The Most Scary Ghost Towns in Russia!

Khalmer-Yu (Komi Republic)

In the 40s, a coal deposit was found here, but attempts to establish a full-fledged settlement here were unsuccessful until 1957. Then a serious one appeared here material base and the village began to grow, turning into a city with a population of seven thousand people.


In 1993, the mine was closed, people were relocated to Vorkuta, and now there is a landfill on the site of the abandoned city. It was used in 2005 to demonstrate the power of the Tu-160 to Vladimir Putin. Then the president was the co-pilot on board a strategic bomber and fired a missile at one of the Halmer-U buildings.

Mologa (Yaroslavl region)

Not far from Rybinsk there is the ghost town of Mologa. Once upon a time it was one of the largest shopping centers in Rus' (the city was founded in the 12th century).


But in 1935, the Soviet authorities ordered the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex, and Mologa was simply flooded. People began to be resettled, and those who remained died. The city has sunk under water, and now that the level is falling, some buildings are becoming visible.

Kursha-2 (Ryazan region)

The city of Kursha-2 was founded at the beginning of the 20th century in Ryazan region. People came here from all over Russia to take part in the large-scale development of forest areas. In the early 30s, more than a thousand people settled here, but soon almost all of them died. On August 3, 1936, a fire engulfed the entire city - only a few survived. Now there is a huge mass grave near the burnt settlement. The city itself is now completely destroyed, not a soul on the streets.

Kolendo (Sakhalin region)

In the early 60s, development of an oil and gas field began in the very north of Sakhalin. People from all over the island began to come here, and by 1979 more than two thousand people had settled here.


Until 1995, everything was in order, but a powerful earthquake happened, after which the reserves natural resources decreased greatly, and people began to leave the settlement en masse. Nobody lives there now.

Industrial (Komi Republic)

The city was founded in the 50s. All buildings were erected by prisoners, and until the 90s more than 10 thousand people lived here. Life here stopped after the explosion in the Tsentralnaya mine. Overnight, all the workers here turned out to be of no use to anyone. Families began to move to other settlements, and soon Promyshlenny turned into a ghost town.

Neftegorsk (Sakhalin region)

Another victim of the 1995 earthquake was the city of Neftegorsk. Here the level of tremors reached 10 points. More than two thousand people died. The authorities evacuated the survivors, and now Neftegorsk is empty. Its streets still resemble a bombed town - nothing but ruins...

Charonda (Vologda region)

In the city of Charonda on the shore of Lake Vozhe, 11 thousand people once lived. Once upon a time, life was seething here, but at the beginning of the 19th century, all the trade routes that passed through Charonda ceased to exist, and the city turned into a village where only old people live.

Kadychkan (Magadan region)

In 1943, large coal deposits were discovered in the Magadan region. The city of Kadychkan was founded next to one of these. Of course, this settlement was built, as they say, on the bones of prisoners who were sent here in the thousands. Nevertheless, the city continued to develop, and after the thaw, in 1986, its population amounted to 10 thousand people.


The extinction began in 1996 after a terrible mine accident, where an explosion killed more than a thousand miners. After this, the city was almost completely empty, and in 2003, by order of the authorities, the last residents were removed from here and resettled in other cities. Now the village is empty.

Iultin (Chukchi Autonomous Okrug)

The village was founded thanks to the tin deposit found here. Since the 50s, people began to come here. Houses were built here, families settled, but in the 90s the enterprise went bankrupt and people began to leave the village. In 1995, there was no one left in Iultna.

Yubileiny (Perm region)

The settlement was built by miners. The miners of the Shumikhinskaya mine developed the city from the 50s to the 90s. Then the enterprise was cut in half, and those who were left without work were forced to either change their profession or leave. The city emptied very quickly and soon turned into another ghost. Now it is difficult to imagine that life was once in full swing here.

Hello, friends!

You, of course, have heard about dead abandoned cities, abandoned villages, villages and towns, of which there are a lot, not only in the post-Soviet space, but all over the world: in the USA, China, Japan, Germany and so on.

Yes, today I want to talk about ghost towns in Russia. And not those that, due to their tragic (or not so tragic) fate, have become part of tourist trails, but those that are not so known to the general public, but are no less interesting.

So, friends, if you are here hoping to find information about Pripyat, which, frankly speaking, has already set the teeth on edge. Or about the tragic fate of Kadykchan or Kurshi, then I will disappoint you - they are deliberately ignored in this article. There are several reasons, and one of them is that it is better to share information and impressions about such cities after visiting them.

Dead cities and tourism

The relatively new genre of “post-apocalyptic” has gained wide popularity over the past half century. This is reflected in films, books, and games. More and more photographers, directors, people of other creative professions, and just thrill-seekers are visiting abandoned buildings.

Some people look for inspiration there, others dead cities is a blank canvas on which to create. And someone wants impressions and new emotions. It is now clear that this, whatever one may say, is another direction for tourism. It may not be the most popular, but it is certainly very interesting. Such cities allow you to see another life, to touch something mystical and creepy.

Abandoned settlements of the Central Federal District

Most often, such an unenviable fate occurs in small settlements whose residents worked at one, city-forming enterprise. If it closed, the settlement “closed.” Sometimes everything can be much more tragic, a vivid example of this is Pripyat.

My list is more likely to fall into the first category. These towns and villages "were the victims of an economic recession" rather than natural or man-made disasters. Below are 20 dead settlements in Russia, which are located in the Central Federal District (photos attached).

Not quite a ghost, some houses still have a glimmer of life. The history of this military town is eerily typical: the military unit was disbanded and everything was abandoned. The barracks, hangars, canteen, and so on, all of this is slowly crumbling.

The object is quite well known in certain circles of abandoned junk lovers.

Remember the forest fire in central Russia in 2010? So, this village got in the way destructive force fire. Private sector burned out almost completely, the boiler room, garages and vegetable gardens burned down. People fled for their lives, leaving their property behind.

