Abandoned Italy

The third post in a series on last month’s urbex trip to Italy.

To start, here is a former military hospital in southern Italy. Built at the height of Mussolini’s fascist rule in streamline moderne style, it covers a large swath of land in the middle if Bari. Though the buildings are mostly barren and devoid of artifacts, the architecture itself was interesting, with chunky staircases, overgrown passageways, and, especially, the chapel.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The chapel reminded me of a renaissance era throne room. I thought its geometric simplicity was best viewed through this broken window.

.

Next is the “waterfall building”, an old apartment complex so named because of vines dramatically draping from a balcony within its enclosed courtyard. Sadly, much of the foliage in this “waterfall” appeared to be dying when we visited but nonetheless made for some good shots.

.

.

Next is this villa which sat within an olive grove next to a highway. The building was mostly gutted and bricked-up, but was notable for two things: a dramatic central staircase topped by a skylight, and the trompe l’oeil fresco in a murky lower level hallway. The latter was especially hard to photograph, as the shot had to be set up in near darkness with only the help of a flashlight. The staircases on either side of the shot appear so bright because it was a very long exposure.

.

.

Lastly are a couple shots from this old courtyard. While the church it was attached to wasn’t very interesting, the adjoining buildings had some real mood, with the central well barely recognizable amid the foliage.

.

.

Thank you for stopping by. I will have one last post from this trip soon, this one on some of the spectacular churches we got to see!