Tour Report: Maison "Flower Power"

Only a week after our visits to an abandoned prison and a small house in the woods, I was back in the area again.

A friend and I had made up our minds to explore the so-called Maison "Flower Power" - an abandoned residential house built around 1800 that had a very special charm in the photos we had seen online. Much of that appeal came from its lavish furnishings and the many colorful, floral-patterned wallpapers.

The house was right in the middle of town, so we had to be careful if we wanted to avoid being spotted.

An urban location also has its advantages. One of them was the availability of plenty of inconspicuous public parking spots nearby.

All we needed now was to find a way inside. The front of the house was out of the question. First, it was clearly visible from the street. Second, a pedestrian walkway ran right past it. And third, we could already tell that the chances of finding an entrance there were pretty slim.

So we had to try the back of the house instead. The property bordered a school campus, and parts of the grounds had once belonged to the house. After the former owner's death, however, they had been bequeathed to the school.

Fortunately, it was the weekend, and the school grounds were deserted. We were able to make our way into the garden without being seen.

And there it was: a possible entrance. Sort of, anyway.

There was a steel door with a narrow gap left open above it. Wide enough to squeeze through - provided you could actually reach it. That was no problem for my friend, who was considerably taller than me. For me, getting into the house that way was out of the question.

But hey, one person getting inside is all you need. My buddy then opened a window for me, allowing me to climb in without having to rely on wings or a rocket pack.

What we saw next left us speechless.

Bright colors, floral wallpapers, flower-patterned armchairs - practically everything in the house was bursting with color. In German, we have a rather tongue-in-cheek expression for places like this: Augenkrebs, literally “eye cancer,” referring to something so visually overwhelming that it practically hurts to look at.

And yet, the interior had style and was tastefully put together - provided, of course, that you appreciate this kind of colorful decor.

We explored every room and discovered an incredible number of little remnants of the former owner's life: clothing, dishes, documents, and books, some of the latter packed away in boxes. It looked as though someone had planned to move out or clear the house. At any rate, the book boxes had been neatly labeled.

My personal favorite read: “War Literature - Bizarre Understanding of History.”

There was plenty more to discover in the attic, too. We found old Persian rugs and additional wardrobes filled with clothes, many of them featuring equally colorful patterns.

Down in the basement, we came across heaps of home-canned fruit dating back to the mid-1990s, unopened bottles of wine from the 1970s, and charcoal and watercolor drawings that appeared to date from around the middle of the 20th century.

Visiting this house was a special experience - not just from a photographic perspective, but also because it offered a glimpse of just how much life, love, and dedication had gone into making it a home.

To find out more about the history and to check out all the photos from this place, click the button below.

Tour Report: The House in the Woods

After our unexpectedly successful visit to the former correctional facility, we still had some time for another exploration before heading home. We didn't really have anything else planned when I came across a tip about a small, old house hidden deep in the woods. Even better, it was right along our route home. That's how it should be!

We had no idea what to expect, and we weren't anticipating anything particularly spectacular. As a result, the chances of being disappointed were relatively low.

After about an hour of driving and 50 kilometers on rural roads, we arrived.

The destination was indeed well hidden in a patch of woodland, and there were no designated parking areas nearby. We managed to find a spot to pull off the road and park our car on a relatively dry patch of ground.

Then we set off through the woods. The walk turned out to be shorter than expected, and within just a few minutes, we could make out the house between the trees.

At first glance, it appeared to be a self-built structure. An inscription above the entrance confirmed this impression:

Built in 1957 – Destroyed by Force in 1963 – Rebuilt in 1966

Inside the house, we found some remaining furniture, dishes, pictures, and other items. There were plenty of traces of its former occupants, but unfortunately, nothing that revealed who had lived here or for how long.

A small shed next to the house contained a few tools and old bicycles. A little farther into the woods, we came across several old agricultural plows and a few other items, including an old scythe.

One possible explanation is that the house was originally built without official permission. Perhaps its owner or occupant repaired or collected old equipment and bicycles? We simply don't know, and ultimately, any such explanation would be pure speculation.

Whatever the story behind this place may be, the little house had escaped vandalism. That alone made the visit something special. We also thoroughly enjoyed the walk through the woods!

To find out more about the history and to check out all the photos from this place, click the button below.

Tour Report: Prison "Down on the Farm"

When we visited this abandoned prison in September 2020, it was firmly sealed off. We couldn’t find any way inside. We also met a man in the surrounding area who told us that the cameras covering the grounds were still active and that the police regularly patrolled the site. According to him, people had already been arrested for attempting to gain unauthorized access to the facility.

The electrical cabinet opposite the prison’s main entrance was still powered, as the deep humming noise clearly indicated. So the claim about the active cameras didn’t seem all that far-fetched.

We therefore decided not to take any chances and to return at a more suitable opportunity.

Whether the timing was any better or not, we had no idea when we found ourselves standing in front of the prison walls again about eight months later. The electrical cabinet was still humming, and there still appeared to be no way in. Nothing seemed to have changed.

So we walked once around the outer perimeter and enjoyed the short walk in the beautiful sunshine.

I don’t remember what made me do it, but on our way back to the car, I gave the large sliding gate a good pull – and, much to our surprise, it opened without any resistance!

Now we had a problem.

We had already been on site for quite some time and had no idea whether the cameras were still active or whether the police might already be on their way. There was also the possibility that security personnel were currently patrolling the prison and had simply left the gate open – which would have meant a serious risk of finding ourselves unable to leave if the gate was locked again.

The latter seemed relatively unlikely, though, as there wasn’t a single vehicle anywhere on the entire site apart from our own.

But there was no way we could pass up this unexpected opportunity.

Without going back to get any of our other equipment, we started what could best be described as a quick, tactical-style exploration. Our plan was simple: just our phones for taking pictures, a quick run through the buildings, back out through the hopefully still-open gate, and then get away as quickly as possible.

And that’s exactly what we did.

We moved really fast and certainly missed quite a few potential photo opportunities – but we made it. There wasn’t actually all that much to see anyway. As the prison was relatively modern, the interior was fairly sterile and functional, and most of the rooms were almost completely empty.

In a way, the place itself helped us keep our visit within a very tight time frame.

But the lack of photo opportunities and the time pressure certainly didn’t diminish the value of our exploration. For one thing, you don’t get the chance to see the inside of a prison all that often. But what really made this visit special was the sheer luck of finding that gate open – followed by such a spontaneous and unplanned exploration.

It is definitely one of those stories we will keep telling for years to come.

To find out more about the history and to check out all the photos from this place, click the button below.