Only high-rise buildings remained virtually untouched by the fire. As of 2015, Mokhovoye is a completely dead village.

This is Belevsky district. Chelyustino has been allegedly abandoned since 1985. There are 24 houses left in it, no people.

Well preserved. In some houses, even closets with clothes were found.

But this is a residential village. I don’t know what’s sadder - a ghost town or THIS.

At Glubokovsky's typical fate for a working mining camp. After the closure of all the mines, approximately 1,500 people still lived in it, but in the 90s of the last century people gradually began to leave.

The proximity of the regional center saves the village from complete extinction, but... how much effort does it take to live in it? After all, this is not even a small town.

Kostroma is a completely extinct settlement in central Russia, of which there are hundreds. This village is not the only one here, there are several more similar ones nearby.

There are several houses left in it, all in disrepair.

The once large village is now living out its life. Some houses are well preserved, this can be seen both from their carved frames and from their internal condition (there are household items in good condition).

Over the past few years, this settlement has been completely deserted. Nowadays Korchmino is a ghost village.

Another of the many dead villages in the Yaroslavl region. Everything that can be taken from there has already been stolen, everything that cannot is slowly rotting.

The once rich village, with large houses and courtyards (in almost every courtyard there is a barn, bathhouse, outbuildings) is slowly dying.

The exact name is unknown; there is a possibility that this village has a different name. There is another similar village nearby. It is difficult to find them, since the main mentions remain on old maps.

Inside, everything is as usual: several looted, destroyed houses, in which you can still find household items.

“This strange place Kamchatka” has been empty for about 10 years. Once upon a time this settlement belonged to the collective farm. Chapaeva. The collective farm collapsed, and the same thing happened to the village.

You can’t get to this village (except by tank), so it’s better to go on foot. On this moment in Dora there are several houses in poor condition, but before that life was in full swing.

The village was connected to the outside world by a narrow-gauge railway built in 1946. At the moment, what remains of it are several destroyed bridges in the surrounding area.

A small village with 10 houses, now only 2 have survived. The village has been completely dead for 4 years now.

We were in the same house (pictured), on the table there was a letter from the mother from the “zone” from her son.

Another ghost village, but in the Belozersky region. Apparently empty since 1995.

Several houses and baths near the river have survived. The houses are of the North Russian type - on a high basement with a vestibule at the rear of the house. Inside are some pieces of furniture and household items. Everything is in bad condition.

A very old village in the Vologda region, founded on a water trade route in the 13th century. The settlement flourished in the 18th century, and in 1708 it became the center of the Charonda region and received the status of a city. The population at that time was approximately 10,000. This did not last long.

In the 1770s, the town of Charonda again became a village, and by 1917 less than 1,000 people lived in it. Nowadays there are a dozen houses left in the village, and the number of inhabitants is 2 (more in the summer). The village is extremely inconvenient: there is no road there by land, there is no electricity (all the poles have long since rotted and fallen into the swamp).

Khmelina is also an old ghost village in the Central Federal District of Russia. It was founded in 1626, there were 700 households, a mill, factories, a collective farm, a school and a store.

However, since the 70s of the 20th century, residents gradually began to leave. As of November 2017, no one lives in the village anymore. The houses are abandoned, only a few are used as country houses.

An almost dead village in the deep forests of the Kostroma region. The condition is average: there are several houses almost untouched by time.

Near the village there are 4 more abandoned villages.

A remarkable place. In the vicinity of this farm, a stone labyrinth several thousand years old was discovered in the late 1980s.

By the way, it is believed that this labyrinth is a place of power.

Some of the houses are mud huts with thatched roofs and look cool. At the moment, the farm is almost completely abandoned.

Ghost villages on the map

The map is very approximate. Firstly, not all villages were mapped onto it, and secondly, those that were mapped may not be entirely correct. You understand that abandoned cities in Russia, and not only, are not always easy to find.

But you can roughly get your bearings; all areas are correct.

That's probably all. I am finishing the list of dead cities and villages. But this is just one of many. I have not included many more areas of our vast Motherland.

P.S. All information about the once populated areas and photos are taken from the site urban3p.ru

Today, among the huge number of megacities and small towns, there are real ghost towns that, for various reasons, have been abandoned by people.

Some of them are popular tourist attractions, while others are off-limits and life-threatening.

1. Kolmanskop

Namibia

Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometers from the port of Lüderitz. In 1908, the diamond rush began in Lüderitz, and people rushed to the Namib Desert, hoping for good luck. Within two years, a city was built in the barren sand desert, containing a casino, a school, a hospital and luxury residential buildings. But soon after the decline in diamond sales after World War I, the beginning of the end for the city began. In the 1950s, Kolmanskop was finally deserted, and the dunes began to reclaim what had always belonged to them.

Soon the metal fences collapsed and the beautiful gardens and neat streets were buried under sand. Thus a new ghost town was born. A few old buildings still remain and their theater-like interiors are still in very good condition, but most of the ruins of once luxurious houses are in complete decline.

2. Pripyat

Ukraine

Pripyat is an abandoned city in the “exclusion zone” in northern Ukraine. Workers of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the disaster occurred in 1986, lived there. Before that, the population of Pripyat was about 50,000 people. Until recently, Pripyat was actually a museum and documentary evidence of the late Soviet era. Residential buildings (four of which had not even been occupied), swimming pools, hospitals and other buildings were abandoned, and everything inside the buildings was simply abandoned during the evacuation: records, televisions, children's toys, furniture, valuables, clothes, etc.

During the evacuation, residents were allowed to take with them only a suitcase with documents, books and clothes (and after a mandatory check for radiation contamination). However, many of apartment buildings Pripyat was almost completely plundered in beginning of XXI century. The looters took away almost everything valuable, even toilet seats. Since the buildings are not being repaired, the roofs have begun to leak, and in the spring the apartments are flooded with water. It is not uncommon to see trees growing on roofs and even inside buildings.

