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I did shoot a little bit of video, including the tunnels but the tunnels were mostly too dark to consider using.

Dispatch 8c

Exploring Beelitz-Heilstätten

URBEX

If you are not familiar with the term it is a contraction of the phrase "Urban Exploration". It refers to the practice of exploring abandoned, forgotten or obscure places, typically man made.

The buildings are all boarded up and locked. But you know it's almost impossible to seal a place up entirely, especially one as massive as this.

The buildings are huge, hallways stretch on forever.

And what might this strange device be?

It took us a few minutes to figure it out. Do you know?

An autopsy table with drainage grooves. I can't say it was very comfortable but I'll bet none of the clients ever complained.

We were not always alone. We passed several other explorers. One was pushing a baby carriage. Others had large expensive looking cameras. Photography and UrbEx are closely linked. Here is one we spotted from a window.

The campus is in the middle of forest. Here we travel between buildings (above ground this time) along a path through the woods.

It was built in the late 1800s for the huge numbers of Tuberculosis patients existing in those days. With the advent of world wars in became a military hospital for both Germany and during East German days for Russia.

I seriously doubt that Whitney ever performed here, how her name got here????????

Of our two days of tourism one was spent exploring a huge abandoned hospital complex called Beelitz-Heilstätten. It is many buildings in a campus setting.

Seriously; This is the coolest thing I have done in years.

Lisa models an antique chest X-Ray machine; at least that's what we think it is.

BTW That "strange" device above... probably used for emptying bedpans.

But the best is yet to come. Go down down down to the basements and mechanical rooms. That's where the coolest stuff is to be found.

Most of the buildings were connected by these underground tunnels. We were able to emerge inside buildings we had been unable to enter at ground level.

Note: The blue lines below show our path as recorded by a GPS tracker I was carrying.

Go back to Dispatch 8b

The Pergamon museum

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And the tunnels, on and on for hundreds of yards, through the blackness punctuated by specks of light leaking down through occasional air shafts and the beams of flashlights. Through dried up aqueducts, past rusted old steam pipes, and broken wiring, over rubble and broken glass and abandoned machines whose purpose is a matter of speculation.

I suppose most people seeing this will be divided into two camps. One will wonder why in the the world anyone would be interested in traipsing around inside old building. The other knows exactly why it's so fascinating. If you are in that second camp I would strongly suggest you visit my Picasaweb page, press F11 to go to full-screen mode and click the slideshow icon.

Click here for lot's more photos in my Web Photo Album

If you google "Beelitz" or "Beelitz-Heilstätten" you will get many hit's and find a lot more information.

If you are really in the second camp you can also check out a documentary on the subject.

There is a full hour and a half documentary on You Tube. I think it may disappear from there but try and see if it's still availible.

Urban Explorers: Into The Darkness on You Tube

I hope I can make it back to Beelitz some time. If I do there are a couple of things I would bring along that I did not have this time.

1. Bigger lights to shoot video in the tunnels

2. Lunch. This was a super long day, so much ground to cover. There is a restaurant on the grounds but it would have been great to picnic right inside.