Castles
The château the fire left behind — and the 27,000 people who saved it
A 1932 blaze gutted it, the family never came back, and then strangers bought a castle.
Region · France
Abandoned France
Châteaux, sanatoriums, salt works and villages. France's abandonment is unusually romantic — and unusually well documented — because so much of it is architectural, rural and just old enough to be beautiful.
5Documented places
3Categories
38Minutes of reading
2026Archive updated
The entries
Every place we've documented in France
Each entry explains the history, the present condition, and how to appreciate the place responsibly — without ever encouraging trespassing.
Castles
Château Burrus: the tobacco baron's palace in Alsace
A neo-baroque palace built on tobacco money, later requisitioned by the SS — and now slowly coming back to life.
Villages
Goussainville-Vieux-Pays: the village under the flight path
A plane crash in 1973, a new airport next door, and a village that never recovered.
Factories
The Salins de Frontignan: a salt works on the French coast
A coastal industry, a handful of buildings, and a lot of rust by the Mediterranean.
Villages
Oradour-sur-Glane: the village that was never rebuilt
On 10 June 1944 a French village was destroyed and its people killed. It has been left untouched ever since.
Keep exploring
Other regions
Belgium
3 documented places
Germany
4 documented places
Italy
3 documented places
Poland
1 documented place
Spain
2 documented places
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5 documented places
Romania
1 documented place
Ukraine
1 documented place
Japan
2 documented places
Puerto Rico
1 documented place
United States
12 documented places
Canada
3 documented places
Australia
3 documented places
Norway
1 documented place