So the time has come for the last post from the abandoned abattoir. At least for now. And it’s time to explore the garage and power station building.
Most of the doors were locked and tightly sealed, so there was no access. Luckily not all of them. Even though the sign tells you to shut the door in two different languages.
Behind the door was a vintage Toyota Corolla. And a real man cave.
So this is where the local boys have spent their weekend fixing their Toyota, reading car magazines. And eating pickled cucumber, as there were cans of it here, too. The dust, however, reveals, that nobody’s been here for ages.
The yard was also littered with all kinds of stuff. The shelter is full of recyled and pressed paper.
There were even two buses parked on the yard completely outgrown by trees. The other one had been partially rebuilt to a transport, the other was a former supermarket on wheels. It was clear, that neither one of them would ever move again.
A view through the bus shows a football field just behind the property. What a nice place to play matches.
Smashed bricks have fallen inside the power station. Whether they have crumbled there on their own or are the result of the partial demolition of the chimney, is unclear to me.
The tower pictured in the setting sun. I really like the architecture of this building, and it’s quite sad to see it in such a horrible state. Almost the whole facade of the building can bee seen here.
So what is this place, and what’s happened with it? After an extensive research, spending 30 euros on ordering official documents and 60 euros on a three month subrscription of the local newspaper, this is, what I have found out:
The bulding was originally built as an abattoir in the late 1940’s. It was the pride and the largest employer of the village in its prime employing more than a hundred people.
In the late 1970’s the company owning it started centering its activities to a nearby town, and in the mid 80’s all production here ended. For some reason or another the logos of the company are still on the facade, and there’s a lot of stuff belonging to it in the attic.
A local food wholesale company bought the premises after this, but it is a bit unclear, when. Some sources say, it was in 1985, but the wholesale company was founded before the late 70’s as its papers from 1975 were in the house. The company register says, this company went bankrupt in 1991. In addition to the abattoir memorabilia, a lot of the wholesale company’s documents can still be found scattered around the building.
What happened after this is a bit unclear. According to the official documents the current owner bought the place in 1993, and the place has stood abandoned around ever since. In my memories it has always been deserted, yet there are letters, newspapers and documents dating back to the late 90’s and early 2000’s in the apartments. Who has brought them here, if not the inhabitants, is unclear to me.
By the time of our visit the owner started having problems with the authorities. The building authorities wanted him to demolish a part of the crumbling chimney they deemed dangerous, which he did. The fire department wanted to conduct a search in the buildings to see, if there was still ammonia in the cooling machines used by the bankrupt food wholesale company, as they suspected. The owner refused to let them in. The neighbours had started complaining. They were concerned about the collapsing chimney and the increasing vandalism on the property.
It was clear, the sun had started to set on this beautiful building. I’m not quite done with its story yet, but now we’ll move on to other places.
All the photos from this location can be viewed in the gallery.