Lisbon — Abandoned Buildings
At Christmas I got several photography books in the Abandoned / Oblivion series of books published by Jonglez; Abandoned Churches, Abandoned Spain, Abandoned France, Abandoned USSR, Oblivion, Forgotten Heritage, Forbidden Places. I’ve had a look at the other titles in the series (USA, Belgium, Australia, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Germany) but was surprised to find there isn’t one for Portugal.
Having spent four days wandering around Lisbon I am sure that an intrepid urban explorer and photographer could fill such a book with examples from Lisbon alone.
There are lots of properly abandoned buildings all over the place of all shapes and sizes.
Some on the main streets of the city, boarded or shuttered up.
Peeling paint or plaster disappearing from the surface of the buildings helped along by the constant weathering.
Nature is trying to reclaim some of these for itself. There is a lot going on.
Unlike a lot of examples included in the series of books I have seen and have mentioned above, these aren’t necessarily isolated buildings. They sit in and amongst fully functioning, well kept and maintained, houses, shops, restaurants, and other businesses.
It is oddities, it isn’t like they are whole blocks left to go to rack and ruin. I may have seen one side of a street where all the buildings looked to be abandoned and on their last legs, but that was the exception rather than the rule.
To the south of the city and all the way along the bank of the River Tagus opposite Lisbon, from the April 25th suspension bridge going to the east until the river opens out into its inland bay was a stretch of abandoned riverside buildings.
They look as if they must have been industrial units, but the whole stretch is mainly roofless, and the graffiti artists have been out in force.
It did look as if there was one little bar in amongst it all. But there was no obvious route down to get to the stretch of buildings. How would someone get there?
I am fascinated by this stretch of buildings, but as to how to get in there, I’m better off not knowing as I would just have spent a lost day wandering around the whole stretch clicking away and filling up my SD card.
And the spare one.
There are other buildings in disrepair, but they at least show signs of being worked on, metal and wooden fences surround them. There are piles of materials around, and there are cranes hovering above them.
I suppose if you went and looked hard enough in any town or city you would find examples of abandonment, but it feels different in Lisbon, I haven’t gone searching for examples, it is almost as if they have come to me. Though what I find strange now that I am home and I am searching through all the photographs I took, is ones I am sure I took of abandoned and crumbling buildings aren’t there, which makes me doubt my sanity. Most of the ones I have are of the riverside.
But I don’t speak the language and therefore don’t know what any notices on buildings may be saying. I don’t know what the law is about entering such buildings, and how the police would deal with such things. And most importantly I am on holiday with Helen, so I don’t go looking for that opening, for a chance to get inside one of these buildings and snap away.
Perhaps someone will, or there is someone already doing it, or even someone has already done it, and it is the next Jonglez abandoned series one to come out.
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