I went to Berlin this past October and, while I was there, I took a day trip to Beelitz, home of a fantastic abandoned hospital complex.

Beelitz Military Hospital was built in the late 1890âs for the recuperation of injured soldiers. It was built in 4 sections that included hydrotherapy, surgery, psychiatric care and even a rifle range. After WWII it was taken over by the Soviet Army as it fell on the Eastern side of Berlin and Germany. After the fall of the wall and communism in Germany the hospital was slowly closed down with the last Soviet military patient leaving in 1995. Some of the buildings have found further use, a large block is now home to a center which cares for people suffering from Parkinson's and comaâs, another small block is now a hotel, and a former gate house is now an ice cream parlour! A lot of the grounds are being cleared to make way for the redevelopment of the other buildings due to be complete in 2013.

Never, in all my explorations, have I been in an abandonment that was so full of people. Not only were there other photographers and urban explorers, there were families of patients from the active buildings strolling through the abandonments, appreciating the decayed aesthetic and the graffiti art. I can't imagine that ever happening in any abandoned site in North America.