3. Sanzhi

Taiwan

This futuristic village in northern Taiwan was originally built as a luxury resort for the wealthy. However, after numerous fatal accidents during construction, the project was frozen. Considering that after this the budget dried up, work was stopped forever, and structures similar to alien “flying saucers” were left as if as a monument to the dead. Interestingly, there are rumors in the area that the ghosts of the dead live in the abandoned city.

After this, they chose to hide all the facts about Sanzhi, since the government that ordered the resort sought to distance itself from the strange events. Thanks to this, even the names of the architects are unknown. The project may never be restarted due to the fact that it is constantly overgrown with terrible legends, and new facts are being revealed.

4. Krako

Italy

Craco is located in the Basilicata region of the province of Matera, about 40 kilometers from the Gulf of Taranto. This medieval town is typical of the area. Craco, according to historians, was built in 1060, when the land was owned by Archbishop Arnaldo, Bishop of Tricarico. In 1891, Craco's population was over 2,000. Although, it is worth noting that they had many problems, since agricultural crops grew very poorly here. Between 1892 and 1922, more than 1,300 people moved from the city to North America.

Similar mass migration was caused not only by poor agriculture, but also by earthquakes, landslides and war. Between 1959 and 1972, Krako was constantly affected by landslides and earthquakes. In 1963, the remaining 1,800 residents were relocated to a nearby valley called Craco Peschiera, and the original Craco has since been destroyed.

5. Oradour-sur-Glane

France

The small village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France is a place of unspeakable horror. During World War II, all 642 of its inhabitants were killed by German soldiers as punishment for their participation in the French Resistance. According to a survivor's account, the men were put in a barn where they were shot in the legs so that they would die as long as possible.

The women and children who were locked in the church died under machine gun fire while trying to escape. After this, the village was destroyed by the Germans. Its ruins still stand today as a monument to the dead and as a reminder of the events that took place.

6. Gunkajima

Japan

Hashima Island is one of the 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan and is located approximately 15 kilometers from Nagasaki City. It is also known as "Gunkajima" or "Cruiser Island" due to the fact that its coastline is surrounded by a wall that resembles the side of a ship. It all started in 1890, when the Mitsubishi company acquired the island and began a project to mine coal from the bottom of the sea. This attracted a lot of attention, and in 1916 the first large concrete building was built on the island. The high-rise apartment building was intended to house countless local workers and at the same time protect the island from hurricanes.

In 1959, the population increased, reaching a density of 835 people per hectare for the entire island (or 1,391 people per hectare in the residential area). This is one of the highest population densities ever recorded worldwide. As oil began to replace coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began to close across the country. The Hashima mines were no exception. In 1974, Mitsubishi officially announced the closure of the development, and since then there has been not a single person on the island, and the buildings are gradually collapsing. Visiting Hashima is prohibited by law. It was in this place that the film “Battle Royale 2” was filmed in 2003.

7. Kadykchan

USSR

Kadykchan was one of many small towns in the USSR that fell into disrepair after its collapse. Local residents were forced to move in order to gain access to such amenities as running water, schools and medical care. People were taken to other cities within two weeks, providing them with new housing there.

The former tin mining town, home to 12,000 people, has become a ghost town. In a hurry, local residents left a lot of things in their former homes, which is why the town is still full of toys, books, clothes and other items.

8. Kowloon Walled City

China

The Kowloon Walled City was located near Hong Kong during British rule. It was once an outpost created to protect the area from pirates. During World War II, it was occupied by Japan, and after its surrender, Kowloon was occupied by squatters. Neither Great Britain nor China wanted to take responsibility for the enclave, so it became a city living by its own laws (it was controlled by triads). Its population flourished for decades, and residents built veritable labyrinths above street level that were simply filled with garbage.

Buildings were built so high that sunlight could not reach the lower levels, and the entire city soon had to be lit with fluorescent lights. It was a place where brothels, casinos, opium dens, cocaine parlors, catering establishments where they sold dog meat, and secret industries that were not controlled by the authorities flourished. The Kowloon Walled City was finally demolished in 1993 after British and Chinese authorities made a similar mutual decision, growing wary of the unsanitary, anarchic city and its uncontrolled population.

9. Famagusta

Cyprus

Varosha is a quarter of the city of Famagusta in the unrecognized Republic of Northern Cyprus. Before the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, it was a modern tourist area, but over the past three decades it has become a ghost town. In the 1970s, Famagusta was the only tourist resort in Cyprus. To cater to the growing number of tourists, many new high-rise buildings and hotels were built in Varosha.

When the Turkish army gained control of the area during the war, they fenced off Varosha and have since denied access to the area to anyone except Turkish military and United Nations personnel. Since no renovations have been carried out in the resort area for 34 years, all the buildings are slowly falling apart. Nature is gradually reclaiming Varosha: metal rusts, windows break, and plants destroy sidewalks and walls of multi-story hotels with their roots. And sea turtles nest on deserted beaches.

Ghost town of Agdam.

Buildings were literally gutted, and many were burned and destroyed. Only the mosque has survived, the walls of which are covered with graffiti. Residents of Aghdam moved to other regions of Azerbaijan, as well as to Iran.

A city is a living organism. It exists as long as blood flows through its streets-arteries, the leukocytes of which are we, the inhabitants. But sometimes people leave - for various reasons, be it radiation or an underground fire, or maybe just the political situation. And the city turns into a mummy: it does not decompose, but dries up, deprived of blood. His arteries are cracked, his eye sockets are gaping with broken glass, and from dark corners stalkers crawl out. We decided to raise the history of abandoned cities - and understand the reasons for their death.

