Built to last, built to impress, built with style and grandeur – it is all the more remarkable when the most ostentatious of buildings fall into disrepair and become ruins. From imperial residences and aristocratic estates to hotels and urban mansions, Abandoned Palaces tells the stories behind dilapidated structures from all around the world.
From ancient Roman villas to the French colonial hill station in Cambodia that was one of the final refuges of the Khmer Rouge, the book charts the fascinating decline of what were once the homes and holiday resorts of the most wealthy. Ranging from crumbling hotels in the Catskill Mountains or in Mozambique to grand mansions in Taiwan, and from an unfinished Elizabethan summerhouse to a modern megalomaniac’s estate too expensive ever to be completed, the reasons for the abandonment of these buildings include politics, bankruptcy, personal tragedies, natural and man-made disasters, as well as changing tastes and fashions.
With 150 outstanding colour photographs exploring more than 100 hauntingly beautiful locations, Abandoned Palaces is a brilliant and moving pictorial examination of worlds we have left behind.
Introduction
THE AMERICAS AND THE CARIBBEAN
Sosneado Hot Springs Hotel, Mendoza, Argentina
Hotel del Salto, Santandercito, Colombia
Halcyon Hall, Bennett College, New York, USA
Igloo City, Alaska, USA
Bannerman Castle, New York State, USA
Boldt Castle, Heart Island, Alexandria Bay, New York, United States
Hotel del Salto, San Antonio del Tequendama, Colombia
Sans-Souci Palace, Haiti
WESTERN EUROPE
Ebenfurth Castle, Wiener-Neustadt-Land, Austria
Chapel, Ladendorf Castle, Mistelbach, Austria
Château Miranda, Celles, Namur, Belgium
Château Lumière, Sainte-Croixeau-Mines, Haut-Rhin, France
Prora, Rügen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany
Sammezzano Castle, Leccio, Tuscany, Italy
Dona Chica’s Castle, Palmeira, Braga, Portugal
Castle Saunderson, Belturbet, Cavan, Ireland
Seacliff House, North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland
The Bishops Avenue, Hampstead, London
EASTERN EUROPE
Ruzhany Palace, Pruzhany District, Belarus
Memorial House of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Prince Smetsky’s Palace, Gulripshi, Abkhazia
Sumskas Manor, Sumskas, Vilnius, Lithuania
Bozkow Palace, Klodzko County, Lower Silesia, Poland
Sobanski Palace, Guzów, Mazovia, Poland
Fabergé Farmstead, Levashovo, St Petersburg, Russia
Vlakjkovac Castle, Vrsac, Vojvodina, Serbia
Pidhirtsi Palace, Pidhirtsi, Lviv, Ukraine
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Berengo Palace, Bobangui, Central African Republic
Presidential Palace, Gbadolite, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Baron Empain’s Palace, Cairo, Egypt
Saddam Hussein’s Palace, Hilla, Babil Governorate, Iraq
Bechara el-Khoury Palace, Zuqaq al-blat, Beirut, Lebanon
Ducor Hotel, Monrovia, Liberia
Grande Hotel Beira, Beira, Sofala, Mozambique
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Darul Aman Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan
Bokor Palace Hotel, Bokor, Kampot, Cambodia
Baz Bahadur’s Palace, Mandav, Mandhya Pradesh, India
Bundi Palace, Hadoti, Rajasthan, India
Jahangir Mahal, Orchha, Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh, India
Ranighat Palace, Palpa, Province No. 5, Nepal
Tamluk Rajbari, Tamluk, Purba, Medinipur, West Bengal, India
Derelict Hotel, Hachijojima, Izu Islands, Japan
Kellie’s Castle, Batu Gajah, Kinta, Perak, Malaysia
King Narai’s Palace, Lopburi, Thailand
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