The vanishing beauty of abandoned castles

In the ruined once majestic buildings, there is a charm. The facade is in decline, the huge halls are home to insects and dust, and the elegant architecture is destroyed by time and weather.

1. Podgorets Castle, Ukraine



Built between 1635 and 1640, this castle was once richly furnished, but during World War I soldiers destroyed all the luxury of the interior. Shortly before that, the castle became the property of Roman Sangushko, who took some valuable pieces of furniture from there and transported them to Brazil in 1936. After World War II, the Soviet Union used the castle as a tuberculosis sanatorium, but in 1956 the old building caught fire and burned for three weeks. As a result, all the beauty of the interior decoration died. The Lviv Art Gallery is trying to restore the building, but so far no noticeable improvements have been observed.

2. Miranda Castle, Celle, Belgium



Miranda Castle was built in 1866 by an English architect for the Ledekerke-Bophot family. The family lived there until World War II, when the mansion was taken over by Belgium’s national railway company. It has been vacant since 1991, partly because the owners refuse to hand it over to the municipality.



3. Halcyon Hall, Milbrook, New York, USA



Halcyon Hall was originally built in 1890 as a luxury hotel, but it was closed in 1901. However, the building received a second life when the Bennett School for Girls moved there a few years later, and the castle for a time became home to students from wealthy families. But with the popularization of coeducation, the school failed to develop and went bankrupt in 1978. No one has used the house since then.

4. Lillesden Mansion, United Kingdom



This mansion was built between 1853 and 1855 by a banker named Edward Lloyd. After World War I, the house was sold and became a public school for girls. The building closed in 1999 and has not been used since.



5. Bannerman Castle, New York, USA



A Scottish immigrant, Francis Bannerman, bought the island in 1900 and built a castle there to store ammunition, the backbone of his business. Two years after Bannerman's death in 1918, 200 tons of shells and gunpowder exploded, destroying a small part of the building. Then, in 1969, a fire burned part of the floors and roof. Since 1950, the island has been considered uninhabited, as the ferry serving it sank during a storm. In 2009, the rest of the building collapsed.

6. Manor in Muromtsevo, Russia



The architect P.S. Bortsov built many French-style castles in the 19th century, but the Muromtsevo estate is by far the most memorable of them.



7. Prince Said Hasim's Palace, Cairo, Egypt



This residence was designed by Antonio Lazias in 1899. It was later converted into one of the best boys' schools in the country, Al-Nasiriyah. It has not been used since 2004.







Source: koffboy.com/