Dead cities have always existed. Is the legendary Troy dead? Yes, sure. And Babylon? Undoubtedly. And what about the Crimean Chersonese, on the site of which Sevastopol stands? And he's dead. But these cities died a long time ago and, so to speak, “of their own death,” having exhausted their natural resources. Each city has its own time limit. Bukhara and Samarkand are more alive than all living things, despite three millennia behind them. And many of their peers have already been wiped off the face of the earth by enemy raids, climate change, and so on.

The issue of safety plays a significant role. The huge, once half-million-strong Babylon has survived to this day in ruins; it was destroyed in the 1st century BC. By order of Saddam Hussein (Babylon these days was unlucky to be on the territory of Iraq), the city was rebuilt from modern bricks, and thereby removed it from the UNESCO World Heritage List. But Babylon and similar cities of antiquity have not survived enough to be considered “ghost cities.”

Babylon was rebuilt with almost no regard for how the original buildings looked or were located. This “reconstruction” negated the historical value of the city

This is another category - archaeological excavations. There is a clear distinction between a “vanished city” and an “abandoned city” (“ghost”). The abandoned building retains the architectural appearance and infrastructure that existed at the time of the evacuation of residents. The disappeared person may lie in ruins or rest underground.

Let's introduce one more limitation. In the USSR, for example, the gradation “village - town - city” was observed according to the number of inhabitants. In the USA and Great Britain, a city can have 10-15 inhabitants, because the status of “city” is established there according to different principles. For example, in Britain, a “town” cannot become a “city” simply by increasing in size. The “city” status is awarded personally by the queen for the city’s services to the country. We will consider only those settlements that would have the status of urban settlements and above (although we may make a couple of exceptions).

Pripyat, Ukraine: Chernobyl story

If you ask random passersby what abandoned cities they know, 99% will answer “Pripyat”, and then hesitate. In the former USSR, everyone knows about the dead Pripyat - some from history lessons, some from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. This city on the territory of Ukraine was unlucky: it only existed for a decade and a half. Pripyat was founded in 1970 specifically for service Chernobyl nuclear power plant. By 1979, the village had grown so much that it received city status. Initially it was designed for approximately 75,000 people, by 1985 the number reached 49,400. Everything went as usual until tragedy struck.

Pripyat before the disaster

Pripyat was called “the standard of Soviet urban planning.” Now we understand that the city was gray, boring, filled with standard “boxes”. At that time, Pripyat seemed to be an ultra-modern, to some extent stylish settlement, designed from scratch, entirely, for one-time development. For example, Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, was designed in the same way.

The central square, clear lines of streets with traditional names (Lenin, Friendship of Peoples, Builders, Enthusiasts), a city park with attractions, the city house of culture "Energetik", the cinema "Prometheus" - Pripyat had everything necessary for a comfortable life. The layout was designed to avoid traffic jams regardless of the number of cars; free spaces provided visual comfort and natural ventilation yards. In general, by Soviet standards - paradise. In addition, the nuclear engineers who lived in the city were paid well.

Pripyat, a fairy tale city, a dream city. Clear layout, free space, beautiful nature. Silence

Residents of Pripyat were evacuated on one day, April 27, 1986. They weren’t allowed to take almost anything with them - tourists still pick up plastic ducks and tattered books “in the zone” (although taking souvenirs is strictly prohibited). The city has become a classic “ghost”: sidewalks overgrown with grass, an abandoned Ferris wheel, dead buildings.

What is Pripyat like today? Overall, an entertaining tourist attraction. There are companies that organize trips to the dead city, and such “trips” are a success. They are safe for health: in a few hours the dose of radiation will not exceed the norm we receive in a couple of days in normal big city. There is talk of assigning Pripyat the status of a museum city. There are several establishments in the city (checkpoint, fluoridation station, special laundry). The station's maintenance personnel live in the city of Slavutich, located 50 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Are there self-settlers in Pripyat? Oddly enough, there is: the author of this material saw them with his own eyes and even talked to them. These are mostly old people who moved to the dead city many years after the accident. The authorities turn a blind eye to them: the self-settlers do nothing wrong. The city is unlikely to ever come to life, but it may well become a museum. And yes - the real city has almost nothing to do with “Pripyat”, shown in games and books. There are no mutants there.

The Ferris wheel in the city center has become a popular topic among the authors of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. project.

Few people remember that there is a second settlement that was resettled after the tragedy - in fact, the city of Chernobyl. Before the accident, 12,500 people lived in it, now - 500, so it cannot be called completely dead. The residents are mainly shift workers working at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and self-settlers who have returned to their former homes.

Interestingly, the first mention of Chernobyl in the chronicle dates back to 1193, that is, it is more than 800 years old! For a long time the city was a famous Hasidic religious center. Chernobyl will most likely be revived in the future: today the local church has been restored and is functioning, and there are shops in the city. So we will live.

In addition to those mentioned, the secret city of Chernobyl-2, which served an over-the-horizontal radar station, as well as a number of villages, was evacuated due to the accident.

A masterpiece of design thought: the receiving antenna of the over-the-horizon radar system "Duga", the city of Chernobyl-2

San Zhi, Taiwan: city of the future

They didn’t even have time to populate the futuristic San Zhi: he died without being born

An interesting ghost town was San Zhi, built in northern Taiwan in the early 1980s. It was built according to a single plan as a city of the future. The original design, strange architecture and layout promised to make San Zhi one of the resort centers of the island. However, accidents began to occur frequently during construction. About fifty workers died.

The city was completed, but by that time its notoriety had become such that there was no one willing to buy real estate in San Zhi. The city stood abandoned for a long time, and since 2008 its gradual liquidation began. True, San Zhi is being demolished to this day - the work is proceeding slowly, since it does not have a clear economic justification.

Victims of the economy

There are several tens of thousands of disappeared cities in the world, about 1,500 abandoned ones. About fifty are located in the territory former USSR. Among them there are several quite well-known ones (we, of course, cannot list them all).

