Normally on Easter Sunday one spends time his or her family, however on this particular Easter a friend and I decided to wake up early and do some Urban Exploration.

What is great about living in Germany is that there are several abandoned buildings to explore.  It seems Germans tend to leave buildings standing when they are no longer in use, which allows one to have some interesting adventures.

Everything except mattresses

When we went on Marien Street, we were expecting to find a mattress factory damaged by fire in December 2011 and left abandoned ever since. As evidenced by the huge sign «Matelas» and the name plate identifying the place as «Matelas Signature» near the front door, we knew we were in the right place. But once inside, we discovered many things... but no signs of any mattress!

The beginnings

What began in the late 1980s as a convenience store with a small corner restaurant has become an institution when it comes to catering  in the neighborhood. Clo got up every morning at 4:00 to take care of business. To meet the demand, she enlarged several times and even bought the building. A small restaurant decorated like in the 1950s occupied the ground floor and two apartments were upstairs. A terrace was added to the set.

Located in São Domingos (province of Alentejo) south of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, the mine of Achada do Gamo is an abandoned open pit mine. Located in the heart of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, which extends from southern Portugal to Spain, the region of the mine consists of the outcropping volcanic and sedimentary rocks that vary in age from 542 to 251 million years.

The history of mining in the area dates back over 4300 years when Phoenicians and Carthaginians already harvested copper during the Chalcolithic period (Copper Age).

Hochelaga-Maisonneuve has been deeply marked by the train, in its development. Even today, it is surrounded by three tracks : the Canadian Pacific to the west, the now abandoned Canadian National to the east and the one of the port of Montreal to the south.

For the longest part of the 20th century, it was also bordered to the north by the «shop Angus», a vast industrial complex occupying 40 acres of land as well as the «Montreal Locomotive Works», a provider of the CPR, to the east, both now vanished.

The origins of the building

Despite the many changes made to the building by the Negro community center, it is clear that the original building was a church. Plans are signed by Sidney Rose Badgley (1850-1917), an architect from Ste.Catherine, Ontario.

The words are inscribed on a weathered bronze plaque, marking the entryway to the administration building at Forest Haven Asylum.

Located in Laurel, Maryland, the Forest Haven Institute was notorious for its poor conditions and abuse of patients.  In fact, it was reported to be in the top 10 worst cases of institutional abuse in all of U.S. history.

Opened in 1925, Forest Haven was reserved for the children and teenagers who had become lost in the system, unable to function in public schools and lacking the resources to pay for private care.

In the Basque Country there are several generations who have grown up by drinking milk from the Beyena company, a regional source of pride, well beyond its nutritional values. Every day, hundreds of trucks were leaving the factory located in Bilbao with their precious cargo of a wide variety of dairy products to serve the region.

The company is described as a strong and everlasting business. Yet, the new millennium has shot down Beyena. In May 2000, after a decade of turmoil, the last workers are thanked and the plant is abandoned.

The history of the Babcock & Wilcox in the Galindo valley began during the First World War when the difficulties of the Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España will result in the sale of the plant to the Babcock & Wilcox company, today specializing in energy technologies.

It was hard to motivate ourselves to hit the road on this cold December morning, with temperatures of -29 ° C. But the destination was worth it: a 130-year-old abandoned prison. Moreover, I had a special permission for a photo session inside. This would be a very productive day for us in this prison, appropriately called the Winter Jail.