50 Abandoned Hotels That Are Frozen in Time

17. Hotel Polissya – Ukraine

Standing as a towering skeleton above the ghost town of Pripyat, Hotel Polissya was once one of the most prestigious hotels in the Soviet Union, catering to high-ranking officials and engineers working at the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Designed in the brutalist architectural style of the era, it was meant to symbolize progress and Soviet prosperity. However, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster changed everything. When the explosion occurred, Pripyat’s 50,000 residents were forced to evacuate within hours, leaving behind a city frozen in time—including the hotel, which still has beds, furniture, and even Soviet-era propaganda posters eerily intact. Today, its skeletal frame looms over the decaying city, its empty rooms offering haunting views of the desolate Exclusion Zone below. The rooftop, once a lively vantage point for guests to admire the surrounding landscape, is now a desolate perch for the occasional urban explorer. Hotel Polissya remains one of the most infamous abandoned hotels in the world, a chilling reminder of humanity’s hubris and the devastating power of nuclear catastrophe.