7 Stunning Abandoned Castles We Dream of Visiting

There is a certain charm to ruined, once majestic buildings. The facade falls into disrepair, the vast halls become home to insects and dust, and the elegant architecture is destroyed by time and weather. We offer you a selection of the most spectacular crumbling mansions.

1. Pidhirtsi 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 Sanguszko, who took several valuable pieces of furniture 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 ancient building caught fire and burned for three weeks. As a result, all the beauty of the interior was destroyed. The Lviv Art Gallery is trying to restore the building, but so far there have been no noticeable improvements.

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

3. Miranda Castle, Celle, Belgium

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5. Halcyon Hall, Millbrook, New York, USA

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

6. Lillesden Mansion, UK

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

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8. Bannerman Castle, New York, USA

A Scottish immigrant, Francis Bannerman, bought the island in 1900 and built a castle there to store the munitions that formed the core of his business. Two years after Bannerman's death in 1918, 200 tons of shells and gunpowder exploded, destroying a small portion of the building. Then, in 1969, a fire destroyed part of the floors and roof. The island has been uninhabited since 1950, after the ferry that served it sank in a storm. In 2009, the rest of the building collapsed.

9. Estate in Muromtsevo, Russia

Architect P. S. Bortsov built many castles in the French style in the 19th century, but the estate in Muromtsevo is considered the most memorable of them today.

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

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