property, and in 2007 it was sold for €650,000 to a Luxembourg-owned company, which plans to renovate the site. Although some restoration works have been carried out, the future of the palace still seems uncertain one decade later.
[An artist’s impression of how the renovated palace might look].
Our Explore
We arrived early on a gloriously sunny spring morning and were met by the palace’s guardian. Our appointment had been arranged through a friend of a friend, and all seemed quite vague and uncertain. Our host also seemed unsure whether to allow these four strange Brits with their tripods and backpacks into the grand palace, and we had to wait in his offices for 20 minutes or so whilst he made phone calls to persons unknown in inscrutable Polish. Eventually we were told that we could have one hour to photograph inside, but that would be it as a wedding party had booked a photoshoot there later that morning – we’ve heard that the owners usually charge hundreds of euros for such access, so we were certainly very fortunate to be allowed in for a far more modest contribution!
As with Palac Bozkow the night before our time was all too brief, but at least this time we had proper light within which to admire and photograph our beautiful surroundings…
Click on any photo to OPEN LIGHTBOX AND VIEW LARGE
The battered front of the palace, with a part of the former tower now lying broken – the current owners have vowed to replace it during planned renovations.
Whilst most of the rooms are currently stripped bare pending renovation, the grand central staircase was the main reason we’d wanted to visit the palace…
On the first floor landing…
Timber supports part of the fragile interior…
The ornate ceiling gave a glimpse back to former glories…
Up on the top floor landing, with the morning light flooding in.
Some peeling paint goodness…
All too soon our host told us that our time was up, and we had to head back outside…
The remains of the former tower – now resembling a post-apocalyptic art installation?!
We spent a few minutes enjoying the sunshine and grabbing some more external shots, before once again hitting the road.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed – lots more reports coming soon.
Adam X
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Explore #176: Villa ‘Nice Stairs’, Poland – May 2016
Explore #16 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’
Next up was a quick stopover at this large abandoned house, now lost in overgrown woodland.
Click on any photo to OPEN LIGHTBOX AND VIEW LARGE
We picked our way through the undergrowth to the front of the property…
Straining to get the full sweep of the staircase within a single shot, I crammed myself into a dust and cobweb-filled corner, crumbling paint and plaster falling off the wall down the back of my T-shirt. Still, I got the shot…
Looking down from the first floor landing.
And I’ll leave you with a black and white edit of the staircase shot.
Thanks for popping in.
Adam X
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Explore #177: Neoclassical Palace, Szczyty, Poland – May 2016
Explore #17 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’
En route to a much larger palace we paid a quick pit stop at another once-grand residence…
History (translated and rewritten from here and here).
The village of Szczyty used to lie on an important amber trade route from Southern to Northern Europe. Records going back to 1611 mention the von Hauenschild family as owners of the village.
By the 19th century a neoclassical palace was erected, surrounded by an attractive landscaped park. The property is thought to have remained in the von Hauenschild family until the end of World War II, when like many other buildings it became nationalised and owned by the State. The palace had survived in relatively good condition until the early 1990s, when it was entered in the national register of monuments. However, it has since lain empty, and is now little more than a shell with an uncertain future.
Our Explore
As the inside was of no interest we just grabbed a quick external shot or two, and this rather ace team shot taken by James, before moving on.
Cheers
Adam X
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Explore #178: Pałac w Żyrowej, Poland – May 2016
Explore #18 of ‘The Picnics & Palaces Tour’
Next up, yep you guessed it, another Polish palace!
History (translated and rewritten from here).
The site of the palace was originally owned by the Opole duchy, dating as far back as 1280. From 1447 it was the seat of the von Zyrowskich family, before being bought in 1631 bought by Count Melchior Ferdinand von Gaschine, who built the palace in the form of a mansion. Between 1899 to 1945 the property was owned by the von Francken-Sierstorff family.
In 1911 the palace was visited by Emperor Wilhelm II. During the third Silesian uprising of 1921 the palace was commandeered by insurgents who set up a quarters there and plundered the property completely – leaving their dirty and torn clothing on the floor they donned the finest robes taking from the wardrobe of the Count of Zravets.
As with many such palaces it became State-owned after the Second World War. For a period it housed a sanatorium for children.
These days the Palace is privately owned but unoccupied – another beautiful historic building with an uncertain future.
Our Explore
This was another permission visit which James had managed to organise – cheers buddy! We arrived slightly ahead of our planned arrival time for once, so enjoyed a lovely leisurely picnic on a meadow near to the palace. We feasted on freshly baked bread and Polish cured sausages, washed down with some great local beer – that afternoon our tour really lived up to the ‘Picnics & Palaces’ nickname we had given it. Here’s a snap taken by Jade on her greasy phone! 
After lazing in the sunshine for a little while longer it was time to meet the guardian of the Palace – a friendly old chap who didn’t speak a word of English, but who opened up the main gates and shepherded us into the central courtyard…along with his flock of goats and sheep!
We were left to our own devices for the next couple of hours, interrupted only by the occasional sounds of the goat bells clanging and sheep bleating.
To the left is a large ceramic heater – one of many used to help warm the palace during the brutal cold winters.
In an annexe I came across this gorgeous carved wooden spiral staircase…
Here’s an old photo of the same corridor in its heyday in the 1920s/1930s…
As regular readers of this blog (and other explorers) will know, pianos are often left behind in derelict and abandoned buildings long after all other furniture and possessions have long since been removed. Here we found the broken remains of a grand piano…
One last shot of those wonderful stairs…
…and then it was time to head back outside.
Thanks for flocking by!
Adam X
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