For example, Kadykchan in the Magadan region. A working settlement at a coal mine (Arkagalinsky deposit) received the status of an urban-type settlement in 1964. The village gradually grew and by 1989 reached a peak population of 5,700 people. In post-Soviet times, mining was slower, and in 1996 there was an explosion at the mine that claimed six lives. By that time, there was little need for the mine, and the authorities closed it. The only source of work in the village disappeared - and people began to leave. In 2001, there were still a couple of residential streets in the city, but today Kadykchan is inhabited by only one old man who simply has nowhere to go.

Kadykchan was perfectly preserved - this was facilitated by his recent death and the climate - cold and dry. From the outside you can’t say about Kadykchan that there is no one there. An ordinary Soviet village. Just very, very quiet.

Another example is Halmer-Yu in the Komi Republic. Its history is similar to Kadykchan: in the 1940s, coal seams were discovered, a working settlement appeared, reaching its peak (7,000 inhabitants) by 1959. In the early nineties, mining was declared economically unfeasible, the mine was closed, and the residents were resettled to other cities and towns (and they had to be evicted by force). Subsequently, Halmer-Yu was used as a military training ground, many buildings in it were destroyed by air strikes.

Halmer-Yu lies in ruins today

In 1910, on the island of Western Spitsbergen, the Swedes founded a small village, which 17 years later became the property of Soviet Union and received the name Pyramid. At its peak it had 2,000 inhabitants; it has many permanent buildings, a school, a kindergarten.

But coal mining in northern latitudes has proven to be unprofitable. By 2000, the last employees of Arctic Coal left the village. It is now mothballed. Nobody wants to live in the climate of Spitsbergen of their own free will, so there are no self-settlers there. The houses are in excellent condition, and if economically necessary, the Pyramid can be reoccupied.

“Economic disease” is not limited to ex-Soviet cities. Off the western coast of Japan there is the island city of Hashima (popularly known as Gunkanjima, “cruiser city”), founded in the early 19th century solely to service coal mines. The tiny reef, about a kilometer in diameter, had a population of 5,300 at peak times! At the same time, the incomes of local residents were very high, and the “coal kingdom” flourished.

But in 1974, Mitsubishi, the owner of the mine, announced it would cease production due to unprofitability. In just a few days, the city was resettled back to the main Japanese islands; personal belongings, toys, and furniture remain in the houses to this day. Access to Gankajima is closed to everyone today. The Japanese cannot decide what to do with the strange city, which is no longer capable of bringing any benefit.

Abandoned island city of Hashima, Japan

In addition to the coal fever, the diamond rush also gave rise to “temporary” cities. For example, in Namibia there is the famous city of Kolmanskop, located right in the middle of the desert. The city was founded in 1908 by the German Zacharias Leval, who found diamonds in this place and staked out a number of plots for himself. The city grew in just a year: prospectors rushed to Kolmanskop from all over Africa.

But the deposit turned out to be very small - it gave the impression of promise due to its shallow depth. Over the course of 10 years, the city managed to build several dozen houses, a hospital, a school, and a sports ground - and then the diamonds ran out and the miners left their homes. Today Kolmanskop is gradually covered with sand, although it is sometimes cleared a little for tourists.

The Namibian Kolmanskop is gradually covered with sand. A photographer's paradise

Gary, Indiana, hometown of singer Michael Jackson, was founded in 1906 and by 1960 had a population of about 180,000. But bankruptcy and the closure of the steel mills on which Gary's wealth was based meant that today there are barely 75,000 people left. Half the city consists of abandoned buildings, churches, and factory floors.

Gary: birthplace of Michael Jackson

The city of Cairo on the Ohio River (Illinois) is also worth mentioning. He lived mainly on income from the pier of wheeled (and other) steamships. But over time, river trade declined, and the city's population dropped from 20,000 to 3,500 people. The historic center of Cairo is uninhabited and preserved as a historical monument.

The US auto industry crisis has left once-prosperous Detroit with several abandoned areas. Pictured is the famous Michigan Theater, which “starred” in the film “Only Lovers Left Alive”

In general, there are many tiny ghost towns in the USA. For example, abandoned mining villages from the Gold Rush or cattle towns. There are 5-10 of them in each state. The most famous is Bodie (California), founded in 1859 by gold miner Waterman Bodie. By 1880 the city had grown to 10,000 people. Then the gold ran out and it was dismantled in 1917. railway, and in 1942 the city lost post office- that is, he officially disappeared. But the landowners decided not to abandon the city to plunder and hired guard rangers.

The city was mothballed, carefully guarded and opened as a national park- the historical city of prospectors. Bodie's state of preservation is amazing: not a single glass has been broken, all the furniture has been preserved, and in the local casino there are chips lying on the table. Vintage trucks parked anywhere don't even have punctured tires: wash, pump up, fill up - and off we go.

The town of Bodie, California, has been perfectly preserved, right down to the glass in the windows and the interior of the buildings. But they abandoned him in the 1940s!

But perhaps the best preserved dead city is in Chile - Humberstone. Founded in 1872 on saltpeter mines, it grew and became richer every day. Saltpetre fever in South America was no less than gold fever in North America. The city was beautiful, it even had a large theater with a permanent troupe and a sports swimming pool.

But by the 1950s, saltpeter reserves were depleted. In 1958, the mines closed and the workers left the city. The ghost was almost not plundered due to its distance from other settlements. In 1970, the Chilean authorities declared it a national monument, restored it, and since then Humberstone has been “living” a strange temporary life. There are even fairs for tourists, although there is no permanent population.

In the Chilean Andes there is another equally well-preserved mothballed city - Sewell, founded in 1915 for copper mining. Once a population of 16,000, the town “died” in 1967 when the mine was nationalized, declared unprofitable, and closed. They did not have time to plunder the city: the government immediately appreciated the beauty of the area and declared the dead city a tourist area, a “monument to prospectors.” That's how Sewell stands to this day.

