49 Abandoned Landmarks That Are More Beautiful Than Ever

7. Beelitz-Heilstätten – Brandenburg, Germany

Just outside Berlin lies Beelitz-Heilstätten, a massive medical complex built in the late 19th century as a tuberculosis sanatorium. Over the decades, it transformed into a military hospital used during both World Wars, even treating a wounded Adolf Hitler in 1916. After Germany’s reunification, much of the site was abandoned, and that’s when its haunting beauty began to bloom. Ivy coils around stairwells, roots burst through broken floor tiles, and vines spill through shattered stained-glass windows. Entire wings of operating theaters and patient wards lie eerily intact, eerily silent. Sunlight pierces through broken ceilings, illuminating tiled corridors that feel like something out of a dream—or a ghost story. A portion of Beelitz has since been restored, but the remaining abandoned buildings have attracted photographers, thrill-seekers, and film crews (parts of The Pianist and Valkyrie were shot here). It’s a place where medicine, memory, and nature entwine in the most poetic decay imaginable.