Another installment in our series on abandoned places in the world.
1. Great Synagogue, Drohobych, Ukraine
The Great Synagogue (aka the Choral Synagogue) was the largest in western Ukraine’s Galacia and was built between 1842 and 1865. Prior to WWII, approximately 15,000 Jews lived in Drohobych and totalled 40% of the population. With the German occupation of Drohobych in June 1941, both the SS and Ukrainian auxiliary police deported 4,500 Jews to the Belzec extermination camp and murdered the remaining 10,000 who had been forcibly placed in ghettos. Following WWII, the former synagogue served as a salt warehouse and later as a furniture shop. Now under the care of the Federation of Ukraine’s Jewish Communities since 1993, plans are underway of restoring the building and re-establishing a Jewish Cultural Centre.
2. Bannermans Island, New York, United States
Located on Pollepel Island on the Hudson River, “Bannermans’ Island” was once a military surplus warehouse. Built by Scotland-born Francis Bannerman VI in 1901, the “castle” served as a distribution site for his mail order catalog of military equipment. The island and buildings were eventually bought by New York State in 1967.
3. Spreepark, Treptow-Köpenick, Germany
Formerly known as the Kulturpark Plänterwald, Spreepark was an entertainment park located north of Berlin. Opened in 1969 on 29.5 hectares of land, the park attracted over 1.5 million visitors per year. Yet with increasing admission fees in the late 1990s, lack of parking and mismanagement, the park became insolvent and abandoned in 2001.
4. HM Prison Pentridge, Cobourg, Victoria, Australia
Built in 1850, the Victorian-style HM Prison Pentridge (aka “the Bluestone College”) began housing prisoners in 1851. Since its closure in 1997, the 16 acre site was purchased by the Valad Property Group which plans on building a 16-story residential and commercial block.
5. Don Valley Brick Works, Toronto, Canada
Founded by the Taylor Brothers in 1889, the Don Valley Brick Works is located in Don River valley in Toronto. In operation for nearly 100 years, the plant produced good-quality bricks due to its fossil-rich interglacial past. Owing to little usable remaining clay, the site closed in 1984 and was eventually expropriated by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Since then, the plant has been restored as a park and heritage site by Evergreen.
For previous entries, please click here.