The former mining town of Sewell, Chile, is bustling with people. Only all these people are tourists

War and politics

Another class of “ghosts” includes cities destroyed by war. For example, the famous Agdam in Azerbaijan, the birthplace of port wine of our youth. Before the Karabakh War, which began in 1991, Aghdam had several large factories, excellent infrastructure and a population of about 35,000 people. During the war, the city was completely destroyed - and not during the assault, but after. Of the entire buildings in Agdam, only the mosque from 1870 remains - the Armenian soldiers did not raise their hands to it.

Today, about 360 self-settlers live in the city in rare preserved buildings. You can immediately see from the ruins that a war took place here. Aghdam is still in ruins due to a lack of funding and the ongoing conflict between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

The ruins of Agdam surrounded by greenery

But the French Oradour-sur-Glane is a deliberately “frozen” museum under open air. By American standards, Oradour would be called a city, but in France it was still considered a village - 660 people lived there in 1944.

On the morning of June 10, 1944, the Germans entered Oradour-sur-Glane, having heard that the partisans were holding a captured Sturmbannführer in the town. Without even checking this rumor, the soldiers of the 1st battalion of the Der Fuehrer regiment drove all the residents into the square. Women and children (445 people) were driven into a church, which was then set on fire, and men (202 people) were shot right in the street with machine guns. In total, 26 people from the village were saved. The village was partially destroyed. Oradour was never restored - a new town with the same name was built nearby (today about 2,000 people live in it). And old Oradour was preserved forever - as a memory of the war.

Oradour-sur-Glane, city-museum, eternal memory of the war

In Spain there is a similar monument - the preserved Belchite, destroyed during civil war 1937

The political reasons for the conservation of cities also lie close to the military. A well-known example is the Varosha quarter in the city of Famagusta on the border of Cyprus and Turkish (Northern) Cyprus. Until the 1970s, Varosha was the most prestigious, expensive and popular resort in Cyprus. Hotels and casinos were built here, and world cinema stars vacationed here.

But on August 15, 1974, the Turkish army captured Famagusta. Today it is a border town; Varosha turned out to be a “buffer” quarter. It was simply closed; it serves as the border between the two Cyprus. Since the zone is controlled by the military, it was hardly looted. In the bars of Varosha there are still bottles and glasses left there in 1974, and in the shops you can find the most fashionable clothes from 40 years ago.

Varosha, once the best resort of Cyprus, is now a dead city

Disaster victims

Economics and politics are the most common reasons, forcing people to leave their homes and go into the unknown. Natural disasters usually either wipe out cities and immediately relegate them to the “disappeared” category, or do not cause enough damage that people have to leave. Cities evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster are rare examples of a disaster that led to the appearance of “ghosts”.

But one of the most famous cities in the world suffered precisely from a man-made disaster. This is Centralia in Pennsylvania (there are eleven Centralias in the United States). The small town was powered by the coal industry, and by the end of the 19th century its population was 2,000 people. The tragedy occurred in 1962: local firefighters cleared the city landfill by burning it out (as they had done more than once) and were unable to contain the fire. The flames penetrated underground - into abandoned coal mines a century ago.

Roads in Centralia are covered in places with smoking fissures like these.

Due to the underground fire, a lot of carbon dioxide began to be released into the air. Residents did not leave the city until the early 1980s, unaware that coal was burning underground. The deterioration in health was attributed to other reasons. When the fire was discovered and it became clear that it was impossible to put out the fire, residents were asked to move out. Most of them left in 1984, the most stubborn were forcibly evicted in 1992 - through alienation of property. In 2002, the city was declared abolished, most of the buildings were demolished. Along with Centralia, several other small towns, such as Byrnesville, suffered and were resettled for the same reason.

Now Centralia is not at all similar to the Silent Hill from the video games, for which it became the prototype. It's basically just a rural landscape with a few ruins, a couple of houses and the Church of the Virgin Mary, half-hidden in the woods. The popularity of the city is connected only with the uniqueness of the natural phenomenon: an invisible fire that has been burning for 50 years. According to forecasts, coal will burn for about two and a half centuries.

Cemetery in Centralia. There are more dead people on it than there are inhabitants in the city

The small town of Craco in the Apennines was abandoned by residents due to regular tremors. Crako was first mentioned in manuscripts in 1060, and until the mid-20th century a population of about 2,500 people lived there quietly. The city had an ancient castle and a monastery - Krako was a typical medieval European town. The city had been “shaken” before, but in 1959 an entire block slid downhill, after which a mass exodus of residents began.

Today Krako is closed to the public due to danger, but tourists still climb the mountain to look at the untouched fusion of 16th-century architecture and 20th-century life. Another Italian town, Poggioreale, also had a similar fate, also abandoned by its residents in 1968 due to seismological danger.

Another victim of the disaster is the Chilean city of Chaiten, which suffered from a volcanic eruption. Usually such catastrophes demolish cities to the ground, but the Chaiten volcano, which began to “play pranks” on May 2, 2008, one might say, spared its city. Pyroclastic flows did not hit the city, but ash fell abundantly, plus a sluggish lahar (mud flow of water, volcanic ash, pumice) reached Chaiten and partially flooded it. The population had already been evacuated by that time.

At the end of the eruption, the ground in the middle of the city parted and gave a new channel to the Rio Blanco River. They decided to rebuild the city in another place. Modern Chaiten looks very interesting: it is about a meter flooded with a gray, viscous, gradually petrifying mass. And silence all around.

The city of Chaiten can be dug up if necessary. True, there is no economic benefit in this

How to conclude this review? Perhaps my advice is to go to one of the ghost towns someday. Either in the American-Chilean tourist one, or in the Russian ownerless one (it is advisable that it is not a closed area - it’s worth checking in advance). Each has its own charms. Remember: cities are like people, they also have a deadline. And sometimes this period is less than a human life.

