In the center of a long since defunct municipality, I made this very surprising discovery.
Why is it surprising? Well, back in the 1960’s there were only about 3500 inhabitans here. Around 1500 were left by the time the municipality merged with its larger neighbours. To see such a large row house in here wasn’t what I expected. To see it empty was something I expected even less.
The municipal rental apartment building was badly damaged by fire in August 2019. One apartment was completely destroyed, three others were badly damaged. Nobody was hurt in the fire, as all tenants had been evicted by the municipality way back in 2018 because the early 1960’s house was in a bad condition. It was set to be demolished anyway.
A person was caught soon afterwards and at least in preliminary hearings admitted the fire. He had lived in the house previously.
Let’s see, what I can find this time.
The first few doors were locked.
So was number three.
But number four does look promising.
Well, they didn’t lie. The standard of living has been quite low even for municipal rental apartments. A lot of water has also come through the roof, probably, when the fire was extinguished.
Some renovations and replacement of materials seems to have been carried out in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s.
This was my first such location, but I’ve later learned, that the feng shui in municipal rental apartments is never too good. They are sad places, because especially the older ones are cheaply built for people who haven’t had anything else.
Even the bathrooms seem from the 1970’s. And if that is so, so is the plumbing.
At least the kitchen had a modern stove.
The place remained municipal rental apartments until the very end. Here’s an eviction notice.
The living room.
That wallpaper has been there for a while.
Each apartment featured a small terrace.
Which had windows to the small bedroom.
All right, apartment four: I’ve seen enough.
I think that they are all similar from now on, but I’ll have to see it with my own eyes.
Well, at tleast they’ve painted the walls here a couple of times.
This apartment is identical to the previous on, except that it has suffered much more damage. I can’t guess its number, though, they seem identical, except that some should be mirror images.
Well, it does seem identical.
There has definitely been more fire here. We’re approaching the burned apartment.
Although buildings of this era had their issues, there are some things that I appreciate in their architecture, such as the windows, which take up almost the entire height of the wall.
The door to the terrace is again up front.
The terrace does grow all kinds of things.
A look back towards the kitchen.
The bedroom grows a lot of mold.
Wait, I solved the mystery! The apartments are all identical. There’s one bedroom facing the front yard and one facing the back. This is the one facing the back. The room up front is not the bathroom, it’s the walk in closet.
Let’s see if I can reach more apartments!