Ghost towns in Russia: list and photos of dead towns for independent visits

Dmitriy

Hello readers! Ghost towns in Russia are the topic of today's conversation. Have you ever thought about how big our country is? I think not each of us can really imagine its scale. And almost every city, be it Rostov or, is filled with people who often leave their home for various reasons. Every city in Russia has an abandoned corner, and empty villages are scattered throughout the country; many of us no longer remember their names.

Ghost towns of Russia: list of abandoned places

The list is compiled according to my research and likes, and information from various sources - all the places you can, they are real. If you know other ghost towns, it will be interesting to read about them in the comments, and if you have them, upload their photos and names.

Today we will talk about such abandoned and dead places as:

• Nuclear lighthouse at Cape Aniva (Sakhalin)
• Abandoned castle in Zaklyuchye (Lykoshino village, Tver region)
• Hotel "Northern Crown" (St. Petersburg)
• Eighth workshop of the Dagdizel plant (Makhachkala)
• Diamond quarry "Mir" (Yakutia)
• Khovrinskaya Hospital (Moscow)
• Kadykchan village (Magadan region)
• Building of the sanatorium "Energy" (Moscow region)
• Maternity hospital (Vladimir region)
• Ghost town Halmer-Yu (Komi Republic)
• Ghost town Pripyat (Ukraine)

So, let's go. Some places will be illustrated with videos. Let's start with a place like

Nuclear lighthouse at Cape Aniva

it is located in Sakhalin.

The lighthouse was built back in 1939 and, due to its design, became the most difficult structure to construct on the entire coast of Sakhalin. Thanks to nuclear servicing, in the late 90s, the costs of its operation were minimal, but soon there was no money left for this either. Since then the lighthouse has been empty. And in 2006, special installations were removed from it, thanks to which it once shone 17 miles into the distance.
Now it is looted and empty.

You can see the abandoned lighthouse by going to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to the city of Korsakov, and then taking a boat to the cape. You look, and this photo resembles a horror film, and the lighthouse resembles the film “Shutter Island” from. But, to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.

Abandoned castle in Zaklyuchye

Do you think this is a cursed place or just a superstition that shouldn’t be believed? The castle itself is located in a picturesque forest, on the banks of a small river, just between two capitals, the current and the past. This estate was built according to the design of the owner of the house. The estate surprises with its asymmetry and the fact that it is made of different types materials that are not used at all together in modern construction.

What's so mystical about this place?

During the day, the estate looks very friendly, especially since it is being reconstructed. There used to be a sanatorium here, so the house cannot be called completely abandoned, but local residents tell legends that people who went into the forest and saw the castle returned from there completely different. I don’t really believe in this, but I myself didn’t dare to stay there overnight.

Although I asked my friend’s mother about this place, just before we wanted to go there on an excursion, she told me that she had never seen a more beautiful place in her entire life; she spent her childhood here. Her father's parents worked at the sanatorium until the day it closed.

Mom helped her grandmother because her parents left her with her for the summer. She felt like a queen, walking along the alleys and by the river. According to her, it was a real paradise with fountains, a large palace, roses, and squirrels. Mom said that there were large flowerpots with flowers at the front entrance, and they were the best flowers in the whole area. Every year the sanatorium received about 200 people, and it closed simply because funding was stopped.

If you have not been there yet and have not seen the castle with your own eyes, I strongly advise you to do so, especially since it is not far from Moscow and St. Petersburg, and you can get there on your own.

By the way! Recently appeared interesting service Vivaster, which allows you to find and take excursions from local residents, rather than travel agencies. This, in my opinion, is much more interesting and authentic than contacting industry giants. In a word, pay attention.

Hotel "Northern Crown"

If you have ever been to St. Petersburg, then you probably know how beautiful and pompous this city is. No, really, it’s not for nothing that it’s called the cultural capital of Russia. I think many residents and guests of the city know about one abandoned hotel, which is located at the embankment of the Karpovka River, 37

Residents of St. Petersburg, who believe in mysticism, claim that the hotel was abandoned for a reason. Just think about the fact that the wiring has already been done, all the plumbing has been purchased, and then one day the project was closed. Locals claim that everything happened after the death of a priest, who was invited to a large banquet in honor of the anniversary of the largest city bank, where, in addition to him, the mayor and his wife were present. After all the solemn events, the hotel owner asked the bishop to bless the guests and invite everyone to a meal, but then suddenly he felt ill and died, right in the middle of the hall. Since that time, this place has been called “cursed.”

Today they are trying to demolish the building, but for some reason no one dares to do it. Even shabby walls, peeling paint and crumbling plaster did not prevent the hotel from maintaining its luxury. Despite the closed doors, you can get into the hotel through the roof, but be careful, the hotel is carefully guarded by the authorities.
Another place of honor in my ranking is occupied by

Military facility - Eighth workshop of the Dagdizel plant (Makhachkala)

They say that many have seen ghosts there.

I haven’t been to this place yet, but I would really like to go there. Maybe some of my subscribers have already seen these places, if so, please share your impressions. Long ago, this was a station where naval weapons were researched and tested. The workshop is located 3 kilometers from the shore, but for reasons unknown to me it has not been used for a long time.

The construction of the workshop took more than one year, someone says that during construction a man died there, and has been within the walls of the building for many years; his body has never been found. The interesting thing is that the foundation was made on the shore, and only then delivered to the construction site. To all lovers of the Caspian Sea and those who want to tickle their nerves by looking at abandoned workshops - go there.

Diamond quarry "Mir" in Yakutia

This place fascinates with its grandeur and beauty. There is definitely some mysticism here, because the quarry can be included in the list of not only the most mystical places, but also the most beautiful places in our country. Open pit diamond mining ended 12 years ago. This is the second largest and longest canyon mine in the world. The airspace here is closed due to possible accidents of helicopters, which were drawn here by a large air flow. The “world” looks so mysterious and unknown.

I was not lucky enough to visit these places, but a friend of mine was once there, he went down almost to the very bottom. He said that at the bottom there was a salt-sulfur lake and it had a very unpleasant smell, like a decomposing corpse. Open-pit diamond mining has not been carried out for a long time, but locals are building a mine that will allow them to go even deeper by several hundred meters. Construction is very expensive because the environment inside is unfavorable for human life.

Khovrinskaya Hospital in Moscow

These are the places in the capital that evoke horror. It is not surprising that people die very often in her area. According to unofficial ratings, this place was included in the ranking of the most mystical and dangerous places in the whole world. The hospital was built on a cemetery, but was never opened. This place already has its own folklore, and urban informals often gather there. But what is paradoxical is that for many years this building has not been saving lives, but on the contrary, it has been maiming and killing. Every day the police come here and tragic events occur.

The mysticism is enhanced by the very sinister external characteristics of the death hospital. If you look at it from a bird's eye view, the main buildings located resemble the international Biohazard symbol of mortal danger.

As I already said, the hospital was built on a cemetery, because of this the land turned out to be ruinous: all the basements were flooded, and the main buildings were slowly being destroyed. According to legend, the police wanted to catch sectarians and Satanists who performed their rituals in basements. When they found and brought everyone out into the street, they blew up the tunnel, but they did not take into account that there were still people there who were hiding from the people in uniform. Some of the Satanists were blown up, but all their remains were never found.

I can say that today the hospital is surrounded by a metal fence made of welded mesh, and on top it is covered with barbed wire. It’s better not to go there, there is plenty of security there, fighters with dogs are constantly on duty. Would you dare to climb into this mystical place?

Closed village Kadykchan

another place on my list.

Translated, it means “valley of death.” I don’t really know who names the cities, but I can’t understand one thing for sure: how can you live peacefully and hope for a bright future in a city with such a name? Apparently the local authorities are not at all interested in mysticism and do not believe in paranormal phenomena.

This city was built by prisoners, and at the end of the work about 10 thousand people lived in it, and by 2007 there were not even five hundred left here. 4 years ago, only one elderly man lived here who did not want to leave. Once upon a time, coal was mined here, which provided energy for half of the Magadan region.

But the explosion at the mine changed Kadykchan, and people began to leave. It's surprising that they didn't even take things with them; here you can find books, magazines, toys, clothes and much more. The city was cut off from heat and electricity, today it is an abandoned place, the streets and houses are gradually being destroyed.

Building of the Energy sanatorium in the Moscow region

occupies the next place of ghost towns in my ranking.

Don’t be surprised, but in our country, working and non-working buildings of the same sanatorium can function on the same territory. In the Moscow region, the Energia sanatorium is very popular, which has been welcoming everyone who wants to improve their health for many years.

There is one next to the working buildings that no one wants to reconstruct, and this is not due to lack of funds. Once the building burned down and took the lives of more than a dozen people; they say that even Energia workers do not enter the burnt building after nightfall. Now there are heaps of garbage, but the mysticism of these places attracts guests and tourists. After the fire, a beautiful staircase, made in a palace style, was preserved; many heard voices here at night. (I wonder what people do at night in such places?)

Maternity hospital in the Vladimir region

There is not enough money in the country to build a normal hospital, but in the Vladimir region there is an operating medical institution that just needs to be renovated, but for some reason the locals are not in a particular hurry to go work there and repair something.

Mystic? It is quite possible, because what could be more mysterious and scarier than an abandoned medical institution? Even a hospital that is working causes unpleasant emotions in everyone, simply due to the specifics of its work, especially since every clinic, even a children's clinic, has a morgue, and such places are already scary.

The building, which was built at the beginning of the last century, houses a maternity hospital. Judging by the documentation, it functioned 5 years ago, but is guarded until today. Much of the hospital remained untouched and locals still do not understand why the maternity hospital stopped accepting pregnant women. You know, only horror films should be shot in such places. Maybe someone has information about this maternity hospital, write in the comments.

In the past, it was an urban-type settlement in the Komi Republic. Translated, this city means “River of the Valley of Death” or “Dead River”. The village appeared when a deposit of valuable coal was discovered here in 1943. A mine was built here, which began operating in 1957; 250 thousand kilograms of coal were mined per day.

But the government of the country, for reasons unknown to me, decided to suspend the operation of the mine. People did not want to leave their homes, and even riot police were used to force them to do so. 11 years ago they began testing bombing technology over the city and the president himself destroyed the village’s former recreation center. Today Halmer-Yu is the “ghost” of our country.

Next on my top

Yes, it does not belong to Russia, but it was once part of the former USSR, and it became a ghost town while still part of the Union. I think everyone who played Stalker will understand why I added this city.

Pripyat is a ghost town located on the banks of the river of the same name, a few kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. According to the population census, which was conducted in the fall a year before the disaster, about 50 thousand people lived here. It was planned that by the end of the year the number of residents would increase by another 20 thousand. All residents were evacuated in April 1986 due to a tragic accident. Today the city is located in a special exclusion zone. More than one film was made about the nuclear power plant accident documentary, it also formed the basis for many performances and computer games.

Today, many residents of our planet dream of getting to Pripyat. Of course, a fraction of a percent of people’s interest was caused by the game “Stalker”, which was played by hundreds of thousands of people. The game completely copies the city, if you have completed it, you probably know where to go in Pripyat.

In conclusion, I want to say that I would be very interested in reading your opinion and finding out your rating of ghost towns in Russia and beyond. I'm also looking forward to your videos and photos. I’m also wondering if it’s worth including points on Google maps in the article so that you can find these places on the Internet yourself? Please write in the comments!

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